1. Intellectual Property “Open Source”
Software Movement
By Ali Raza
CPSC 548
Dr. Jo

2. Overview
 Introduction
 History of Open Source Software
 Open Source in Today’s World
 Benefits of open Source
 Examples of open-source software
 The GNU Project and Linux
 Influence of Open-Source Software
 Legal & Other Risk Associated
 Critique of the Open-Source Movement

3. Introduction
 Internet Growth during the past few years has been
profoundly affected the way software is licensed and
distributed. One of the most important changes that has
occurred during this period is emergence of so-called
open source licensing.
 Open Source refers to a software program or set of
software technologies which are widely available by an
individual or group in form of
 Code form for use
 Modification
 Redistribution
Under a license agreement having few restrictions

4. History
 Formation of the Software Foundation (FSF) in 1983
 FSF released a series of programs in source code from
under “GNU”
 GNU also set stage for even more free software
development projects in 1990s
 The license agreement that accompanied the GNU
software – known as the General Public License (“GPL)
of “copyleft” license
 In 1998, a group associated with free software
introduced the term “open source”

5. Open Source Software in Today’s World
 No restrictions preventing others from selling and giving
away the software
 Source code must included in the distribution
 No restriction preventing people from modifying the
source code
 No Restriction regarding how people can use the
software
 Same rights apply to everyone receiving redistributions
of the software (copyleft)

6. Benefits of Open-Source Software
 Gives opportunity to improve
 Rapid evolution of open-source software as a
result new versions of programs appears more
frequently
 Eliminates tension between obeying copyright
law and helping others
 Open-Source programs are property of the
entire user community.

7. Continue….
 Shifts focus from manufacturing to service which
can result customers getting better support for
their software.
 Access to Source Code
 Cost

8. Example of Open-Source Software
 Apache
 BIND
 PERL, Python, Ruby
 FireFox
 GNU compilers from C, C++, Object-C, Fortran,
Java, Ada
 Open Source Frameworks Sturts, Spring,
Hibernate, Apache POI, FOP, iText

9. Success Story: GNU Project and Linux
 GNU and Linux are important success stories
 Richard Stallman begun the GNU Project in 1984
 Goal: To Develop a complete Unix-like operating
system consisting entirely of open-source software.
 Most components developed in late 1980s
 Linux
 In 1991 Linus Torvalds wrote Unix-like kernel
 Torvalds combined kernel with GNU components to
make an operating system called linux

10. Influence of Open-Source Software
 As a reliable open-source alternative to Unix,
Linux is putting pressure on companies selling
proprietary versions of Unix.
 Linux is also putting pressure on Microsoft and
Apple, which sell proprietary operating systems
for desktop systems.

11. Legal & Other Risk Associated
 Potential liability for intellectual property
infringement.
 Open Source create opportunities for
contributors therefore, it introduce infringing
code and makes it almost impossible to audit the
entire code base
 Typical license form doesn’t include any
intellectual property representation, warranties
or indemnities in favor of the licensee.

12. Continue….
 Open source licenses also do not contain the
kind of representations and warranties of quality
or fitness for a particular purpose
 Some open source requires licensees to provide
free copies of their derivative works in source
code form for other to use, modify and
redistribute.

13. Critique of the Open-Source Movement
 Open-source project doesn’t attract a critical
mass of developers, as a result quality can be
poor
 Without an ownership, incompatible version may
arise
 Open-source software as a whole trends to have
a relatively weak graphical user interface
 Poor mechanism for stimulating innovation.

14. Conclusion
 Open-Source offers opportunities and
disadvantages
 Opportunities
 Vast pool of software talent with access to
 The ability to improve upon
 Open Source Software
 The ability to access and utilize software
 Disadvantages
 Risk of Utilizing software
 No warranties
 Quality may not be up to the mark

15. Reference
 Ethics for the information age 3rd Edition by
Michael J Quinn
 http://www.abanet.org/intelprop/opensource.html
 http://www.fee.org/PUBLICATIONS/THE-FREEMAN/
 http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/vaden.pdf
 http://www.opensource.org/