Open Source and the Family Business - Amazon Web...
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Open Source and the Family Business Enforcement and the Next Generation September, 2017 Heather Meeker, Partner
Transcript of Open Source and the Family Business - Amazon Web...
Open Source and the FamilyBusinessEnforcement and the Next GenerationSeptember, 2017
Heather Meeker, Partner
Copyright 20172
Open Source as a “Family Business”
Corporate 80% Individual 20%
Individual 80%Corporate 20%
Numbers
are just
Folklore! --
But still
interesting
1995
2010
Copyright 20173
Family Businesses and Succession Planning Dream
Reality
Succession planning is difficult!
• Conditional licensing• Copyright standing• Direct licensing
Copyright 20174
Three Legal Principles of Open Source Licensing
This won’t hurt!
Copyright 20175
Conditional licensing
THEN
IF
Copyright Infringement!
• In the U.S., only an owner or exclusive licensee of a copyright can enforce it incourt
• Non-exclusive licensees cannot enforce
• (For brevity, I will refer to the owner of the copyright as an author, though authorscan sell their rights.)
Copyright 20176
Standing to Sue
Copyright 20177
Direct Licensing
Open Source Code Base
CC
CC
C
C
CC
C
C
C
C
CC
C
C
C
CC
C
C
Many contributorcopyrights...
...plus one for the pot
• CLA
o Author licenses to project and all recipients
o Project passes on licenses to the world
o This is the model of Apache Foundation (and many permissive license projects)
• License In = License Out
o All contributors license to the world
o This is the model of the Linux Kernel (and many copyleft license projects)
• All licenses are non-exclusive
• Project has no standing to sue, except the “one for the pot”
Copyright 20178
CLAs, and License In = License Out
Copyright term in US = Life + 70 Right is inheritable
Copyright 20179
What Happens Now?
Copyright 201710
The problem
CC
C
CC
C
C
C
CC
C
Copyright 201711
This won’t work
• Ownership by project
o FSF does this for the GNU project
• Enforcement agreement between authors and project
o Efforts in process to accomplish this
Copyright 201712
How to Solve the Problem of Rogue Enforcers
• Expect a possible sea change in contribution terms
o You may be asked to refrain from enforcement unless the project agrees
o You may be asked to assign rights to the project
o License in = License out may be, in effect, a thing of the past
Copyright 201713
Why Should I Care?
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Heather [email protected]+1-510-463-1116
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