Post on 25-Jan-2017
UNDERSTANDING OPEN SOURCE LICENSES AND
GOVERNANCE
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
AKA: How I learned to stop worrying and love FOSS
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ABOUT ME• Apache Software Foundation
• Co-founder, Director, Member and Developer
• Director
• Outercurve, MARSEC-XL, OSSI, OSI (ex)…
• Developer
• Mega FOSS projects
• IANAL
• Sr. Director: Tech Fellows: Capital One
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WHAT’S IN YOUR PROJECT?
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GOVERNANCE/COMMUNITY
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WALLED GARDEN
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BDFL
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MERITOCRACY
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LICENSES
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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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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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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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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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PROMISES
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LET’S PRETEND
==
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USE
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MODIFY
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SHARE
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GIVE ME CREDIT
Permissive: ALv2 MIT BSD
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GIVE ME FIXES
Weak Copyleft: EPL
LGPL
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GIVE ME EVERYTHING
Strong Copyleft GPLv2 GPLv3 AGPL
GPL
GPL
GPLGPLGPL GPL
GPL GPLGPL
GPL
GPLGPLGPL
GPLGPL
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TAKE AWAYS
• A license is a tool. There is no “always right” license
• Take time to decide on the right license type
• Changing licenses can be very difficult
• Avoid “vanity” licenses
• ALWAYS specify a license!
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THANKS!
• Jim Jagielski
• @jimjag
• http://www.jimjag.com/
• http://slideshare.net/jimjag/
• jimjag@gmail.com
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COMMUNITY BUILDING
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USE EMAIL LISTS
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DRIVE CONSENSUS
+1
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NO POISONOUS PEOPLE
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PLAY NICE, SHARE, HAVE FUN