Software license

“ When economists looked at open source software they saw not a single twenty- dollar bill lying implausibly on the sidewalk, but whole bushels of them. Why would anyone work on a project the fruits of which could be appropriated by anyone? Since copyright adheres on fixation—since the computer programmer already has the legal power to exclude others—why would he or she choose to take the extra step of adopting a license that undermined that exclusion? Why would anyone choose to allow others to use and modify the results of their hard work? ”

“ 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. ”

“ An entire industry has been built around Free Software, and is growing rapidly despite an unfavorable market. The success of software companies like Red Hat, and the benefits to vendors such as Dell and IBM, demonstrate that Free Software is not at all incompatible with business.
The Free Software license singled out for abuse by Microsoft is the GNU General Public License, or GNU GPL. This license is the computer equivalent of share and share alike. But this does not mean, as Microsoft claims, that a company using these programs is legally obliged to make all its software and data free. ”

“ The needs and obligations of academic and publically funded research create unique considerations for scientist-programmers choosing a software license. Unlike in the software industry, where licensing strategy is primarily a matter of business strategy, it can be highly beneficial for scientists to publish, disseminate, and share the fruits of their work as widely as possible, independent of commercial potential. In addition, academic ethics encourage the wide sharing of research materials and information, including code. ”

“ For example, most open-source software licenses include provisions about distributing the software’s source code—but the CC licenses do not address this important aspect of sharing software. The software-sharing ecosystem is well established, and there are many good open-source software licenses to choose from. An FAQ from Creative Commons’ website available at https://creativecommons.org/faq/#can-i-apply-a-creative-commons-license-to-software has more information about why we discourage the use of our licenses for software. ”

“ Licensing: Developing a new software license is never a trivial task and this License Agreement has presented special challenges for Hacktivismo. Because of our human rights objectives, this License Agreement includes some specific terms and conditions that, as a technical matter, depart from the previously-recognized and established definitions of "free" [fn11] software and "open source" [fn12] software. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Particularly if a software licensor has sufficient market power to be deemed a monopoly, or if certain proposed expansions of the law of software licensing, masquerading as "codifications," are widely adopted, the ability of a private entity to impose legal prohibitions and duties on virtually everyone else as though the licensor has assumed powers that customarily belong to legislative bodies is both breathtaking and deeply troubling. Of course, we are hardly the first to distribute software under a license agreement that imposes conditions on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We will protect our way of making software against those ways of making unfreedom. We will say only that the right to tinker has to be protected against hardware that resists it. I think that is both legitimately the scope of a free software license in everybody’s view, and also sufficient for the purpose. ”

“ We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software (. . .)
Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that re-distributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone’s free use or not licensed at all (. . .) ”

“ 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. ”

“ Respect for the Rule of Law means that no governmental entity is above the law, and that no governmental entity should be permitted to use its status as a mechanism for circumventing the requirements of this License Agreement.
Any use, copying or modification of this software by any governmental official or governmental entity anywhere in the world is a voluntary act, which act the governmental official or entity is free to forego if it does not wish to be bound by this License Agreement. ”

“ Ultimately, however, after reviewing the field of possibilities among previously-existing "open source" and "free" licenses, Hacktivismo has concluded that none of them fully meets our requirements. Writing our own License Agreement enables us to pursue our human rights objectives more effectively. This licensing endeavor represents a first step toward achieving our objectives, and no doubt informed feedback, scholarship, and learned commentary will enable us to pursue our objectives even more effectively in the future. ”

“ The creators of free and open source software were able to use the fact that software is copyrighted, and that the right attaches automatically upon creation and fixation, to set up new, distributed methods of innovation. For example, free and open source software under the General Public License—such as Linux—is a "commons" to which all are granted access. Anyone may use the software without any restrictions. They are guaranteed access to the human-readable "source code," rather than just the inscrutable "machine code," so that they can understand, tinker, and modify. ”

“ It is not the purpose of this Section 13 to induce You to infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims; this Section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the software distribution system reflected in this License Agreement, which is implemented by public license practices. Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed through related distribution systems, in reliance on consistent application of such distribution systems ”

“ Today, software and digital products generally are transferred under license. That is, unlike books you purchase, you generally will not own the digital products that publishers license to you.
Licensing information is more like renting an apartment than buying a house. Just as landlords may ban dogs or loud music in their rentals, publishers and information vendors may add a number of conditions to your use of their digital resources. ”

“ Creative Commons licenses Although the GFDL extended open-content licensing principles outside the domain of software, the license remains tied to a specific context, namely, the licensing of software manuals and other texts. Many provisions of the GFDL, such as the references to “title pages,” “cover texts,” “invariant sections,” [123] are difficult to understand or to apply outside the context of literary works. ”

“ Licenses may have other benefits for consumers: many licenses permit users to make extra copies, to use the software on multiple computers, even to incorporate the software into the user's products. But whether a particular license is generous or restrictive, a simple two-party contract is not "equivalent to any of the exclusive rights within the general scope of copyright" and therefore may be enforced. ”

“ License must not be product-specific. The rights associated with a license extend to products extracted from a larger software aggregate. No restriction on other software. No restrictions are allowed on distribution of open source products bundled with products developed on other software platforms. Technology neutrality. Licenses should not be issued on the basis of the specific technology involved. ”

“ The project clearly states that a any given software in order to be acceptable for the State must not only be technically adequately to carry out a given task, but must also fulfill some requisites in license matters, without which the State could not guarantee the citizen the adquate process of his data, looking over for their integrity, confidentiality and permanent accessibility, all of which are critical elements for its fulfillment.
The State establishes conditions for the use of software by the agencies of the State, without meddling in any way in the transactions of the private sector. ”

“ Unfair competition is defined as "an intentional business act or practice " that falls within the categories of " (A) cyber-terrorism; (B) infringement of a patent, trademark, or trade name; (C) a software license violation; or (D) predatory hiring practices." Utah Code Ann. § 13-5a-102 (4) (ii) (2006) . Novell's alleged statements claiming ownership of copyrights based on its interpretation of the parties' contracts do not fall within any of these categories. Novell's statements are not a breach of Section 3 of the TLA, which states that SCO owns the Licensed Technology. ”

“ Creative Commons has developed a Web application that helps people dedicate their creative works to the public domain or retain their copyright while licensing them as free for certain uses, on certain conditions. Unlike the GNU General Public License, [17] Creative Commons licenses are not designed for software but for other kinds of creative works: websites, scholarship, music, film, photography, literature, courseware, etc. The aim is not only to increase the sum of raw source material online, but also to make access to the material cheaper and easier. ”

“ The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software. 5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons. ”

“ Your right under this License Agreement to look at the source not only enables You to contribute Your own efforts to Hacktivismo's human rights projects, but also serves as an additional level of assurance to You as an end-user that unwelcome, hidden surprises have not been inserted into the software, that could compromise Your rights and freedoms when You use the software. ”

“ Any Licensees who release derivative works, as permitted by this License Agreement, are required to grant a royalty-free patent license of any patented technology.
Anyone Can Release Original Software Under The HESSLA: Although this License Agreement is drafted with Hacktivismo's objectives in mind, perhaps it will meet other authors' needs as well. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Every copy of the Program distributed by Hacktivismo (but not necessarily every other Author) consists of the Source Code accompanied, in some instances, by an ancillary distribution of compiled Object Code, but the continued availability of the Source Code from the Author addresses the possibility that You might have (for any reason) not received from someone else a complete, current, copy of the Source Code (lack of which would, for example, prevent You from exporting copies to others without violating this license, see Section 8) . ”