UNRAVELLING THE MYTH AROUND OPEN SOURCE LICENCES AN ANALYSIS FROM A DUTCH AND EUROPEAN LAW PERSPECTPDF电子书下载

One Introduction 1

Two Origins of Open Source 5

2.1 Background: The Open Source Licence Environment 6

2.1.1 Technological background: source code and object code 6

2.1.2 Technological background: the structure of a computer programme 7

2.1.3 Philosophical background 7

2.1.4 The GNU: General Public Licence 8

2.1.5 The BSD distribution 11

2.1.6 The Mozilla Public Licence 13

2.1.7 The Open Source Definition 14

2.2 The Core Stipulations of Open Source Licences 15

2.2.1 The use of different licences 15

2.2.2 Freedom as a key requirement 17

2.2.3 The importance of openness 18

2.2.4 The share-alike clause: an important ingredient of open source licences (copyleft) 21

Three Open Source in Practice 25

3.1 The Production of Open Source Software 25

3.1.1 The layered structure of OSS production 27

3.1.2 The status of OSS developers: employed, freelancer, student and unemployed 31

3.1.3 Dutch contributions to open source projects 32

3.2 The Distribution of OSS in Practice 32

3.2.1 On-line distribution 33

3.2.2 Off-line distribution 36

3.3 The Use of Open Source Software 37

3.3.1 Considerations with respect to the use of open source licences 37

3.3.2 Governments 39

3.3.3 Businesses 42

3.3.4 Individual users 43

3.3.5 Organizations 43

Four Open Source and Private Law 45

4.1 Nature of the Agreement 46

4.2 Parties to the Agreement 51

4.3 Formation of Contract 55

4.3.1 Offer and acceptance 56

4.3.2 Core stipulation of the agreement 61

4.3.3 Standard form contracts 63

4.3.4 Applicability of open source licences 67

4.4 Share-alike Clause (Copyleft) 72

4.5 Warranty Disclaimer 78

4.6 Limitation of Liability 80

4.6.1 Restriction and disclaimer of liability under Dutch law 81

4.6.2 Standard form contract 83

4.7 Termination of Contract 86

Five Open Source and Copyright Law 89

5.1 Authorship/Ownership 90

5.1.1 Joint authorship 91

5.1.2 Work created under employment 95

5.2 Exploitation Rights under Open Source Licence 98

5.2.1 Freedom to use 100

5.2.2 Freedom to reproduce 105

5.2.3 Freedom to modify 107

5.2.4 Freedom to (re)distribute 110

5.2.5 Royalty free distribution 117

5.2.6 Regulation of exploitation contracts 120

5.3 Moral Rights under Open Source Licence 122

5.3.1 Right of first publication 124

5.3.2 Right of paternity 125

5.3.3 Right of integrity 126

5.4 Dual Licensing 129

Six Open Source and Patent Law 131

6.1 Software Patents in the Netherlands 133

6.1.1 Current legal framework 134

6.1.2 Proposed EC Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions 139

6.2 Open Source and Patented Software 142

6.2.1 Open source patenting strategy 144

6.2.2 Open source licences 145

Seven Enforcement of Open Source Licences 149

7.1 Standing to Sue 150

7.2 Enforcement in Practice 157

Eight Concluding Remarks 163

Nine Practical Recommendations 169

9.1 Recommendation 1 : Name the Parties to the Contract 169

9.2 Recommendation 2: Ensure Proper Formation of Contract 169

9.3 Recommendation 3: Clarify the Copyright Ownership 170

9.4 Recommendation 4: Clarify the Scope of the Share-alike Clause 171

9.5 Recommendation 5: Review the FSF Europe Fiduciary Licence Agreement 171

Annexes 173

1. GNU General Public License 173

2. BSD and MIT 180

3. Mozilla Public Licence (MPL 1.1) 181

4. Fiduciary Licence Agreement (Version 1.0) 191

Bibliography 195

Monographs and reports 195

Cited case law 207

Index 209