Managing copyright and legal issues within open source software (FOSS) projects

Are you one of the many developers that produce code which can be freely downloaded and shared by the public? If you’re one of the many generous and smart programmers who wouldn’t mind sharing your work with others, the open source community would like to encourage you to continue on with your magnificent effort. Let us all keep open source alive for our next generation to continue utilizing.

An important aspect of releasing free software to the public is the copyright. If you’re trying to release your hard worked software to the public with the GNU General Public License, do you really understand the different types of FOSS license which you can apply to fully protect your codes, effort and idea?

The Software Freedom Law Center has recently release a legal guide entitled A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects.

On this comprehensive article, you will find out more about:

• Common Copyright Questions
• Common Organizational Issues
• Patent Defenses for FOSS Developers
• Common Trademark Issues

I would strongly recommend anyone out there who’s actively involved in Open Source Software to read and attempt to understand this legal guide. For the developers, you can understand the rights you hold for releasing software. For those who use Open Source Software, it’s good to understand the sort of license the software holds so that one does not violate any rules when utilizing the software. If someone thinks that he/she can easily add customization and resell an open source software, it’s good to think twice.

The Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects is available in HTML, PDF and Postscript versions.

It’s copyright statement declares that it is copyrighted by the SFLC but that, “Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire document is permitted in any medium; however, this notice must be preserved on all copies.”