FREE/OPEN SOURCE LICENSING EXPLAINED

PART C

FOSS is the complete opposite of a Proprietary

license. Primarily, the fundamental purpose of

a free and open source license is to deny any

one the right to exclusively exploit a work so

as to guarantee that the work will reach a

wider user audience. It is defined as a

software that can be freely used, copied,

studied or changed by anyone in any way and

the source code is openly shared so that

people are encouraged to voluntarily improve

the design of the software.

According to the organizations and individuals1

that created some of these types of software,

software that is free and open must permit

non-exclusive commercial exploitation of the

licensed work; must make available the work’s

source code, and must permit the creation of

derivative works2 from the work itself. This

definition as propounded by the Open Source

Initiative has the following features;

• Free distribution: the license shall not

restrict any party from selling or giving

away the software as a component of an

aggregate software distribution containing

programs from several sources. The license

shall not require a royalty or other fee for

such sale.

• Source code: the program must include

their source code, and must allow

distribution in the source code as well as

the compiled form. Users must have access

to the source code.

• Derived works: the license must allow

modifications and derived works, and must

allow them to be distributed under the

same terms as the license of the original

software.

• Distribution of license: the rights

attached to the program must apply to all

whom the program is redistributed to,

without the need for execution of an

additional license by those parties.

In precis, the FOSS license allows the four

freedoms being, freedom to; (x) run the

program for any purpose; (y) study how the

program works and customize at will; (z)

redistribute copies; and (xx) distribute copies

of modified versions. This is the essence of the

term “free” (as in use), and not that access to

the software would be given without

consideration.

There are several types of FOSS which have

been created to grant distinct FOSS licensing

regimes. Examples of FOSS software are the

MIT (or X), BSD, Apache, and Academic Free

licenses; others include the GPL, LGPL and the

Mozilla Licenses.

All the examples of FOSS cited above are

further distinguished based on whether they

are Permissive or Copyleft, although, free and

open software such as the; (x) Q Public

License; (y) the Artistic License; and (z) the

Creative Common License do not belong to

either of the Permissive or Copyleft categories.

FREE/OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE LICENSING EXPLAINED

MAY 2019

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1. Such as the Free Society Foundation; Open Source Initiative MIT; Trolltech; Larry Wall; the Creative Commons Corporation; amongst others. 2. A derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major copyright protected elements of a previously created first work. Modification to

someone else’s software.

3

Permissive FOSS

A Permissive FOSS allows a licensee to

distribute a derivative work as they see fit,

this type of software gives minimal

requirements as to how the software or

derivative works of the software can be

redistributed. Thus, a licensee can decide to

create a derivative work that is proprietary.

Examples include the Apache, MIT and the

BSD licenses. A Permissive software lets the

licensee do anything they want with the code

as long as they provide attribution back to the

creator and do not hold the creator liable.

Therefore, when Permissive software is being

redistributed, the redistributor is not forced to

open the source code; it does not try to

guarantee that the future generations of the

software will remain free and publicly

available. Examined below is Apache License

v.2.0, an example of a Permissive license.

Apache License v2.0

This is a permissive license that was created

by the Apache Foundation and is an improved

version of the Apache License v1.1. The terms

of the license contain more details on the

nature of interest given to the licensee. This

version requires preservation of the copyright

notice and disclaimer. It also allows the user

of the software the freedom to use the

software for any purpose, modify it, and

distribute the modified versions of the

software under the terms of the license. Unlike

other types of Permissive software such as

MIT, BSD and the Apache License v1.1,

Apache License v2.0 also contains a patent

license from the contributors of the software.

As permissive software, it does not require a

derivative work of the software, or

modifications to the original to be distributed

using the same license, it still requires

application of the same license to all

unmodified parts.

A popular example of software licensed under

the Apache License is Android which is an

operating system that was originally

developed by Anrdoid Inc (before being

bought by Google). The core source code for

Android is the Android Open Source Project

(AOSP). It allows the operation of other

proprietary SaaS developed by Google such as

the PlayStore, Gmail, and Google Search.

Android was originally built on Linux kernel,

and the source code is usually published by

Google under AOSP for original equipment

manufacturers to customize to run on their

hardware. Although, the source code

published by Google does not include the often

proprietary device drivers that are needed for

certain hardware components.

In essence on the base of the android

operating system (including some

applications) is the open-source software,

whereas, most android devices ship with a

substantial amount of proprietary software as

mentioned above. These other applications

with the proprietary license must be licensed

from Google by device makers and can only be

shipped on devices which meet its

compatibility guidelines and other

requirements.

From the above, Android has two dual

licenses, i.e. FOSS and Proprietary. This is

known as Open Core which is free core

platform or infrastructure (i.e. the original

source code) and proprietary outer layers (i.e.

the Google Playstore). So the source code can

be taken by all vendors to make their own

tight-controlled versions bundled with their

own hardware, but they have to be licensed to

use the proprietary software.

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In summary, for FOSS, there is no proprietary

interest conferred on the user by the creator

because the idea is to ensure the preservation

of the four freedoms, although, for permissive

software, the modifier can decide to make

derivative works become proprietary and own

same, however, this is not possible in copyleft

software.

Copyleft FOSS

On the other hand, Copyleft software (unlike

copyright which grants the creator of an

original work exclusive rights to its use and

distribution) makes it compulsory for the

licensee to distribute derivative works as open

source i.e. the source code must be published.

In other words, a licensee of Copyleft software

has the right to freely distribute the software

and modified versions with the stipulation that

same rights be preserved in the derivative

works later. Thus, the licensee is required to

publish information necessary for reproducing

and modifying the software; this includes the

source code. Examples of Copyleft software

include the GPL (v2 and V3) and the LGPL.

GNU General Public License (the GPL

License)

This type of license requires that derivative

works are distributed under the terms of the

GPL License and also that derivative works

may only be permitted to be distributed under

the terms of the license.3

Generally, this license permits the creation of

derivative works from the licensed code,

however, it does not permit the creation of

derivative licenses from the license itself.

The GPL license seeks to achieve three

purposes namely; (x) keeping software free,

i.e. it can be distributed and modified without

additional permission of the licensor; (y)

ensuring that licensees are aware that

software under the license is distributed “as

is” and without warranty; and (z) that the

licensed software be free of restrictive

patents. To the extent that a patent applies to

the licensed software, it must be licensed in

parallel with the code.4

3. Andrew M. St.Laurent,p. 219 4. Ibid.

MAY 2019

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