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SFLC's Legal Guide On Free Software

Posted by kdawson on from the law-for-the-rest-of-us dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Last week the Software Freedom Law Center published A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects. The primer, written for developers, has sections on copyrights, trademarks, patents, and organizational structure. Linux-Watch has reviewed the guide, saying 'I think any open-source developer or open-source group administrator must read this paper.'"

3 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. The Primer is nice and all... by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...and IANAL

    But, legally speaking, you should read the license you pick. Don't just assume any summary is correct. I am not saying this summary is not accurate, I am just reminding you that you actually need to read what you "sign".

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  2. Not sure it's the politics by l2718 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In this case, the politics are the indirect reason. I think the writers (which were all part of the "FSF" cadre) are simply more knowledgeable about the GPL-style licensing than about BSD-style licensing. They have considerable experience and expertise drafting and enforcing the GPL and LGPL, but they have not been, for example, part of the AT&T-Berkeley BSD litigation. The discussion of copyright enforcement would have been more interesting if it included examples of successful enforcement of both the types of licenses.

    The discussion of "copyright assignment" falls under the same heading: that's what the FSF does, and they are telling us what they learned about this kind of setup. Better they share their knowledge than leaving others to rediscover it.

    I think the best way to view this document is as follows: "we are laywers, who have been helping FOSS projects. Here are some lessons we learned, in non-technical language. Read this before talking to your lawyer and you'll get more mileage out of him/her".

  3. Re:Exactly what I was expecting by Cannelbrae · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can you expand on the pieces you view as biased? Most of it looks rather straight forward. They explained that bsd style licenses grants a freedom, explained why this freedom can be beneficial, and explained what you lost by (downstream openness) by selecting the license.

    That seems like a pretty simple and blunt explaination. Each license has pros and cons depending on need.