Distribution in Open Source

Martin von Haller Groenbaek partner, Bender von Haller Dragsted

ITECHLAW ASIA 2010 Bangalore, 5 February 2010

• Attorney-at-law, Bender von Haller Dragsted• Co-founder, Open Source Vendors Ass. (OSL)• Editorial board IFOSSLR• Co-founder, Creative Commons DK• Co-founder, Danish Internet Society Chapter

• http://www.bvhd.d• http://www.openlife.dk • http://www.vonhaller.dk • http://www.linkedin.com/in/vonhaller • http://www.23hq.com/mhg• http://www.slideshare.net/vonhaller• http://www.facebook.com/vonhaller

• mhg@bvhd.dk • martin@groenbaek.net • groenbaek@gmail.com

20/80

3 questions in 20 minutes

Goal

F.U.D

FEAR

UNCERTAINTY

DOUBT

Open Source means

Business

Businessmodel

3 questions in 20 minutes

#1What is

distribution?

#2Why does it

matter?

#3Show me the

money!

Open source intro

All about licenses

Not contracts

Comply or

don’t use

4 freedoms (or license rights)

#1Run the

object code

#2Access

source code

#3Modify the source code

#4Make and

transfer copies

Also user restrictions!

These rights are

yours…

…regardless of distribution

No distribution=

(almost)No restrictions

Distribution=

Restrictions

Copyright notice

preservation

License terms

preservation

Access to

source code

Your patents

are affected

Copyleft

Release your own modify

code…

…under the same license

Distribution=

Copyleft

Most open source

caselaw…

…involves distribution

AnswerQuestion 2

Does distribution

matter in open source?

YES!

Most restrictionsin OS licensesPresupposedDistribution

In particular,Copyleft

Question 1:What is

Distribution?

Answers in

Copyright law

Open Source licenses

US Copyright law

"distribute copies...of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or

lending" (7 USC section 106 (3))

Any transfer of a copy

Nordic Countries

(and the EU)

Any transfer of a copy

Exception:Private copies

Commercial and non Commercial

The text of the OS Licenses

US-centric by tradition

GPL v2

70%

“distribute”“redistribute”

“physical act of transferring a copy”

(sec 1, 3rd paragraph)

BSD license “Redistribution”

MIT License “Publish, distribute”

Apache License, Version 2.0

“reproduce and distribute copies”

(sec 4)

Eclipse Public License - v 1.0“publicly display, publicly perform, distribute” (Sec 2,

litra a)

AnswerQuestion 1

What is distribution?

3 rules of thumb

#1Physical copy

must be transferred

#2The transferee

must be a third party

#3No distinction

between commercial or

non-commercial

US vs. EU

All “public” transfers are distribution

Some “private” transfers

may not be distribution

Grey areas

Employees

Never distribution

Freelancers vs. Contractors

A contractor is a third party

A physical copy of code is transferred

Internal servers

”Public” vs. ”Private”?

Subsidiaries

Third party

Joint ventures=

Distribution

100% owned subsidiaries

US: ”Unity of Ownership”

=Maybe not distribution

EU: ”Private” transfer

=Maybe not distribution

Outsourcing

Third party

A physical copy of the code is transferred

US: Distribution

EU: Probably a “private” transfer

M&A

Only assets, not share, sale

The acquiror is a third party

A physical copy is transferred

US: Distribution

EU: Distribution

Copyleft is triggered

Problem?

No!

GPL is a hereditary

License!

Google?

Heavy user of Open source

software

Lots of modifications!

No access to

source code

ASP loophole

GPLv3:Network exception

Functionalitiesvia

Network

BrowserInternet

A physical copy of the code is not

transferred

Copyleft is not triggered

Controversy!

AnswerQuestion 3

Business?

Lawyers get paid to explain!

Dual licensing

The licensor’s free choice of

licenses

Choice #1GPL

Copyleft

Company usesGPL’ed software

Makes modifications

Wants to distribute

modifications

… but does not want to release

source code!

Trade secrets

Choice #2

License with copyleft

exemption

…and with a license fee!

MySQL AB

Database software under GPL v2

”Commercial” license with no

copyleft

…and with warranties and

support

Sold to SUN in 2008

More than 1.000.000.000

USD!

All software open sourced!

Open source means

business!

Slides atwww.slideshare.com/

vonhaller

Thank you!