Open source and free software models sound great.
Thanks to the licenses supporting them, they make it
easier for developers to assemble teams for creating and growing code, and allow them to reuse code or fix bugs
in the code. They promise users applications without a price tag and reduce the impact of a vendor leaving the business.
While the models have worked for a lot of projects, it
can be difficult to choose among the licenses or to explain them to a corporate legal department. Many developers may believe in releasing their software freely but have hesitated because licensing issues are complicated, and their managers are afraid of losing control of the software.
Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing clears up the confusion over open source and free software licenses and shows developers how to use them effectively. Readers will find in-depth explanations of how licenses compare, contrast, and interoperate, and the ways that license choices affect project possibilities.
This book discusses copyright, patent, and warranty issues and also explores how to choose among the licenses, the implications of working on projects where someone else
has already chosen the license, and the liabilities created
by violating license terms. Intellectual property is a fast-paced and confusing area of law with no shortage of novel questions and uncertain answers, and the licensing of open source and free software is at the bleeding edge.
This book clarifies many important issues and helps developers understand why and how to participate in open source projects.
1. Open Source Licensing, Contract, and Copyright Law
2. The MIT, BSD, Apache, and Academic Free Licenses
3. The GPL, LGPL, and Mozilla Licenses
4. Qt, Artistic, and Creative Commons Licenses
5. Non-Open Source Licenses
6. Legal Impacts of Open Source and Free Software Licensing
7. Software Development Using Open Source and Free
Software Licenses
Appendix Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License