Book description
If you've held back from developing open source or free software projects because you don't understand the implications of the various licenses, you're not alone. Many developers believe in releasing their software freely, but have hesitated to do so because they're concerned about losing control over their software. Licensing issues are complicated, and both the facts and fallacies you hear word-of-mouth can add to the confusion.Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing helps you make sense of the different options available to you. This concise guide focuses on annotated licenses, offering an in-depth explanation of how they compare and interoperate, and how license choices affect project possibilities. Written in clear language that you don't have to be a lawyer to understand, the book answers such questions as: What rights am I giving up? How will my use of OS/FS licensing affect future users or future developers? Does a particular use of this software--such as combining it with proprietary software--leave me vulnerable to lawsuits?Following a quick look at copyright law, contracts, and the definition of "open source," the book tackles the spectrum of licensing, including:
- The MIT (or X), BSD, Apache and Academic Free licenses
- The GPL, LGPL, and Mozilla licenses
- The QT, Artistic, and Creative Commons licenses
- Classic Proprietary licenses
- Sun Community Source license and Microsoft Shared Source project
Publisher resources
Table of contents
- Preface
- 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
- 6.1. Entering Contracts
- 6.2. Statutory Developments Related to Software Contracts
- 6.3. The Self-Enforcing Nature of Open Source and Free Software Licenses
- 6.4. The Global Scope of Open Source and Free Software Licensing
- 6.5. The “Negative Effects” of Open Source and Free Software Licensing
- 6.6. Community Enforcement of Open Source and Free Software Licenses
- 6.7. Compatible and Incompatible Licensing: Multiple and Cross Licensing
- 7. Software Development Using Open Source and Free Software Licenses
- A. Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License
- Index
- About the Author
- Colophon
- Copyright
Product information
- Title: Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing
- Author(s):
- Release date: August 2004
- Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
- ISBN: 9780596005818
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