Author: Li Li Time: 11.06.2020
In recent years, industries related to software, communication technology (ICT), and financial technology (FinTech) have been gradually penetrated by open source, and software development has become increasingly dependent on open source. Enterprises are also paying more attention to open source, and their participation in the open source community is also increasing. For example, Q Company is not only the initiator of many open source projects, but also an important contributor and feedback provider to the open source community. It has opened more than 80 projects on Github (the world’s largest open source community operated by Microsoft) and ranks in the top ten of Github’s global company contribution list.
From a business perspective, investing in a project requires generating revenue, and similarly, investing in open source is also for the purpose of obtaining commercial benefits for the enterprise.
But can open source software be commercially used? Can I use it as I please? What are the intellectual property regulations in open source licenses? What legal risks should be taken into account when using open source software?
Next, we will explore the relevant knowledge of open source from multiple perspectives in the form of chapters, including the following: What is open source software? The business model of open source software, intellectual property regulations and risks in open source licenses, and recommendations for risk prevention. I hope it can help some people who want to learn about open source.
Series 1: What is open source software?
Open Source Software (OSS), also known as open-source software, is actually a type of software product. We all know that computers can only execute binary code, which is the sequence of “0” and “1”; Source code program is a type of computer source program that is relatively close to natural language, which facilitates people’s understanding and communication. This type of source program needs to be translated into binary code before it can be executed by the computer. So open source generally refers to opening up the source code, which is usually owned by the author of computer software. So, this will involve copyright, patent rights, and trademark rights.
So are all open source software open source? —The answer is no.
Generally speaking, the open source software we refer to refers to software that meets the definition of the Open Source Initiative (OSI).
OSI was founded in February 1998 as a non-profit organization aimed at promoting the development of open source software.
The definition of open source software can be seen in Figure 1, which consists of 10 elements, including: Free Redistribution, Source Code, Derived Works, Integrity of The Author’s Source Code, No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups, No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor, Distribution of License, License Must Not Be Specific to a Product, License Must Not Restrict Other Software Not Restricting Other Software, License Must Be Technology Neutral. Based on this definition requirement, it can be determined whether a software can be marked as open source software.
For more details, please refer to the OSI official website: https://opensource.org/osd-annotated
Figure 1
OSI has a dedicated process to review whether a software meets the definition of open source. A software cannot claim to be open source until it completes OSI certification.
So how did open source software come into being? What is the difference with commercial software?
In the 1970s, open source was born almost at the same time as the Internet and software. In the beginning, software and hardware were closely linked, and software was free, free, and open source. Later, with the rapid development of computers and the rise of software, software and hardware also separated. For example, IBM and Microsoft cooperated, and Microsoft provided the operating system for IBM’s personal computers, giving rise to the commercial software model. For example, Oracle provides databases, application software, etc; For example, enterprise management software provided by SAP company.
These commercial software typically deploy a large number of patents, as shown in Figure 2. We searched for patents through the Patentcloud website; https://app.patentcloud.com/index.html ）By using the keywords’ Microsoft Corporation ‘or’ Microsoft Corporation ‘, we roughly found over 100000 patents/patent applications.
Figure 2
The deployment of a large number of software patents in commercial software has to some extent led to the phenomenon of technological monopoly, which can greatly protect the exclusive and monopolistic position of major commercial software companies. And commercial software is almost never open source.
We can understand the difference between open source software and commercial software through Figure 3.
Fig 3
The purpose of the emergence of open source software is to break the monopoly position dominated by commercial software. Open source software promotes its own and technological development through technology sharing, such as opening up source code and encouraging developers/users to spread it through mutual replication, learning, modification, and publishing. This allows more people to participate in software construction, improve software defects, and promote the development and popularization of technology.
Similarly, open source software is also protected by copyright law; However, open source software imposes restrictions on the exercise of authorized patent rights. These aspects are reflected in the software licenses released alongside open source software. Open source software maintains its survival and healthy development through licensing. We will discuss open source licenses in subsequent chapters.
That’s all for this introduction to open source software. Next time, we will explore and understand the relationship between open source software and intellectual property together.
【 Reference 】
https://juejin.im/entry/5a97469cf265da4e8837e19a
https://opensource.org/osd-annotated
