A hacker's guide to understanding Open Source Licenses: AKA "What's In Your License". The slides from my All Things Open 2015 Presentation.

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UNDERSTANDING
OPEN SOURCE LICENSES
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
@AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
AKA: How I learned to stop worrying and love the LICENSE

2. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
ABOUT ME
๏ Apache Software Foundation
๏ Co-founder, Director, Member and Developer
๏ Director
๏ Outercurve, MARSEC-XL, OSSI, OSI (ex)…
๏ Developer
๏ Mega FOSS projects
๏ IANAL
๏ Consulting S/W Engineer: Red Hat
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3. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
ABOUT ME
๏ Apache Software Foundation
๏ Co-founder, Director, Member and Developer
๏ Director
๏ Outercurve, MARSEC-XL, OSSI, OSI (ex)…
๏ Developer
๏ Mega FOSS projects
๏ IANAL
๏ Consulting S/W Engineer: Red Hat
๏ Sr. Director: Tech Fellows: Capital One
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4. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
WHAT’S IN
YOUR LICENSE?
@AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015

5. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
WHY?
๏ Copyright is the default
๏ Open Source is everywhere
๏ The license determines use, re-use and distribution
๏ Not understanding means risk
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6. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
LICENSE GOALS
๏ Ensure what parts remain open source
๏ Maintain control over code and direction
๏ Provide common implementation for standards
๏ Build community or commercial marketplace
๏ For most end-users, this is the sole touch-point
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7. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
OPEN SOURCE
๏ For software to be Open Source, it must be under an OSI approved
Open Source License
๏ Open Source Definition: http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd
๏ 10 criteria
๏ At last count, over 60 exist
๏ New Open Source licenses are very hard to get approved
๏ There are really 3 main types
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8. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
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FREE SOFTWARE
๏ “Free” as in “free speech” (not as in “free beer”, although free beer is
good!)
๏ Software freedom is a moral imperative.
๏ Free Software Definition:
๏ 4 basic freedoms must be maintained
๏ Free Software ~== Open Source
๏ F(L)OSS
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9. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
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PROMISES
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10. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
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LET’S PRETEND
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==

11. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
USE
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12. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
MODIFY
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13. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
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SHARE
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LICENSES
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
GIVE ME CREDIT
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Permissive:
ALv2
MIT
BSD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
GIVE ME FIXES
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Weak Copyleft:
EPL
LGPL

17. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
GIVE ME EVERYTHING
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Strong Copyleft
GPLv2
GPLv3
AGPL

18. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
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FINAL THOUGHTS
๏ There is no true one Open Source license
๏ Take time to understand licenses (it can be very difficult to change)
๏ Differences between same type
๏ Choose the right license
๏ Different license for different needs/goals
๏ Don’t pick because it’s “popular”
๏ Don’t modify a license (or UGG! try to make a new one)
๏ Choose a license!
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19. @AllThingsOpen | #ATO2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
THANKS
๏ Jim Jagielski
๏ @jimjag
๏ http://www.jimjag.com/
๏ http://slideshare.net/jimjag/
๏ http://youtube.com/user/jimjagski
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