Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law
A complete guide to the law of open source for developers, managers, and lawyersNow that open source software is blossoming around the world, it is crucial to understand how open source licenses work—and their solid legal foundations. Open Source Initiative general counsel Lawrence Rosen presents a plain-English guide to open source law for developers, managers, users, and lawyers. Rosen clearly explains the intellectual property laws that support open source licensing, carefully reviews today’s leading licenses, and helps you make the best choices for your project or organization. Coverage includes:Explanation of why the SCO litigation and other attacks won’t derail open sourceDispelling the myths of open source licensingIntellectual property law for nonlawyers: ownership and licensing of copyrights, patents, and trademarks"Academic licenses": BSD, MIT, Apache, and beyondThe "reciprocal bargain" at the heart of the GPLAlternative licenses: Mozilla, CPL, OSL and AFLBenefits of open source, and the obligations and risks facing businesses that deploy open source softwareChoosing the right license: considering business models, product architecture, IP ownership, license compatibility issues, relicensing, and moreEnforcing the terms and conditions of open source licensesShared source, eventual source, and other alternative models to open sourceProtecting yourself against lawsuits