beyond the gpl

Beyond the GPLOr, “MIT License All The Things”by Matt Ryan

Tuesday, May 7, 13

IANALTuesday, May 7, 13

Goals for Open Source licensing

Encourage use and contributionDiscourage abuse and stealing

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“To be copyrightable, a derivative work must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a ‘new work’ or must contain a substantial amount of new material.” (emphasis added)

Source: US Copyright Office: Circular 14

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Photocopy each page, bind it in a cover with

two white hands holding a pomegranate, and call

it “Twilight”

Write a story about something else besides mopey teenage girls and

vampires, for heavens sake

Retell the story in your own words but change

all the proper nouns

Create a new story where a girl falls in love

with a zombie, instead of a vampire

Create a story, about a non-vampire couple named Edward and

Bella, which makes many Twilight references

Create a story using the same basic plot, but

change almost all other story elements

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Copy all the Linux sources, post them to

your own github and call it “Cynux”

Write a completely original software

application from scratch

Copy all the Linux sources but rename

functions, files, variables, etc.

Add several new features to an existing open source application

Add a new feature to an original application by including open source

components

Add a new feature to an original application by executing open source

via the shell

Tuesday, May 7, 13

import sqlite

conn = sqlite.connection(‘address.db’)cursor = conn.cursor()

sql = ‘SELECT * FROM person p, addr a ‘ + \ ‘WHERE a.id=p.addr_id’

cursor.execute(sql)rows = cursor.fetchall()

for row in rows: print ‘First Name: %s’ % row[‘p.first’] print ‘Last Name: %s’ % row[‘p.last’] print ‘House #: %s’ % row[‘a.housenum’] print ‘Street: %s’ % row[‘a.street’] print ‘City: %s’ % row[‘a.city’] print ‘State: %s’ % row[‘a.state’] print ‘Zip: %s’ % row[‘a.zip’]

conn.close()

import sqlite

conn = sqlite.connection(‘contact.db’)cursor = conn.cursor()

sql = ‘SELECT * FROM person p, info i ‘ + \ ‘WHERE i.id=p.info_id’

cursor.execute(sql)rows = cursor.fetchall()

for row in rows: print ‘First Name: %s’ % row[‘p.first’] print ‘Last Name: %s’ % row[‘p.last’] print ‘Email: %s’ % row[‘i.email’] print ‘Homepage: %s’ % row[‘i.homepage’] print ‘Twitter: %s’ % row[‘i.twitter’] print ‘Skype: %s’ % row[‘i.skype’] print ‘Cell: %s’ % row[‘i.cell’]

conn.close()

Tuesday, May 7, 13

Software companies are scared to death of copyleft licenses – even

software companies that use and are involved in open source.

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Proprietary Copyleft Non-Copyleft

More Restrictive More Free

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Freedom – For Whom?Copyleft Licenses:

• Restrict freedom of users of the original content

• Preserve freedom of creators of the original content

Non-Copyleft Licenses:

• Preserve freedom of users of the original content

• Restrict freedom of creators of the original content

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Why do we use and contribute to open source software?

We believe in the strength of community

Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow

Broad participation creates better software

Don’t want to maintain our own patches

Focus on creating more value

Karma

Because the license forces us to???

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Copyleft – Essential for the sucess of open source in the 1990s

Today – Is it still necessary?

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Reasons to stick with a copyleft license

You want to legally require fair participation

Example: A joint open-source venture between software companies

You are participating on projects that are already copyleft

You are old school

You are lazy and don’t want to do your homework

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Reasons to consider a non-copyleft license

Encourage participation by software companies

Broader adoption means larger community

Larger community means stronger code

People who get open source will give back anyway

A license won’t force people to give back if they wouldn’t otherwise

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Matt Ryan@mattvryan

http://www.mvryan.orghttps://github.com/mattvryan

Tuesday, May 7, 13

Licensing

Slide 6 - “Twilight” Book Cover: Source: John Lambert Pearson, License: CC BY 2.0

“Twilight” © 2005 by Stephanie Meyer

Slide 7 - Mona Lisa L.H.O.O.Q: Public Domain

Slide 10 - Cheating Student: Source

Slide 11 - Brains and Gears: Source: Jean-Remy Duboc, License: CC BY 2.0

Slide 12 - Astronomical Clock: Source: Anthony Dodd, License: CC BY-NC 3.0

Slide 13 - Copyleft Symbol: Public Domain

All other content: Created by Matt Ryan CC BY-SA 3.0

Tuesday, May 7, 13