How to select software license for software program code * What type of Software Program are you Creating
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The document discusses various types of software licenses and considerations for selecting a license for new or modified code. It covers open source licenses like GNU GPL, LGPL, and AGPL; differences between contributor license agreements and copyright assignment; and basics of copyright law. The key aspects are determining whether the code is new or modified, the license of original code if modified, getting permission for changes, and selecting an appropriate open source or proprietary license.
How to select software license for software program code * What type of Software Program are you Creating
- 1. How to Select Software License for Program Code By Prity Khastgir ( Partner at Tech Corp Legal LLP) www.techcorplegal.com
- 2. What type of Software Program are you Creating - New & Original Software Code written from Scratch - Modifying Existing Software Code
- 3. What is the license for Modified Existing Software Code ? The modified software code should be released under the same license mentioned in the agreement /contract of the original software code.
- 4. Step to undertake while selecting different license for a Modified Software Code Permission from original licensee to use the modified software code under the software license selected by you.
- 5. What is the Best Licensing Strategy for Free Software? Copyleft is the term used to provide every user of the software program permission to run the program, copy the program, modify the program, and distribute modified versions.
- 6. Copyleft under Open Source Software Modified versions of the software code should be free for every user. Generally, GNU software is the GNU General Public License, which is commonly called GNU GPL.
- 7. GNU stands for “GNU's Not Unix!” Free software license to use, modify and redistribute under this license.
- 8. What Type of License is Applicable for Network Server Software? GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works, specifically designed to ensure cooperation with the community in the case of network server software
- 9. Protection for Software Developer under OSS Software Developers who use General Public Licenses protect their rights in following ways: - Copyright ownership on the software, and - Provides legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.
- 10. GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) Modified versions of the software used to implement services on server are available to the public as source code
- 11. GNU Free Documentation License (FDL) Free Documentation License (FDL) is a form of copyleft intended for use on manual, textbook or other documents to provide everyone freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifications, either commercially or non-commercially.
- 12. GNU Lesser GPL (LGPL) GNU Lesser GPL provide use of the library in proprietary software programs.
- 13. Types of Contributor's Agreements - Contributor License Agreement (CLA) - Copyright Assignment Agreement (CAA)
- 14. Types of Contributor’s Agreements Contributor License Agreement (CLA) Original contributor retains copyright ownership of their contributions, but grants the software work product a broad set of rights such that the project can incorporate and distribute the contributions as it needs to.
- 15. Types of Contributor’s Agreements Copyright Assignment Agreement (CAA) Contributor actually transfers copyright ownership rights of the contributions to the project, who can then license it however they want since they own it.
- 16. Types of Contributor’s Agreements Copyright Assignment Agreement (CAA) However, CAA typically grants very broad non-exclusive rights back to the contributor so that they too can use, distribute, sublicense etc their contribution freely.
- 17. Copyright Law Copyright law does not protect any particular idea. Rather, copyright protects only the expression of that idea
- 18. Copyright Law A copyright does not need to be registered to be legally effective. A copyright comes into force when the protected work is created by the author.
- 19. Why Copyright Certificate Important ? Copyright certificate acts as an evidence in court in case of any infringement of copyright work.
- 20. Any Questions Read your contract agreement and analyse the type of license rights for software codes. For more questions: info@techcorplegal (dot)com www.techcorplegal.com