Presented by Brooks Kushman and Rogue Wave Software at the Embedded Systems Conference. It provides both legal and practical considerations in developing embedded systems using open source software (OSS). It discusses open source development tools, how to integrate OSS into embedded systems and different OSS licenses, and provide a road map to compliance.
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Agenda
• OSS: Why should I care?
• Copyright Law overview
• Copyleft Introduction
• OSS Licenses and terms
• Avoiding Liability
• OSS Strategy – Where to start
• Case Law
– Jacobsen v. Katzer
– Oracle v. Google
– XimpleWare v. Versata et al
– Welte v. Fantec GmbH (6/14/13
– Germany)
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OSS Compliance: Should I care?
• Diversion of Time,
Talent, Resources
• Impact to Customers &
Reputation
• Potential waiver of IP
rights
• Potential Damages
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Copyright: What is it?
• Protection of Artistic Expressions, not
ideas or functionality
• Music
• Movies
• Artwork
• Literature
• Software
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Rights of a Copyright Owner
• Exclusive rights
• Distribute – Sell
• Reproduce – Copy
• Adapt – Create derivative work
• Perform
• Display
• Transmit
• Neither Registration nor notice required to create protection
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Copyright Introduction
License
$$$
Copyright
Owner User
• Owner chooses to enter into a contract with User
• Owner grants rights to Sell, Copy, Adapt, . . .
• User provides some consideration ($$$)
• User agrees to abide by the license terms
• Other people not allowed to Sell, Copy, Adapt, . . .
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Concept of Copyleft
• “To understand the concept, you should think of ‘free’ as in
‘free speech,’ not as in ‘free beer’.” – RMS (Author of GPL)
• To keep open source software “free,” terms and conditions
apply requiring licensed users to preserve that “freedom” for
downstream users.
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Copyleft – The Cost of Freedom
• Copyleft: a copyright licensing scheme for making a program (or
other work) free, and requiring all modified and extended
versions of the program to be free as well
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.en.html
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Common Open Source Licenses
https://www.blackducksoftware.com/resources/data/top-20-open-source-licenses
What’s the
difference?
> 75% of software uses 5
Licenses
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MIT License
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) [year] [fullname]
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files
(the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do
so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF
CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
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GPLv3 License select sections
1. "The ‘Corresponding Source’ for a work in object code form means all the source code
needed to generate, install, and (for an executable work) run the object code and to modify the work, including scripts to
control those activities. . . . ”
6. Conveying Non-Source Forms: You may convey a covered work in object code form under the terms of sections 4 and 5,
provided that you also convey the machine-readable Corresponding Source
under the terms of this License
10. Automatic Licensing of Downstream Recipients: "...and you may not initiate litigation (including a cross-
claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that any patent claim is infringedby making, using,
selling, offering for sale, or importing the Program or any portion of it."
11. Patents: . . . Each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-
free patent license. . .
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt
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Thoughts on Derivative Works?
Proprietary
Software
MIT
License
Static OR Dynamic Linking
• Provide Copyright Notice
• Provide License
Proprietary
Software
LGPL
v2.1
Dynamic Linking
LibraryExecutable
Proprietary
Software
LGPL
v2.1
Static Linking
Executable
Proprietary
Software
GPL v3
Static OR Dynamic Linking
• Provide Copyright Notice
• Provide License
• Provide Open Source code
• Provide modifications &
change log
• Provide Disclaimer of
warranty in the OSS
• Provide Library Source
Code
• Provide Copyright Notice
• Provide License
• Provide Open Source code
• Provide modifications &
change log
• Provide Disclaimer of
warranty in the OSS
• Provide proprietary Object
Code and/or Source Code
so that a modified Library
can generate an executable
• Provide Copyright Notice
• Provide License
• Provide Open Source code
• Provide modifications &
change log
• Provide Disclaimer of
warranty for all GPL code
• Provide proprietary Object
Code and/or Source Code
• Provide License to all IP in
the proprietary code that
uses or is linked to GPL
Related to
linking or
something
else?
