Topic 16

Law, Economy, Politic and libre software

Keywords

• Copyright
• Patent
• Trademark
• Innovation
• Litigation
• economy
• politic
• Intellectual property infringement

Motivations

Computer software creations are legally considered as intellectual property. Free or open-source software is no exception. Their actual protection by copyright allows for a wide variety of applicable licenses, even within the relatively permissive framework of the "open source" charter. The choice of license depends on the control or advantage the author wishes to retain over his work, and the constraints (for freedom) he wishes to impose on derived works, depending on the mode of derivation. The choice of a license has an impact on the work's acceptance by the business world as well as on the development of contributors communities.

The current trend towards extending the scope of intellectual property raises the problem of the increasing patentability of software techniques. This trend jeopardizes innovation, and more specifically the development of free software, since the free software community (like SME's) is ill-equipped to defend itself in a world where considerable financial resources are required for patent portfolios or infringement litigation. Furthermore, as a consequence of the openness of its source code, free software is particularly vulnerable to infringement suits.

Essentially, patents on protocols and communication formats stifle competition and hinder the development of free software. In this respect, the legislation proposed by Le Déaut, Paul and Cohen supports a competitive free market economy. This encourages the development of free software by supporting open competition and interoperability over the right to private intellectual property, thereby maintaining the historical balance between public and private interests.

Given the wide variety of computers uses today, the development and adoption of free software applications is also dependent on their acceptance in commercial activities, notably through distribution networks, training programs or software modification/customizing services. In this context, the reputation of a company, as embodied through its ownership of trademarks, plays an essential role. Trademarks are also important when an author wishes to retain a measure of control, at least psychologically, over the "official" version of an application distributed as free software.

Subtopics

• Free software and copyright
• Licenses
• Software patentability, evolution and impact
• Intellectual property and interoperability - standards and competition
• Libre software, economy and business
• Libre software and politic
• Workshop : adaptation/translation in french of the GNU GPL

The GNU General Public License is very much the backbone of Free Software. The GPL and LGPL are the predominant licenses used for Free Software; and not just inside the GNU-Project.

A major reason for this is their carefully crafted balance between the freedoms of the individual and the interests of the public. Not only do they grant the four fundamental freedoms, they also protect them.

Originating in the U.S., they have been written to do this job best according to Berne convention and the U.S. law. As the legal systems are in some significantly different in some countries, this left gaps and insecurities that leave Free Software weaker than it could be.

Especially in countries with strong Free Software activities, the (L)GPL should be made as secure as possible. Doing this in Europe is a task the Free Software Foundation Europe will be dedicated to. Since most European signed the Berne convention we are in a favorable situation. Securing the (L)GPL licenses is only a matter of using the proper language and legal form, there is no need to revise or modify the concepts and basis of the licenses.

The official translation is already been worked on in France. The goal of this workshop is to let all the involved people to meet them and discuss about it.

Links

Program

jueves 05 julio

viernes 06 julio