Free as is freedom, not as in free beer.
Open Source, Free Software and Intellectual Property
Technical University of Berlin - Dec 14, 2011
Mirko Boehm ([email protected])
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Overview
What is Open Source?
Community driven innovation vs. commercial exploitation
Economical and political impact of Open Source
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About me: Open Source hacker and activist, software developer, software business guy, dad
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(and FOSS, FLOSS, GNU, CC-BY-WTF, OSI, FSF, FSFE, GPL, LGPL, BSD, ...)
Part I: What is Open Source?
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The Open Source Definition (OSI)
• Free redistribution
• Source code
• Derived works
• Integrity of the author’s source code
• No discrimination against persons or groups
• No discrimination against field of endeavor
• (4 more)
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Examples
• GNU/Linux
• Apache web server
• GCC compiler
• VLC media player
• KDE Plasma Desktop
• Mozilla Firefox web browser
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The KDE 4.7 Plasma Desktop
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Free as in FreedomPhilosophy
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The Four Freedoms (Free Software Foundation)
• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
When a program offers users all of these freedoms, we call it free software.
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Philosophy (FSF, others)
• Copyleft: Software should not have owners (controversial!)
• Selling Free Software is Ok
• Authors have copyright, combine that with free licensing
• There should not be patents
• Ethic of sharing
• Not free of cost (see TCO debate)
• Neither communism nor capitalism
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“The future is ‘Open Source Everything’”(Linus Torvalds)
• Open Data, Open Hardware (specs), Open Source Innovation, Open Source Science
• Creative Commons, Wikipedia
• Education
• Politics and governance
• Music, books, art (of the virtual variety - that is all of them, today)
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Part II: Community driven innovationvs. commercial exploitation
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Licenses, Copyleft, Freedom (examples)
• comments on FOSS license categories:
• GPL/LGPL/AGPL
• Artistic/CC0
• BSD, ...
• free-ish licenses:
• Microsoft Public License
• non-free licenses:
• Apple Public Source License
• fun bit:
• JSON License adds “The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil.”
• That makes it incompatible with Freedom 0 of the FSF.
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When building IP clashes with Free Software
• AVM vs. Cybits: Manufacturers copyright (Urheberrecht) vs. rights guaranteed by GPL. Decision Nov 8, 2011:
• Urheberrecht cannot be used to restrict GPL freedoms
• aggregate works (Sammelwerk) may extend freedoms of GPL to whole product
• gpl-violations.org as joint plaintiff: Copyright holders of the code are affected by GPL violations and therefore can defend their rights
• License to use GPL software forfeit on proven GPL violation (!)
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Other famous cases
• D-Link, 2006: "Regardless of the repeatedly-quoted judgement of the district court of Munich I, we do not consider the GPL as legally binding." Bad idea.
• TiVo (hardware restrictions), upheld. Diverging opinions (should licenses only affect software?, see Secure Boot), led to GPLv3.
• TomTom (non-publication), amiable agreement + donation to CCC.
More than 100 cases brought to court by gpl-violations.org since 2004.
Conflicts between Free Software and building IP are a relevant issue.
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Controversy around restrictions of usage rights
• Digital Rights Management: after sale restrictions of usage rights
• Also affects legal usage rights like reselling, backup copies, lending, research and education
• Problematic when combined with Free Software
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act: disallows circumvention of content protection
Openness vs. restriction - what constitutes “fair use”?
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Digression: NOT IPR (controversial)
• Claims grouping copyright, trademarks and patents is not warranted, confusing. The term “Intellectual Property” should be rejected.
• Laws governing copyright, trademarks and patents developed independently and are serving different purposes.
• Suggests to reform (and rename) WIPO.
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Business Models in Open Source
€ 0Wednesday, December 14, 11
Business Models
• Single Vendor Commercial Open Source
• Commercialization
• Services/subscriptions (with supporting software)
• Dual licensing
• Freemium
(probably incomplete)
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Open Source Foundations
• Examples:
• Linux Foundation
• Qt Project
• Open Source is commercial: vast majority of contributors are professionally employed engineers
• Foundations emerge when cooperation is the efficient strategy
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Complex contributor copyright situation
• Contributors to Open Source projects rotate due to personal development, job changes, ...
• Teams working together: individual copyright on whole result
• Generations of contributors: rights to new modification, based on previous’ contributor’s rights
• Result: layers of layers of individual copyrights - anti-commons situation
• Solution: Fiduciary License Agreements (FLA), Contribution Agreements (CA)
• Problematic if not employed from the beginning (see Linux kernel)
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Part III: Economical and political impact
Open Source in the private sector, public sector and politics
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Competition in Open Source
• Difference between community OS projects (committers/contributors) and commercial OS projects (employees)
• Community: Motivational factors are mostly intrinsic - peer recognition, code contributions, personal interest in subject matter (purpose, fun), and community leadership
• (and demonstrating technical abilities, improve job prospects)
• Modules (code contributions) will be replaced rapidly if better ones are created, non-monetary competition is fierce
• Companies: Reach a more competitive demand curve using OSS
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Private Sector
• Cost reduction
• Cooperation/Collaboration
• Freedom from lock-in
• Long-term investment security
• Compliance requirements
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NYSE runs Linux
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Public Sector
• Trust, accountability and transparency through openness
• Cost reduction (open sourcing of publicly funded software)
• Reduce TCO of IT systems used
• Stir competition and re-use during procurement processes
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SINA is based on Linux (developed by Secunet)
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Government and Politics
• Same arguments apply to Open Source that apply to fostering innovation (assumes Open Source is beneficial for innovation)
• Affects allocation of tech jobs
• Affects allocation of tech industries
• Case for Open Source in education
• GDP growth effect through local effect of buying services contrasted to remote effect of acquiring licenses
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Summary
Why IP managers need to know about Open Source Software and Principles
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Important points to remember
• Open Source is ubiquitous, almost every business is either contributing to or using it. Make sure you understand the implications of the licenses used.
• From a standardization point of view:
• Open Source Software is the metric ISO thread of the 21st century. It forces standardization on reusable, adaptable and freely deployable software components across industry segments.
• The Open Source Principles’ effect is comparable to the Zollverein (tariff union). They enforce cooperation, increase competition, eliminate vendor lock-ins and increase market efficiency.
• Open issue: software patents
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Thank you.
Questions?
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Thanks to...
• Pictures:
@thinkfat on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkfat/6032871755
@kittykat3756 on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitty-kat/6049220331
@champura on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/champura/4254874634
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE_Software_Compilation_4)
Nuno Pinheiro for the “communist” artwork
http://www.secunet.com/en/products-services/high-security/sina (SINA product line)
• Support:
Till Jäger (JBB Rechtsanwälte) for information about the AVM case (and lunch :-) )
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References
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software
• http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml (arguments against IP as a term)
• http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=477
• http://www.riehle.org/computer-science/research/2007/computer-2007-article.html (motivation of contributors)
• http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/10/24/wipo-sliding-back-into-the-dark-ages (on WIPO and software patents)
• http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/39826/ (on FOSS TCO)
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