itechlaw asia commercial copyleft (19 02 2009)

Using the Copyleft Model in a Commercial

Business Set-up Advokat Martin von Haller Groenbaek

Partner, Bender von Haller Dragsted

ITECHLAW-ASIA, New Delhi, 19-20 February 2009

1torsdag den 19. februar 2009

PersonaliaIT-Lawyer, partner at Bender von Haller Dragsted

Co-founder of Danish eBusiness Association (FDIH), Danish Open Source Vendors Association (OSL), Danish Chapter of Internet Society (ISOC DK), DK-Hostsmaster A/S and the like

Board member of several Scandinavian SME IT companies

Legal counsel to OSS developers and public institutions (even works with Microsoft)


Great times for open source law

From fringe to almost mainstream

Tell us why we shouldn’t be afraid

Now, show us the money

Licensing becomes fun!


Agenda

Copyleft INTRO

CASE: MySQL (Software company)

CASE: LEGO (The private business)

CASE: Danish NITA (eGovernment)


All OS licenses

The licensee has the right to run, access, modify and distribute the code

The licensor gives no guarantees and waives all liability

The licensor - the copyright holder - can release code under several licenses


Need to know about Copyleft

OS licenses gives you the right to modify the code

You have copyright with respect to your modifications

Permissive licenses gives you the right to choose your own license terms

Copyleft forces you to license modification under the original OS license, if you distribute your modifications


Key copyleft issues not dealt with here

What is a modification?

What constitutes distribution?

“Weak” or “Strong” copyleft

GPL v.2 vs. GPL v.3


CASE: MySQLDual-licensing

The software company perspective

The same code is licensed under two different licences:

MySQL Community Server: GPL v.2 with FOSS exception

MySQL Enterprise: Commercial license


Copyright and control

MySQL has exclusive copyright to the code

MySQL controls and certifies the code

The GPL does not give any rights to use MySQLs trademarks


Why pay?

Certification of the code

Warranties

Maintenance and support

Copyleft exemption


Still not convinced?

MySQL AB was in 2008 bought by Sun Microsystem, Inc. for approximately USD $1 billion in total consideration


The Mindstorm story


LEGO goes open source

1 May 2006. LEGO press release

Hackers, Get Ready! LEGO Group Announces Open Source Firmware, Developer Kits for LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT

Consumer-directed robotics experience creation to enter “NXT” phase with open firmware, Software, Hardware and Bluetooth Developer Kits to launch in August


Background● Mindstorms robots launched in 1998

● The best-selling LEGO product ever

● Huge Mindstorm community

● LEGO was and is not a software company

● Only minor upgrades to the firmware

● Several parallel Mindstorms OS’s


Challenges

● LEGO was not comfortable with “openess”

● LEGO has been and is extremely reliant on strong IPRs

● ”You don't give away IPRs for free”

● Turbulent period for LEGO in general

● Third party software included


Solution● Embrace User driven innovation

● Open source as the enabler

● Third party permission for redistribution under an OS license

● Choice of license

− ”Genuine” open source licence

−Permissive (Academic) or Copyleft (reciprocal license)


The OS license choice● Mozilla Public license v. 1.1● Weak copyleft

● Modification is limited altering the files

● “I did not understand GPL v.2”● LEGO was only concerned with modifications of the actual files


The “beauty” of the solution!

Huge press coverage and goodwill

Large number of downloads of code

Much more “intelligence” in the bricks

Convincing strategy towards competitors

Option to “close” the code again

Many more bricks sold!


CASE: NITA

Danish National IT and Telecom Agency

eFaktura (eInvoice)

Electronic invoices to, from and between public agencies

Core service: UDDI registry for webservice to identify senders and receivers


Challenges

Two applications provided by NITA to user (e.g. ERP vendors)

API between users’ ERPs and UDDI WS

Reference implementation integrating API with ERP

NITA wanted to release the application under an OS license


GoalsSatisfying the politicians

Wide adoption of UDDI

Community based improvement of the API

Many vendors should integrate API into their ERP


SolutionsAPI

Copyleft

Mozilla public license v. 1.1 (maybe EUPL v. 1.1)

Reference implementation

Permissive licence

FreeBSD license


Thanks for the attention!

[email protected]@groenbaek.nethttp://www.bvhd.dk

http://suse.groenbaek.net/openlife

Slides available athttp://www.slideshare.net/vonhaller


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http://www.bvhd.dk

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http://www.slideshare.net/vonhaller

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itechlaw asia commercial copyleft (19 02 2009)

Technology