GDSC - Software Licensing.pdf
- 1. Introduction to Software Licensing The legalities of software development NEDUET
- 2. WHAT IS A SOFTWARE LICENSE? ➔ A software license is a set of rules that tell you how you can use and share computer programs legally. ➔ It also covers user rights, like installation, warranties, and protects the developer's intellectual property. ➔ Software licenses typically provide end users with the right to one or more copies of the software without violating copyrights. NEDUET
- 3. BENEFITS OF USING LICENSED SOFTWARE Apart from the legal obligation to use Licensed Software, Licensed Software outright comes with support not found in “pirated” software such as technical support, regular updates and security, reliability and stability, integration and interoperability, software warranty etc. NEDUET CONSIDER A PARALLEL Just as using fake or unauthorized licenses for driving can have serious consequences, using pirated or unauthorized software in the technology realm carries its own risks. It's a reminder that both scenarios involve potential legal and practical complications if you're not on the right side of licensing.
- 4. WHAT IS INCLUDED IN A SOFTWARE LICENSING AGREEMENT? Most of agreements contain at least these four sections: ➢ General Information: Agreement type, effective date, and duration. ➢ Involved Parties: Full names, contact info, and addresses of the parties (individuals or companies). ➢ Terms: - Price of the license (one-time or annual fees). - Coding access details. - Site license information (if applicable). - Support, maintenance, and refund policies. ➢ Additional Details: - Specific terms unique to your software. - Signature, date, and notarization requirements.
- 5. TYPES OF OPEN SOURCE LICENSES MIT LICENSE: ● Permissive open-source license ● grants users the freedom to use, modify, distribute, and sublicense the software. ● The software is provided “as is “ with no warranties of any kind ● Creators are not liable for any claims resulting from the software use ● Users must include the copyright and permission notice in any copies or significant parts of the software.
- 6. WHY do we used it ? ➢ MIT License promotes collaboration among open-source community ➢ freedom to use existing software as a foundation for their own projects without imposing strict legal limitations
- 7. Notable projects that use the MIT License include the ● X Window System ● Ruby on Rails, Node.js, Lua, and jQuery. Notable companies using the MIT License include ● Microsoft (.NET) ● Google (Angular) ● Meta (React) NEDUET
- 8. APACHE LICENSE: ● Redistributions of the source code or binary files must include the copyright notice, conditions, and disclaimers. ● End-user documentation must acknowledge the Apache Software Foundation's contribution. ● The names "Apache" and "Apache Software Foundation" can't be used to endorse derived products without prior written permission. ● The software comes with no warranties, and the Apache Software Foundation is not liable for any damages from its use.
- 9. WHY do we used it ? ➢ Define the condition under which software can be shared, modified, and distributed while protecting the rights and interests.
- 10. LIST OF PROJECTS THAT INCLUDE APACHE ● Apache Hadoop ● Apache Spark ● Apache Flink NEDUET
- 11. BSL LICENSE: ● BSL makes sure the software's code is available to everyone. ● You can use it for free in non-production scenarios and may get permission for limited production use. ● After a certain time, the code becomes fully open source. ● It can be used in projects that follow open-source rules.
- 12. WHY do we used it ? ➢ For internal and testing purposes we used BSL
- 13. LIST OF PROJECTS THAT INCLUDE BSL ● ABA Games. ● Llama Models ● Ace (editor) ● ACL2. ● Advanced Visualization Studio. NEDUET
- 14. BSD LICENSE: ● Permissive open-source license. ● Allows users to use, modify, distribute, and sublicense the software. ● No requirement to disclose source code or include a copyright notice in derivative works. ● Focuses on minimal restrictions.
- 15. THE IMPACT OF CHANGING OPEN SOURCE LICENSES ON SOFTWARE PROJECTS ➢ Changing from a more restrictive licensing scheme (such as GPL) to a less restrictive one usually increased the attractiveness of a project. However, moving from a license to having no license, or to a more restrictive license, typically decreased attractiveness. ➢ Changing licenses can also create challenges. There may be legal implications, especially if contributions have been made under the original license. It can also lead to confusion or mistrust among the user community, especially if the new license is more restrictive.
- 16. CASE STUDY: TRIGGERMESH A real-world example of a license change is the case of TriggerMesh. The company initially considered several licenses, including the Server Side Public License (used by MongoDB and Elastic NV) and the Business Source License (used by MariaDB and Cockroach Labs). Ultimately, they decided to use the Apache License 2.0, to avoid any doubts about the open-source nature of their software. NEDUET
- 17. HOW TO APPLY A LICENSE TO YOUR OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS Licensing your projects is easy. You need to add a LICENSE, LICENSE.txt or LICENSE.md in the root directory of your repository. GitHub makes it even easier: 1. Open your GitHub repository in a browser. 2. In the root directory, click on Create new file. 3. Name the file “LICENSE”. 4. Click on Choose a license template. 5. Pick one of the licenses (all the ones mentioned in this article are there). 6. Once chosen, click on Review and submit. 7. Commit the file. THINGS TO REMEMBER ➔ One of the most restrictive licenses is GPL. ➔ One of the most permissive licenses is MIT. ➔ Other popular licenses are Apache License 2.0 and BSD. NEDUET
- 19. ● Terraform was initially released under Mozilla Public License v2.0 (MPL 2.0) meaning it was completely open source. ● This invited and welcomed contributions from developers all over the globe ● Collaboration also resulted in growth and maturity of the product ● On August 10th, 2023, HashiCorp announced a transition from the Mozilla Public License v2.0 (MPL 2.0) to the Business Source License (BSL, or BUSL) v1.1 for future releases of all products and several libraries, Terraform being one of them. ● This was a rugpull meaning terraform can no longer be used as a ready-to-go tool by cloud providers and businesses as they can be considered competition to hashicorp’s services. NEDUET
- 20. ● This invited criticism from the development communities all over the globe. ● As a counter measure Terraform was forked as an open source tool, which can be further worked on and used by the community as ‘OpenTofu’ ● OpenTofu is completely open-source and being maintained by the linux foundation, the largest open-source technology ecosystem of the world. ● OpenTofu’s Manifesto provides some great insights into what, why and how of the whole fiasco. NEDUET
- 21. It’s a wrap! Thanks for joining! NEDUET