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Open-Source Compliance

Issue 185

From Issue #185
September 2009

Sep 01, 2009  By Ibrahim Haddad
 in
A discussion of open-source compliance, the challenges faced when establishing a compliance program, an overview of best practices and recommendations on how to deal with compliance inquiries.

Traditionally, platforms and software stacks were built using proprietary software and consisted of various software building blocks that came from different companies with negotiated licensing terms. The business environment was predictable, and potential risks were mitigated through license and contract negotiations with the software vendors. In time, companies started to incorporate open-source software in their platforms for the different advantages it offers (technical merit, time to market, access to source code, customization and so on). With the introduction of open-source software to what once were purely proprietary software stacks, the business environment diverged from familiar territory and corporate comfort zones (Figure 1). Open-source software licenses are not negotiated agreements. No contracts are signed with software providers (that is, open-source developers). Companies now must deal with dozens of different licenses and hundreds or even thousands of licensors and contributors. As a result, the risks that used to be managed through license negotiations now must be managed through compliance and engineering practices.

Figure 1. A new computing environment necessitates open-source compliance due diligence.

Enter Open-Source Compliance

Open-source software initiatives provide companies with a vehicle to accelerate innovation through collaboration with a global community of open-source developers. However, accompanying the benefits of teaming with the Open Source community are very important responsibilities. Companies must ensure compliance with applicable open-source license obligations. Open-source compliance means that open-source software users must observe all copyright notices and satisfy all license obligations for the open-source software they use. In addition, companies using open-source software in commercial products, while complying with the terms of open-source licenses, want to protect their intellectual property and that of third-party suppliers from unintended disclosure.

Open-source compliance involves establishing a clean baseline for the software stack or platform code and then maintaining that clean baseline as features and functionalities are added.

Failure to comply with open-source license obligations can result in the following:

  • Companies paying possibly large sums of money for breach of open-source licenses.

  • Companies being forced by third parties to block product shipment and do product recalls.

  • Companies being mandated by courts to establish a more rigorous open-source compliance program and appoint an “Open-Source Compliance Officer” to monitor and ensure compliance with open-source licenses.

  • Companies losing their product differentiation and intellectual property rights protection when required to release source code (and perceived trade secrets) to the Open Source community and effectively license it to competitors royalty-free.

  • Companies suffering negative press and unwanted public scrutiny as well as damaged relationships with customers, suppliers and the Open Source community.

FSF Compliance Lab

The Compliance Lab at the Free Software Foundation (FSF) helps enforce the license for all free software. Information about the life cycle of compliance cases handled by the FSF is available at www.fsf.org/licensing/compliance.

Lessons Learned

There are three main lessons to learn from the open-source compliance infringement cases that have been made public to date:

  1. Ensure that your company has an open-source management infrastructure in place. Open-source compliance is not just a legal exercise or merely checking a box. All facets of a company typically are involved in ensuring proper compliance and contributing to the end-to-end management of open-source software.

  2. Make open-source compliance a priority before a product ships. Companies must establish and maintain consistent open-source compliance policies and procedures and ensure that open-source license(s) and proprietary license(s) amicably coexist well before shipment.

  3. Create and maintain a good relationship with the Open Source community. The community provides source code, technical support, testing, documentation and so on. Respecting the licenses of the open-source components you use is the minimum you can do in return.

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Comments

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i think more people should

508 compliance's picture
Submitted by 508 compliance (not verified) on Wed, 07/07/2010 - 23:39.

i think more people should read this article so that even they can be aware of all these techniques and tricks.

more article on compliance

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 16:23.

very good article. open source compliance should be part of the development process and it is often neglected until incidents happen. More articles on this topic would be appreciated.