Open source for business : a practical guide to open source software licensing

Heather Meeker’s Open Source for Business is a practical, readable guide to help businesspeople, engineers, and lawyers understand open source software licensing. Based on the author’s twenty years as an attorney working at the crossroads of intellectual property and technology, this guide explains the legal and technical principles behind open source licensing so you can make the right decisions for your business. It offers tips on using open source, contributing to open source projects, and releasing your own open source software. You'll also get access to quick-reference tables on the major open source licenses, plus forms and checklists you can use to promote compliance. In this book, you will learn . . . • Why open source is not a “virus” • What the GPL is and how to handle it • When and how to conduct open source audits • What a user-friendly open source policy looks like • How to avoid and respond to open source enforcement claims • How to use open source to fight patent infringement claims • How to manage trademarks for open source products Preface Part I: Foundation 1. The Philosophy of Free and Open Source Software 2. A Tutorial on Computer Software Part II: Basic Open Source Theory and Compliance 2. Common Open Source Licenses 4. License Compatibility 5. Conditional Licensing 6. What Is Distribution? 7. Notice Requirements Part III: Advanced Compliance 8. The GPL 2 Border Dispute 9. LGPL 2.1 Compliance 10. GPL 3 and Affero GPL 3 11. Open Source Policies 12. Audits and Due Diligence Part IV: Intersection with Patents and Trademarks 13. Open Source and Patents (Grants, Defensive Termination) 14. Open Source and Patent Litigation Strategy 15. Trademarks Part V: Contributions and Code Releases 16. Open Source Releases Part VI: Additional Topics 17. Mergers & Acquisitions and Other Transactions 18. Government Regulation 19. Enforcement and Obstacles to Enforcement 20. Open Standards and Open Source 21. Open Hardware and Data 22. Recent Developments: Commercial Open Source, Source Available Licensing, and Ethos Licensing E-Book, Forms, and Checklists Glossary and Index Case Index About the Author