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Infringement – Consequences
• § 504 – Damages (Actual or Statutory)
• Actual damages to Owner and profits of the Infringer
• Statutory (Timely Registration required) $750 - $30,000 per
infringement, If willful up to $150,000!
• § 505 – Costs and Attorney Fees
• Usually linked with Willfullness (Pre-Registration required)
• § 502 – Injunction, § 503 – Impounding, and § 506 – Criminal
Prosecution
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Step 1: Have a license policy
• You must decide which licenses are acceptable for your
company (and potentially your customers).
• The policy depends on how you plan to use the software.
• GENIVI has the following policy
• Red – GPLv3; LGPLv2/3; BSD 4; MPL1.1; Flora
• Yellow – GPLv2; LGPL2.1; AFL 3; OSL 3; OpenSSL; Public domain
• Green – MPL 2.0; BSD 2/3; MIT/X11; Apache 1.1/2; Artistic 2/1
http://docs.projects.genivi.org/License/Public_Policy_for_GENIVI_Licensing_and_Copyright_v_1.0.pdf
NO
OK
???
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Step 2: Educate your Developers
• Which software/licenses are acceptable and not
• Which software licenses need to be discussed
• How and who to contact with questions – Point Person
• Disclosure of software use to Point Person
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Dependency Issues Impact Licensing
•OSS often depends on or bundles other OSS
•Need to look at all the dependencies and bundled
projects and their licenses
• Important: The licenses may not be the same!
•Example:
• Geronimo (Apache license) uses MySQL (GPL) through the
MySQL driver (formerly LGPL but now GPL)
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Bundling OSS into other code
Project Foo:
GPL v2
Project Time:
BSD
Project Commercial:
Restrictive EULA
Project Foo:
GPL v2
Project
Time:
BSD
What if I take a file that is under one license and I distribute it under a different
license–do I have to comply with the original license?
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Use of
OSS under GPL
Revisions made to FOSS
Linked to or bundled with
proprietary code Use by wholly
owned sub
Sub is sold to a
3rd party
Internal Use
Use by an
outsourcer or
contractor
Software shared
with “partner”
during further
development
Software
distributed to
end users
Using OSS Distributing OSS
Changes in how FOSS is used can impact license compliance
Example: How OSS is used may change...
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Jacobsen v. Katzer: Opens the door
• Model train software under Artistic License
• Distribution without notice (non-compliance)
• Question: contract or copyright
• Contract – State Court and no consideration (OSS is free)
• Copyright – Federal Court,
• OSS license obligations are conditions precedent to the license.
• Failure to comply with obligations extinguishes license.
• Case settled.
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Google v. Oracle: 9 lines is enough
“the jury reasonably found
that Google’s copying of the
rangeCheck files was more
than de minimis;” - CAFC
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APIs/taxonomy are copyrightable
• “the declaring code and the structure,
sequence, and organization of the API
packages are entitled to copyright
protection” – CAFC (Google v. Oracle)
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Versata, Ameriprise, Ximpleware
• “the GPL is a ‘viral’ license in the sense the incorporation of a GPL-covered
software program into a new program ‘infects’ the new program and
requires it to become open source , too” – District Court W.D. Texas
• Take away: Compliance is important even for customers (Ameriprise)
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Welte v. Fantec – Germany
• GPLv2.0 software used in a media player
• Fantec : Fantec’s supplier assured them compliance with GPL terms.
• Result: Welte was awarded Attorney’s fees and damages.
• German Court stated:
• “Here, Defendant was not allowed to rely merely on its suppliers’ assurances that
the works supplied did not infringe any third-party rights.
• In any case, Defendant should have performed its own review of the software, or
have someone preform, by hiring knowledgable third parties, such a review of the software
offered and provided by Defendant – even if this would have resulted in additional costs.”
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Roadmap to Compliance
• 1st appreciate Open Source Software’s benefits
• 2nd develop an Open Source Software Strategy
• 3rd know your code: Education, Point Person
• 4th know the licenses associated with your code
• 5th comply or use different software
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Thank you
• Richard A. Leach –
Intellectual Property Counsel
Brooks Kushman, P.C.
• Rod Cope –
Chief Technology Officer
Rogue Wave Software, Inc.