Andrew Morin; Jennifer Urban; Piotr Sliz

“ Without access to source code, researchers cannot effectively inspect, understand, or manipulate the inner workings of a program. Source code availability is of increased importance in the context of scientific research, where peer review, reproducibility, and building upon prior work are integral to the advancement of science. Source code access helps researchers quickly identify and remedy bugs that might lead to spurious results and adapt programs or pieces of code to suit individual needs, and allows expert users to contribute to code development on an informal basis. ”

“ Without a license agreement, software may be left in a state of legal uncertainty in which potential users may not know which limitations owners may want to enforce, and owners may leave themselves vulnerable to legal claims or have difficulty controlling how their work is used. ”

“ Clearly, when developing software, choosing the terms under which the software can be reused, distributed, and built upon is an important consideration. Yet, many scientists and scientific developers have little training in or knowledge of the consequences of the choices they can make. Depending on how licenses are used they can either protect individuals' ability to capitalize on their creative works or ensure the public's ability to reuse. ”

“ A fundamental goal of FOSS is to promote the free exchange of ideas and technology without fear of infringing the rights of others. Ideally, code licensed under like-minded FOSS terms should be freely combinable to create new products. Compatibility is the attribute of software licenses that allows combining of program code. To be compatible, license terms must be free of contradictory or mutually exclusive requirements. ”

“ In fulfilling expectations to distribute and disseminate their software, scientist-programmers are required to be not only proficient scientists and coders, but also knowledgeable in legal strategies for licensing their software. Navigating the often complex legal landscape of software licensing can be overwhelming, even for sophisticated programmers. ”

“ For developers who want to guarantee perpetual open source access to their work, some licenses employ the concept of copyleft, a punning reference to “copyright.” Copyleft uses copyright's legal framework to guarantee continued open access to a software and its source code. This is done by requiring, as a condition of the license, that any derivative works also be distributed under the same licensing terms as the original. These copyleft licensing terms are also sometimes referred to as reciprocity or “share-alike” provisions. ”

“ Proprietary licenses can incorporate upstream permissively licensed code, but by definition are incompatible with any other downstream license. Grey represents actions that are not permitted without negotiating a separate license agreement with the rights owner. Directionality is an important reason why, if you're trying to integrate code written by others with your own, you'll want to be aware of what license the code you are incorporating carries. When attempting to combine code from multiple projects each under different license types, issues of compatibility can become very complex. ”

“ Software Licensing in Academic and Research Environments
For a license to be valid it must be granted by the owner of the work's intellectual property (IP) rights. Under the policies of most academic and research institutions, researchers who have created a piece of software are unlikely to own full rights to their works. Instead, the institution generally holds or shares legal right to developed software. ”

“ Permissive licenses are those that place the fewest restrictions on users and adopters, often only requiring that the original creators be attributed in any distribution or derivative of the software or source code. ”

“ An active open source user community participating in maintaining and improving the code base can free the original developer to concentrate on major enhancements or move on to other projects without sacrificing continued utility of the software. ”

“ Some institutions' philosophies on protecting and exploiting IP are more aggressive than others. You may need to explain, for example, why using a FOSS license does not preclude commercialization (see above) , why you think commercialization is not the most appropriate goal for your work, or why broad dissemination is an important goal for you. If you wish to propose a license that limits or forgoes the potential for generating revenue, you may first have to convince your TTO staff that your work lacks commercial value. ”

“ Institutions receiving public funds will typically license proprietary software to other academic or non-profit users at no charge but require a fee for licensing to for-profit and industry users.
Applying a License to Your Software
Once you have chosen a license strategy for your software, the usual first step in applying it is to contact your institutional TTO. Although many FOSS licenses are easy to apply even by the non-legal-expert, as researchers and academics it is unlikely you personally own all of the rights to your work. ”

“ This is equally true for software that is commercialized and offered for a fee, and software that is made available without cost to others. While end-users often balk at overly restrictive software licenses, the uncertainty caused when no license is given can also discourage those wishing to make use of a piece of code. It is important to note that licenses can be used to facilitate access to software as well as restrict it. ”

“ Permissive licenses may be preferred due to their ease of application and universal downstream compatibility. Copyleft licenses may be useful in accommodating upstream encumbered code or preferred by researchers seeking to assure perpetual open access, but their reciprocity requirements can limit downstream options. Hybrid licensing schemes, due to their added complexity, are more limited in their utility, but if appropriate, can offer many of the benefits of both proprietary and open source models. ”

“ Institutional TTOs sometimes default towards applying proprietary licenses due to staff's greater familiarity with them and a desire to preserve what is perceived (sometimes inaccurately) as the maximum potential for commercial exploitation. ”