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Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing
book

Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing

by Andrew M. St. Laurent
August 2004
Beginner to intermediate
208 pages
8h 3m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing

The Academic Free License

The Academic Free License is substantially similar to the Apache License, v1.1, in forbidding claims of endorsement by the work's creator, in requiring attribution to the creator, in disclaiming warranties, and in permitting distribution of the original work and derivative works subject only to certain limitations. The Academic Free License adds four more provisions that are not in the Apache or BSD Licenses, two of them pertaining to patent law, and two of them governing choice of law and shifting of attorneys fees.

As discussed in Chapter 1, the intellectual property rights at play in software licenses derive for the most part from copyright, protecting the expression of particular ideas. The Academic Free License also addresses the case in which a patent holder chooses to permit the open source use of that patent.

Paragraph 1 of the Academic Free License (v2.0) provides:[3]

1) Grant of Copyright License. Licensor hereby grants You a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, sublicenseable license to do the following: a) to reproduce the Original Work in copies; b) to prepare derivative works ("Derivative Works") based upon the Original Work; c) to distribute copies of the Original Work and Derivative Works to the public; d) to perform the Original Work publicly; and e) to display the Original Work publicly.

This is essentially the same bundle of rights granted by the Apache and BSD Licenses already discussed. Paragraph 2 distinguishes the Academic ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596005814Errata Page