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. 20/80

4. 3 questions in 20 minutes

5. Goal

6. F.U.D

7. FEAR

8. UNCERTAINTY

9. DOUBT

10. Open Source means Business

11. model

12. 3 questions in 20 minutes

13. #1 What is distribution?

14. #2 Why does it matter?

15. #3 Show me the money!

16. Open source intro

17. All about licenses

18. Not contracts

19. Comply or don’t use

20. 4 freedoms (or license rights)

21. #1 Run the object code

22. #2 Access source code

23. #3 Modify the source code

24. #4 Make and transfer copies

25. Also user restrictions!

26. These rights are yours…

27. …regardless of distribution

28. No distribution = (almost) No restrictions

29. Distribution = Restrictions

30. Copyright notice preservation

31. License terms preservation

32. Access to source code

33. Your patents are affected

34. Copyleft

35. Release your own modify code…

36. …under the same license

37. Distribution = Copyleft

38. Most open source caselaw…

39. …involves distribution

40. Answer Question 2

41. Does distribution matter in open source?

42. YES!

43. Most restrictions in OS licenses Presupposed Distribution

44. In particular, Copyleft

45. Question 1: What is Distribution?

46. Answers in

47. Copyright law

48. Open Source licenses

49. US Copyright law

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

51. Any transfer of a copy

52. Nordic Countries (and the EU)

53. Any transfer of a copy

54. Exception: Private copies

55. Commercial and non Commercial

56. The text of the OS Licenses

57. US-centric by tradition

58. GPL v2

59. 70%

60. “distribute” “redistribute”

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

62. BSD license “Redistribution”

63. MIT License “Publish, distribute”

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

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

66. Answer Question 1

67. What is distribution?

68. 3 rules of thumb

69. #1 Physical copy must be transferred

70. #2 The transferee must be a third party

71. #3 No distinction between commercial or non-commercial

72. US vs. EU

73. All “public” transfers are distribution

74. Some “private” transfers may not be distribution

75. Grey areas

76. Employees

77. Never distribution

78. Freelancers vs. Contractors

79. A contractor is a third party

80. A physical copy of code is transferred

81. Internal servers

82. ”Public” vs. ”Private”?

83. Subsidiaries

84. Third party

85. Joint ventures = Distribution

86. 100% owned subsidiaries

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

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

89. Outsourcing

90. Third party

91. A physical copy of the code is transferred

92. US: Distribution

93. EU: Probably a “private” transfer

94. M&A

95. Only assets, not share, sale

96. The acquiror is a third party

97. A physical copy is transferred

98. US: Distribution

99. EU: Distribution

100. Copyleft is triggered

101. Problem?

102. No!

103. GPL is a hereditary License!

104. Google?

105. Heavy user of Open source software

106. Lots of modifications!

107. No access to source code 

108. ASP loophole

109. GPLv3: Network exception

110. Functionalities via Network

111. Browser Internet

112. A physical copy of the code is not transferred

113. Copyleft is not triggered

114. Controversy!

115. Answer Question 3

116. Business?

117. Lawyers get paid to explain!

118. Dual licensing

119. The licensor’s free choice of licenses

120. Choice #1 GPL

121. Copyleft

122. Company uses GPL’ed software

123. Makes modifications

124. Wants to distribute modifications

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

126. Trade secrets

127. Choice #2

128. License with copyleft exemption

129. …and with a license fee!

130. MySQL AB

131. Database software under GPL v2

132. ”Commercial” license with no copyleft

133. …and with warranties and support

134. Sold to SUN in 2008

135. More than 1.000.000.000 USD!

136. All software open sourced!

137. Open source means business!

138. Slides at www.slideshare.com/von haller

139. Thank you!