INTRODUCTION TO OPEN-SOURCE
Generally computer software sources (the human readable version of the software) are of two kinds; closed and open. Open-source programming has been prominently growing through the past ten years. In this model, programmers share their codes freely in order to be modified and used by others. They are allowed to alter and change the original software as much as they like. This in turn will produce higher quality software with improved features. For the open-source programs to be reliable, some sort of licenses has been approved by Open Source Initiative (OSI) which is a “non-profit corporation dedicated to managing and promoting the open-source definition for the good of the community, especially through the OSI Certified Open-source software certification mark and program.”
WHERE THE OPEN-SOURCE CAME FROM
Open-source began to form in the hacker’s society of the United States computer science laboratories such as Stanford and MIT in the late 1960’s. Programmers were members of societies in which each member were expected to share his or her code among the society members. This would apply improvements on different codes by members of the society. In addition programmers were able to use each others knowledge in their own interest mutually.
By the early 1980’s the university hacker societies began to collapse, and the hackers were hired by commercial companies producing proprietary systems (systems that required users to purchase a license in order to use them). Later they resigned their jobs and recreated the hacker societies they enjoyed before. One of the first open-source systems was a Unix compatible operating system named GNU by Richard Stallman.
WHAT THE OPEN-SOURCE IS
Open-source software is similar to “free software”, but the open-source users are generally able to view and modify the source code, and they are also allowed to redistribute the software. However open-source does not just mean to access the source code, the distribution of open-source software must comply with the following criteria,
1. The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software (free redistribution).
2. The program must include the source code as well as compiled form (executable form).
3. The license must allow modifications.
4. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code, but may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.
5. The license must not discriminate against any person or group.
6. The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor such as business or genetic research.
The notion that software should be free is one that is highly critiqued within the technology industry. Free, as in the idea that users can obtain the source code for any given program, and modify and redistribute it as they like. Currently most all software produced is proprietary in nature. Corporations pay developers to create proprietary software that they then obstruct (so that no modifications can be made), and sell (to turn a profit). Richard Stallman has been fighting the idea of proprietary software, and specifically software ownership, for decades. Stallman holds the stance that software ownership is a detriment to society, and stifles innovation, education, and social cohesion.
This copyright law was created In order to keep an artists work from being exploited and used, if you wish to use it you will need permission and perhaps will have to pay
A new law will probably be introduced into state legislatures which will govern all contracts for the development, sale, licensing, and support of computer software. This law, which has been in development for about ten years, will be an amendment to the Uniform Commercial Code. The amendment is called Article 2B (Law of Licensing) and is loosely based on UCC Article 2 (Law of Sales), which governs sales of goods in all 50 states. A joint committee of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) and the American Law Institute is drafting the changes to the UCC.
First, a look at the law. The essential idea behind a copyright is that the holder of a copyright owns the particular expression of an idea, “but not the underlying idea or method of operation,” (TEXTBOOK). In the computer industry, it became difficult to separate what parts of software were ideas and not protected by copyright law and which were expressions of an idea, and thus protected. For example, elements made for efficiency have a limited number of ways in which they can be expressed, so are they protected, or are such elements incidental to an idea and non-protected? Also in consideration were elements ma...
In 1970s, the software was firstly subjected as intellectual property. Stallman felt if the software-based computing idea was treated as an intellectual property and controlled as proprietary, then he as a hacker[2] no longer could read the source code, find the problem, and fix the problem in the MIT lab community. It would be a major drawback to the freedom in technology from social and moral perspective. So Stallman quit the job in MIT and found Free Software Foundation[3] in 1984 as a nonprofit organization that provides various types of software such as: GCC compiler and Emacs editor. He created the General Public License (GPL)[4] as a legal document to prevent free software from being turned into proprietary. GPL is also known as copyleft[5]. To most of Stallman’s supporters and open source hackers, “non-free software is a social problem and free software is the solution.”[6]. The main theme of free software is the moral freedom – the cultural and legal freedom to ac...
1.It is allowed to use software brought from another country with the corresponding license, but cannot be commercialized without the authorization of the holder of the right of author.
This paper will endeavour to highlight some salient features of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000 in relation to the re-use or re-distribution of commissioned software code.
obtain these license. This is freedom taken too lightly. Dilascio also stated in his overview article
News of source code theft jolted the software industry on February 12, 2004.2 Cyber criminals had stolen source code from Windows 2000 and Windows NT4.0. Windows 2000 and NT are the platforms on which the widely used home operating system of today, Windows XP, is based on. Luckily, only a small portion of code was stolen. Not nearly enough to build the entire Windows operating system. Through the use of peer-to-peer networking, the code was distributed in an underground hacker network. Eventually the source was spread onto public-access web sites, by which Microsoft confirmed the code was, indeed, real Windows code.
As we have seen, any unauthorized use of a copyrighted work may amount to infringement of copyright. However, the copyright law allows people to make some free uses of the copyrighted works. In India, the list of these free uses has been laid down in Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The rationale behind these free uses is to strike a balance between the interests of the copyright owners and the interests of the society at large. We will discuss in detail the concept of these exceptions to copyright infringement in the following chapters.
What this means is that the program that is used here will feature a source code that is open for all people to adjust. It also allows for people to make all of the adjustments that they make to the program open to the public provided that it is distributed with the same license terms as what was used in the original program. It must not restrict any software or other functions in a computer and it must not be given out with a cost attached to it (OSI 1).
The analysis started in chapter two with examining the definition of software and the conditions and circumstances under which it is protected by two intellectual property rights, namely copyright and patent. In chapter three the questionable legal nature of software was reviewed and the possibilities to exploit rights in software –under licenses- were explained. Further, in chapter four, the definition of open source was introduced and major open source licenses currently in use were presented. A conclusion that came out was that the open-source licensing regimes are no longer confined to idealistic or academic programmers but have led to the creation of diverse licenses that provide for different possibilities and accordingly are more or less compatible with copyright protection. In chapter five the most important legal controversies around open source software licenses from a contractual point of view were put under scrutiny. This analysis estimated that the uncertainty around the contractual nature of ...
To promote broader availability and use of our technologies, Microsoft may periodically publish new licensing programs on Microsoft.com. Microsoft currently maintains programs for licensing Windows and other source code, hundreds of communication protocols, popular Microsoft Office XML schemas, and other technologies.
Ubuntu is the most well known free distribution (distro) of Linux (Ubuntu Manual Team, 2013). One of the main ideas behind most Linux distros is that the community is able to improve the operating system (OS) whether that person is a user or developer. Both users and developers are able to submit bug reports to help the community collaborate with each other and enhance the OS. Any person with the necessary skills and tools can also develop for the operating system, and submit a pull request, a process which allows developers to contribute their own code to the operating system. Many Linux distros, including Ubuntu, have package managers which allow users to easily customize their computer and its software to their specific needs.