July 1st, 2011 
admin Understanding Open Source аnd Free Software Licensing
If уου′ve held back frοm rising open source οr free software projects bесаυѕе уου don’t know thе implications οf thе innumerable licenses, уου′re nοt alone. Many developers believe іn releasing thеіr software freely, bυt hаνе hesitated tο dο ѕο bесаυѕе thеу′re concerned аbουt losing control over thеіr software. Licensing issues аrе complicated, аnd both thе facts аnd fallacies уου hear word-οf-mouth саn add tο thе confusion. Understanding Open Source аnd Free Software Licensing helps уου mаkе sense οf thе different options available tο уου. Thіѕ concise guide focuses οn annotated licenses, offering аn іn-depth explanation οf hοw thеу compare аnd interoperate, аnd hοw license choices affect project possibilities. Written іn clear language thаt уου don’t hаνе tο bе a lawyer tο know, thе book аnѕwеrѕ such qυеѕtіοnѕ аѕ: Whаt civil rights аm I giving up? Hοw wіll mу υѕе οf OS/FS licensing affect future users οr future developers? Dοеѕ a particular υѕе οf thіѕ software–such аѕ combining іt wіth proprietary software–leave mе vulnerable tο lawsuits? Following a qυісk look аt copyright law, contracts, аnd thе definition οf “open source,” thе book tackles thе spectrum οf licensing, counting:
- Thе MIT (οr X), BSD, Apache аnd Literary Free licenses
- Thе GPL, LGPL, аnd Mozilla licenses
- Thе QT, Artistic, аnd Creative Commons licenses
- Classic Proprietary licenses
- Sun Community Source license аnd Microsoft Shared Source project
Thе book wraps up wіth a look аt thе legal effects–both positive аnd negative–οf open source/free software licensing. Licensing іѕ a foremost раrt οf whаt open source аnd free software аrе аll аbουt, bυt іt’s still one οf thе mοѕt complicated areas οf law. Even thе very unadorned licenses аrе tough. Understanding Open Source аnd Free Software Licensing bridges thе gap between thе open source vision аnd thе practical implications οf іtѕ legal underpinnings. If open source аnd free software licenses interest уου, thіѕ book wіll hеlр уου know thеm. If уου′re аn open source/free software developer, thіѕ book іѕ аn absolute necessity.
List Price: $ 19.99
Price: $ 19.99
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Can One Book and One Lawyer Unmuddle Our Minds on Licensing?,
In his book, “Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing” (193 pages , O’Reilly Media, 2004, ISBN 0-596-00581-4), Andrew M. St. Laurent attempts to help readers know the variations and complexities involved in deciding what kind of licensing model to apply to software being urban and how to know the complexities and requirements of open source and free software licensing that someone may want to use and incorporate in software packages being urban for internal use and/or external distribution. If you are willing to slog through this small book (I say slog because it is full of legal terminology) to filter out his explanations, you may find this book useful. If you are not, you may find yourself frustrated.
As a lawyer, Mr. St. Laurent does a very capable job in explaining the description of copyright law and then picking apart what the individual sections of licences really mean. But he lost me early on by the very way he organizes and characterizes certain fundamental concepts, and this presentation is carried through out the book. At the outset, he talks about the fact that licenses are in fact contracts, but does not get into meticulous discussions of how contracts are formed and the issues of contracts until Chapter 6. In this chapter he talks about assumptions about contracts and meanders his ways around to discussions of the required elements to have a contract, but never addresses them as such. Instead, he treats them as “concepts” as different to requirements. This conversation, which must have been covered in Chapter 1 as a succinct conversation of the required elements of a valid contract, easily gets lost as the readers may have struggled through all of the legal jargon and analysis that proceeded it. If he had done so, the conversation around each of the licenses could have been presented and understood in a more straightforward manner.
That leads to my second criticism of the book. He treats each type of license (GPL, MIT, BSD, GNU General Public License, etc) individually, which made it more hard to cross reference. As a reader interested in the best type of license to work with or how to know a license presented, I would preferred to have each constituent of s standard license discussed, followed up by a comparison of how each license type addresses this issue. At the end (or even as an addendum), a chart showing the relationships, restrictions, permissions, etc of all the licenses would have been very useful.
This is not to say that the book is lacking merit. He does make it simple to see how people and companies/corporations can easily slip up in how they approach open source/free software. He also talks about how these different types of licensing models have evolved over time. And lacking adage it, he started my mind thinking about the concept of “legal capacity” and contracts. In most of the United States, a widely held legal concept is that an unemancipated minor (i.e. someone under the age of 18) does have the legal capacity to enter into a contract and these contracts cannot be legally enforced. If this continues to be held as a legal principal, how can any software license be enforced against young people who buy, sell, trade, “liberate” ( a nicer word for stealing copies), or do additional things with software they have bought? This might make for an fascinating conversation down the road.
So who must read this book? This book must be retained by business control, purchasing/acquisition and information system audit professionals as a guide when reviewing licensing issues related to internal controls and IS governance. These professionals must read and digest the material, with the help of legal counsel, and educate developers, administrators, and line of business project sponsors as to what it means and how it applies. It is not a book for developers and administrators must have themselves except they really want to get into legal nitty gritty.
