Distribution in Open Source

Martin von Haller Groenbaek partner, Bender von Haller Dragsted

ITECHLAW ASIA 2010 Bangalore, 5 February 2010

•  Attorney-at-law, Bender von Haller Dragsted •  Co-founder, Open Source Vendors Ass. (OSL) •  Editorial board IFOSSLR •  Co-founder, Creative Commons DK •  Co-founder, Danish Internet Society Chapter

•  http://www.bvhd.d •  http://www.openlife.dk •  http://www.vonhaller.dk •  http://www.linkedin.com/in/vonhaller •  http://www.23hq.com/mhg •  http://www.slideshare.net/vonhaller •  http://www.facebook.com/vonhaller

•  mhg@bvhd.dk •  martin@groenbaek.net •  groenbaek@gmail.com

Goal

F.U.D

FEAR

UNCERTAINTY

DOUBT

Open Source means

Business

Business model

3 questions in 20 minutes

#1 What is

distribution?

#2 Why does it

matter?

#3 Show me the

money!

Open source intro

All about licenses

Not contracts

Comply or

don’t use

4 freedoms (or license rights)

#1 Run  the    

object  code

#2 Access

source code

#3 Modify the source code

#4 Make and

transfer copies

Also user restrictions!

These 4 rights are

yours…

…regardless of distribution

No distribution =

(almost) No restrictions

Distribution =

Restrictions

Copyright notice

preservation

License terms

preservation

Access to

source code

Your patents

are affected

Copyleft

Release your own modify

code…

…under the same license

Distribution =

Copyleft

Most open source

caselaw…

…involves distribution

Answer Question 2

Does distribution

matter in open source?

YES!

Most restrictions in OS licenses Presupposed Distribution

In particular, Copyleft

Question 1: What is

Distribution?

Answers in

Copyright law

Open Source licenses

US Copyright law

"distribute  copies...of  the  copyrighted  work  to  the  public  by  sale  or  other  transfer  of  ownership,  or  by  rental,  lease,  or  lending"  (7  USC  sec>on  

106  (3))

Any transfer of a copy

Nordic Countries

(and the EU)

Any transfer of a copy

Exception: Private copies

Commercial and non Commercial

The text of the OS Licenses

US-centric by tradition

GPL v2

70%

“distribute”  

“redistribute”  

“physical  act  of  transferring  a  

copy”  (sec  1,  3rd  paragraph)

BSD  license  “RedistribuAon”

MIT  License    

“Publish,  distribute”

Apache  License,  Version  2.0  

“reproduce  and  distribute  

copies”  (sec  4)

Eclipse  Public  License  -­‐  v  1.0  

“publicly  display,  publicly  perform,  distribute”  (Sec  2,  

litra  a)

Answer Question 1

What is distribution?

3 rules of thumb

#1 Physical  copy    

must  be    

transferred

#2 The  transferee    

must  be    

a  third  party

#3 No  disAncAon  

between  commercial  or    

non-­‐commercial

US vs. EU

All  “public”    

transfers  are  distribuAon

Some  “private”  transfers    

may  not  be  distribuAon

Grey areas

Employees

Never distribution

Freelancers vs. Contractors

A contractor is a third party

A physical copy of code is transferred

Internal servers

”Public” vs. ”Private”?

Subsidiaries

Third party

Joint ventures =

Distribution

100% owned subsidiaries

US: ”Unity of Ownership”

= Maybe not distribution

EU: ”Private” transfer

= Maybe not distribution

Outsourcing

Third party

A physical copy of the code is transferred

US:  DistribuAon

EU:  Probably  a  “private”  transfer

M&A

Only  assets,  not  share,  sale

The  acquiror  is  a  third  party

A  physical  copy  is  transferred

US:  DistribuAon

EU:  DistribuAon

Copyleft is triggered

Problem?

No!

GPL is a hereditary License!

Google?

Heavy user of Open source

software

Lots of modifications!

No access to

source code

ASP loophole

GPLv3: Network exception

Functionalities via

Network

Browser Internet

A  physical  copy  of  the  code  is  not  transferred

CopyleY  is  not  triggered

Controversy!

Answer Question 3

Business?

Lawyers get paid to explain!

Dual licensing

The licensor’s free choice of

licenses

Choice #1 GPL

Copyleft

Hardware company uses

GPL’ed software

Makes modifications

into hardware

Wants to distribute

modifications

… but does not want to release source code!

Trade secrets

Choice #2

License with copyleft

exemption

…and with a license fee!

MySQL AB

Database software under GPL v2

”Commercial” license with no

copyleft

…and with warranties and

support

Sold to SUN in 2008

More than 1.000.000.000

USD!

All software open sourced!

Open source means

business!

Slides at www.slideshare.com/

vonhaller

Thank you!