Open Source Licensing Archives

OSS SERIES : A PRIMER ON OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

First Publication Date: 7th January 2008 The Copyright law protects ideas expressed on a tangible form. Ideas by themselves do not get any protection; only the expression of the idea is protected under the copyright law. To get protection an idea should be expressed as literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, cinematographic or photographic work or a sound recording. Such an expression should be on a tangible form such as a paper, canvas, tape and so on. Expression in an electronic form is…

October 14, 2018 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property, Open Source Licensing 0Comment 694Views 0Like

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The image depicts an enlarged image of a cassette tape with the words software patents as the post is about Testing Parameters for Software Patentability

Software Escrow, Licenses and Contracts

We are happy to bring to you a guest post on Software escrow and licenses written by Jorge Sagastume, Vice President, EscrowTech International, Inc. In early 2013 Paul Golland, CIO of north-easy Long borough of Waltham Forest faced a horrible crisis. He was told by their sole cloud provider that they were closing shop and he had 24 to 48 hours to get their business’ data systems working elsewhere. This type of disaster is not uncommon and it is a…

October 23, 2017 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Open Source Licensing 0Comment 820Views 0Like

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Google’s use of Java APIs in Android – fair use?

The District Court of the Northern District of California held last week that Google's use of 37 Java APIs of Oracle does not give rise to copyright infringement liability because it is fair use. On remand from the Federal Circuit, in a Jury trial, Google's use of Java APIs and around eleven thousand lines of code was held to be fair use as it is meant to promote inter-operability and compatibility between programs. You may read our earlier post for…

May 31, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property, Open Source Licensing 0Comment 630Views 0Like

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Is use of Java APIs by Google Fair Use?

In 2010, Oracle sued Google for copying 37 Java packages, 8 specialized Java security packages, and a routine called “rangeCheck" in its Android operating system. Oracle claimed in the suit that Google is liable for infringing two of its patents in the software and that Google is also liable for copyright infringement for literally copying the code. The suit was filed in a California District Court. Oracle claimed damages to the tune of nine billion dollars in the suit. …

May 25, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property, IP Commercialization/Licensing, Open Source Licensing 0Comment 637Views 0Like

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One IP issue out of OSS Community’s way – SCO Vs. IBM Litigation Ends

One of the first IP litigations to hit the open source community was the suit filed by SCO against IBM in 2003. In the suit, SCO alleged IBM of breach of contract, copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation, among others. It alleged that IBM's insertion of portions of UNIX, owned by SCO, into LINUX, amounts to liability on various counts including copyright infringement. SCO initially claimed damages to the tune of one billion dollars, which was later increased to three…

March 2, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Open Source Licensing 0Comment 780Views 0Like

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Featured Image is of the IIMB, as the post is about an NSRCEL organised panel discussion on intellectual property for start-ups in the IIMB auditorium on 5th September. To read the post click here.

IIMB’s Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Initiative: Bringing college to you!

Indian Institute of Management (IIMB) has become the first business school in India to offer Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) through their program called ‘IIMBx’. The program desires to provide quality education free of cost. The courses have been carefully designed to cater to a divergent group of learners, who can utilize these courses to hone their managerial skills. This is good news, considering the plight of students who face fierce competition every year trying to get a seat in…

July 1, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Open Source Licensing 0Comment 589Views 0Like

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Apple’s Swift will be Open Source

It has been reported that Apple's new programming language Swift, which is now in its second version will be made available as open source software (OS) under a permissive license. However, the specific license under which it will be made available as OS has not been specified. Some bloggers are of the opinion that it would most probably be available under Apache or another BSD style license. Over the last five years, flexible licenses have taken over the viral GPL…

June 15, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Open Source Licensing 0Comment 728Views 0Like

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This image depicts the Open Source trademark, which comprises of a green keyhole with the words Open Source. this post talks about interesting developments in Open source technology. Click on the image to read the full post.

Open Source Software & the Government of India

The Indian Government recently released its policy on adoption and use of Open Source Software (OSS) for government projects. The policy seeks to cut costs and improve flexibility by using, implementing and contributing to OSS development. The policy mandates that preference in government software projects must be given to OSS, and Closed Source Software (CSS) must only be an exception when OSS is not available. The Preamble of the policy reads as follows: "Government of India (GoI) is implementing the…

April 2, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Open Source Licensing 0Comment 1175Views 0Like

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This image depicts the title software/music licensing. This image is relevant because this post talks about a presentation on the said topic presented by Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala. Click on the image to view full post.

Presentation on Software and Music Licensing-By Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala

The presentation herein was given by Dr. Kalyan Kankanala. It deals with the different types of IP, assignment and licensing. Important clauses such as Recitals, Definitions, Grant, Royalties, Term & Termination are discussed. All of these are explained with the help of examples. Open Source licenses are talked about in detail. Licenses and their types with a special focus on music licensing brings about the close of the presentation.