Software licensing with some case studies

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

18. The Terraform
Rugpull

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