The "short" version of my presentation on Distribution in Open Source at ITECHLAW Asia 2010 in Bangalore, 5 February 2010.

1. Distribution in
Open Source
Martin von Haller Groenbaek partner,
Bender von Haller Dragsted
ITECHLAW ASIA 2010 Bangalore, 5 February 2010

2. • 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

3. Goal

4. F.U.D

5. FEAR

6. UNCERTAINTY

7. DOUBT

8. Open Source
means
Business

9. Business
model

10. 3 questions
in 20 minutes

11. #1
What is
distribution?

12. #2
Why does it
matter?

13. #3
Show me the
money!

14. Open source
intro

15. All about
licenses

16. Not contracts

17. Comply
or
don’t use

18. 4 freedoms (or
license rights)

19. #1
Run
the
object
code

20. #2
Access
source code

21. #3
Modify the
source code

22. #4
Make and
transfer copies

23. Also user
restrictions!

24. These
4 rights are
yours…

25. …regardless of
distribution

26. No distribution
=
(almost)
No restrictions

27. Distribution
=
Restrictions

28. Copyright
notice
preservation

29. License
terms
preservation

30. Access
to
source code

31. Your
patents
are
affected

32. Copyleft

33. Release your
own modify
code…

34. …under the
same license

35. Distribution
=
Copyleft

36. Most
open source
caselaw…

37. …involves
distribution

38. Answer
Question 2

39. Does
distribution
matter
in open source?

40. YES!

41. Most restrictions
in OS licenses
Presupposed
Distribution

42. In particular,
Copyleft

43. Question 1:
What is
Distribution?

44. Answers in

45. Copyright law

46. Open Source
licenses

47. US
Copyright law

48. "distribute
copies...of
the
copyrighted
work
to
the
public
by
sale
or
other
transfer
of
ownership,
or
by
rental,
lease,
or
lending"
(7
USC
sec>on
106
(3))

49. Any transfer
of a copy

50. Nordic
Countries
(and the EU)

51. Any transfer
of a copy

52. Exception:
Private copies

53. Commercial and
non Commercial

54. The text of the
OS Licenses

55. US-centric by
tradition

56. GPL v2

57. 70%

58. “distribute”
“redistribute”

59. “physical
act
of
transferring
a
copy”
(sec
1,
3rd
paragraph)

60. BSD
license
“RedistribuAon”

61. MIT
License
“Publish,
distribute”

62. Apache
License,
Version
2.0
“reproduce
and
distribute
copies”
(sec
4)

63. Eclipse
Public
License
-­‐
v
1.0
“publicly
display,
publicly
perform,
distribute”
(Sec
2,
litra
a)

64. Answer
Question 1

65. What is
distribution?

66. 3
rules of
thumb

67. #1
Physical
copy
must
be
transferred

68. #2
The
transferee
must
be
a
third
party

69. #3
No
disAncAon
between
commercial
or
non-­‐commercial

70. US vs. EU

71. All
“public”
transfers
are
distribuAon

72. Some
“private”
transfers
may
not
be
distribuAon

73. Grey areas

74. Employees

75. Never
distribution

76. Freelancers vs.
Contractors

77. A contractor is a
third party

78. A physical copy
of code is
transferred

79. Internal
servers

80. ”Public” vs.
”Private”?

81. Subsidiaries

82. Third party

83. Joint ventures
=
Distribution

84. 100% owned
subsidiaries

85. US: ”Unity of
Ownership”
=
Maybe not
distribution

86. EU: ”Private”
transfer
=
Maybe not
distribution

87. Outsourcing

88. Third party

89. A physical copy
of the code is
transferred

90. US:
DistribuAon

91. EU:
Probably
a
“private”
transfer

92. M&A

93. Only
assets,
not
share,
sale

94. The
acquiror
is
a
third
party

95. A
physical
copy
is
transferred

96. US:
DistribuAon

97. EU:
DistribuAon

98. Copyleft is
triggered

99. Problem?

100. No!

101. GPL is a
hereditary
License!

102. Google?

103. Heavy user of
Open source
software

104. Lots of
modifications!

105. No access
to
source code 

106. ASP loophole

107. GPLv3:
Network
exception

108. Functionalities
via
Network

109. Browser
Internet

110. A
physical
copy
of
the
code
is
not
transferred

111. CopyleY
is
not
triggered

112. Controversy!

113. Answer
Question 3

114. Business?

115. Lawyers get
paid to explain!

116. Dual licensing

117. The licensor’s
free choice of
licenses

118. Choice #1
GPL

119. Copyleft

120. Hardware
company uses
GPL’ed software

121. Makes
modifications
into hardware

122. Wants to
distribute
modifications

123. … but does not
want to release
source code!

124. Trade secrets

125. Choice #2

126. License with
copyleft
exemption

127. …and with a
license fee!

128. MySQL AB

129. Database
software
under
GPL v2

130. ”Commercial”
license with no
copyleft

131. …and with
warranties and
support

132. Sold to SUN in
2008

133. More than
1.000.000.000
USD!

134. All software
open sourced!

135. Open source
means
business!

136. Slides at
www.slideshare.com/
vonhaller

137. Thank you!