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Licensed & Open: Using Law with Attitude

Professor Ian Walden & Amanda Brock

Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Who are we?


Professor Ian Walden
Institute of Computer & Communications Law, at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London; solicitor at Baker & McKenzie

Amanda Brock
Director & Solicitor at Origin; Visiting Fellow at CCLS

What is qLegal?
qLegal provides free legal advice, workshops and resources to tech start-up companies and entrepreneurs
Established September 2013
Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Session scope
Understanding open
open source, free software, public domain, creative commons

The role of public & private law


Intellectual property regimes Licences & contracts: Using law with attitude

Applicability
From open software to.medicines

Commercialising open
Making money..
Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Open as philosophy
Freedom of expression
GNU: free as in free speech, not as in free beer Copyleft or the engine of free expression

Moral rights
Rights to control the integrity and paternity of creations
Civil v common law jurisdictions

Public domain
Expiration & unprotectable subject matter Exceptions, e.g. fair use Abandonment? Retaining control
Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Open as public policy


R&D-related initiatives
e.g. encouraging the formation of FOSS communities

Awareness and advisory initiatives


e.g. Commissions Join-up initiative

Granting preferential treatment for use of FOSS


e.g. public procurement procedures & Open standards policies To mandate?

Outbound preference
e.g. European Union Public Licence
Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Open as private law


Characterisation: Licences & contracts
Impacts on liability, enforceability, remedies, governing law

Developers, distributors & end-users


Over 80 variants (But GPLv2 in 45% of OS projects) Compatibility issues

Modifications & distribution


Copyleft, reciprocal or viral licences
As to original material & as to additional material

Non-reciprocal, unrestricted licences


e.g. BSD licence
Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Open as development methodology


We dont use FOSS!: Comingled code
Maintainers and community of developers Outward/Inbound (Contributor agreements)
Joint authorship Identifying contributions Employment status & company policy

OSS code as a development tool v incorporation


From compilers to modules and utilities
Static & dynamic linking to libraries

Core or ancillary
APIs & shims

Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Commercialising Open
Do you want to make money from Open? Can you make money from Open?

Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Commercialising Open
Different Kinds of open have different licensing practices: - Open source
- FSF or OSI approved licences

- Open data
- Creative commons, Open govt licence

- Open hardware
- TAPR or CERN licences

- Open databases
- ODbL, Open knowledge Foundation

- Open medicine
- New
Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Commercialising Open
What open means may vary so may be best to use licence tailored to what is being opened What do the licences grant?
Right to use what is someone elses Right to create derivatives May be at no cost May still be attribution type requirements May be cascade effect of licences, ie viral

Only use within the licence terms, not giving away all rights
Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Commercialising Open
Business Models
Add on support services Subscriptions Engineering and expertise Consultancy : Know how and knowledge Freemium, free to premium

Understand what model is early on as impacts all commercial and contract decisions
Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Commercialising Open
IP ownership and licensing
Licence does not give away all rights Commercial contracts must work with the licence May still hold IP rights, but licences may impact
e.g. Trade Marks

Commercial Contracts
What is being delivered and licence terms? What risk is there and who should take the risk? What liability is covered, warranties, indemnities, caps
Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Commercialising Open
Structures- open and corporate?
With openness may come an intention for the greater good

Projects and need for an entity Charities, Foundations and NFP CIC UK company with an approved community interest Companies and Corporates Use of two entities
Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Commercialising Open
Big picture May need to build infrastructure to work with communities and commercial entities Consider how receive contributions and rights Need for consents around personal data etc.

Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

Questions? (and blatant advertising!)

Open Data Institute, 17 January 2014

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