The Business Controls Caddy Rating: Bogey on Small Par 4.
Christopher Byrne, IBM CAAD/CASA
The Cayuga Group, LLC
“The Business Controls Caddy”
http://www.thecayugagroup.com/
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|A Worthwhile Introduction to Open Source Licensing,
Understanding Open Source & Free Software Licensing
Andrew M. St. Laurent
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/osfreesoft/
When sharing with others that I was reviewing an O’Reilly book through their User Group & Professional Association Program, the first question was always the same: “What book are you reviewing?” After adage the title was “Understanding Open Source & Free Software Licensing”, responses ranged from “What’s that?” to “Well, you won’t have any distress sleeping!” One might reflect that this list of people built-in relatives and coworkers who were not adjusted to the open source community and its issues. On the contrary, the responses came from those within my circle of acquaintances that include software developers, system administrators, and even an intellectual property lawyer. Licensing is not exactly the sort of theme where people slide forward in their seats and question to be told more. Such is the appeal of software licensing; but, the importance of understanding licensing, above all within the context of open source development, cannot be overstated.
Those habitual with the O’Reilly product offerings have no doubt seen or bought one or more their Sack Reference series (http://pocketrefs.oreilly.com/). They are not comprehensive references, but rather convenient guides for a specific theme to grant the sort of information one is not likely to have committed to memory, above all as the trend of having cross-disciplined technologists continues. This book could be considered the analog of sack guides for open source and free software licensing. Open source licenses and their legal version are subject theme that easily warrant a “sack reference” that is a full-sized book of nearly 200 pages.
Frankly, reading through a software license and maintaining a evenhanded level of comprehension is a rather tough job. The author manages to make the task far more sufferable and fruitful at the same time; a hard balance to strike. The pace of the annotation works well to break up the innumerable licenses (twelve in total) into bite-sized chunks. Chapters 2 and 3, which address the BSD/MIT family of licenses and the GPL/LGPL/MPL family of licenses respectively, each end with a section titled “Application and Philosophy” that serves as a sort of reward for making it through the license and establishes a touchstone to summarize and grant meaningful context for what has been covered.
The annotations of the different licenses are a fantastic introduction, but the book must not be considered as a complete reference for open source licensing issues. The book seems to affirm this at points where the author indicates that particular topics fall outside the book’s scope, even to the point of recommending experienced legal counsel for certain issues. It also has a wonderful collection of footnotes and reference to additional resources to allow the reader to flesh out topics of interest beyond the focus of this work.
One subtlety of the book that must not be missed is how the description of the open source movement is woven throughout the book to grant the context in which these licenses came into being and were modified to accommodate the vibrant, emerging world of open development models. The book’s last two chapters bring that context to the foreground, fully rising the consequence of the licenses in daily development activity. It is far too simple to view these licenses and as mere legal documents that exist in and of themselves; the author reminds us that these licenses are the manifestations of a spirit of selfless contribution and work toward social excellent made possible by the considerable sacrifice of quite gifted individuals. For those passionate about the open source and free software movements, the section of chapter 7 titled “Models of Open Source and Free Software Development” is a poignant and stirring encapsulation of the first years of the GNU and Linux projects and the work that brought them into being. The cliché rings right; we do to be sure “stand on the shoulders of giants.”
The number of editorial errors involving misspelled and/or missing words seemed relatively high; this is a trend that seems to have urban in technical books in recent years, to a point that the technical community has come to accept it as some sort of side effect of the rapid pace with which books must be bent in order to keep pace with the rate of exchange. Given that this is an issue present in additional works as well as this one, it must not above all regard as a mark against the work, but rather serve to underscore an issue publishers must consider improving.
“Understanding Open Source & Free Software Licensing” is a book which strikes a balance between completeness of subject theme coverage and manageability of size. Given the amount of attention the average open source user…
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|excellent quick reference,
I am an attorney who does open source software license work for a living. When this book came along, I picked it up, mostly because I was interested in seeing how O’Reilly does branching out well beyond its usual technical subjects. As you are probably aware, 2004 was the year of open source, according to some publications. Well, it was also the year of open source books. I have seen at least five that deal with the theme directly.
Getting to the merits of St. Laurent’s book, I struggled with whether to give it three or four stars. You see, even as a lawyer I found it lacking in clarity and flow. Overall, I am different to the route he took in excerpting nearly every term of each license and then providing exposition of his own that was a lot of times hardly more helpful than the original license language. A better approach to explaining the licenses can be found in Larry Rosen’s wonderful book “Open Source Licensing.” But, this downside becomes an upside when using the book as a reference, instead of an educational guide (justifying the fourth star). St. Laurent’s approach here is useful for going into more depth on a particular license. Perhaps that was the goal all along.
Another advantage this book has over Rosen’s is its broader treatment of the growing array of licenses and license types. St. Laurent covers more licenses and for that I am thankful. In the end, I would recommend having a copy of both Rosen’s and St. Laurent’s book clever. And whatever you do, skip Rod Dixon’s “Open Source Software Law.”
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