This is my presentation for the Innovative Technology Trends panel of the ITECHLAW Asia 5th annual conference 19-20 February 2009 in New Delhi

1. Using the Copyleft
Model in a Commercial
Business Set-up
Advokat Martin von Haller Groenbaek
Partner, Bender von Haller Dragsted
ITECHLAW-ASIA, New Delhi, 19-20 February 2009
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2. Personalia
IT-Lawyer, partner at Bender von Haller Dragsted
Co-founder of Danish eBusiness Association (FDIH),
Danish Open Source Vendors Association (OSL),
Danish Chapter of Internet Society (ISOC DK), DK-
Hostsmaster A/S and the like
Board member of several Scandinavian SME IT
companies
Legal counsel to OSS developers and public
institutions (even works with Microsoft)
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3. Great times for open source law
From fringe to almost
mainstream
Tell us why we shouldn’t be
afraid
Now, show us the money
Licensing becomes fun!
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4. Agenda
Copyleft INTRO
CASE: MySQL (Software
company)
CASE: LEGO (The private
business)
CASE: Danish NITA (eGovernment)
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5. All OS licenses
The licensee has the right to run,
access, modify and distribute the code
The licensor gives no guarantees and
waives all liability
The licensor - the copyright holder -
can release code under several
licenses
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6. Need to know about
Copyleft
OS licenses gives you the right to modify the
code
You have copyright with respect to your
modifications
Permissive licenses gives you the right to
choose your own license terms
Copyleft forces you to license modification
under the original OS license, if you
distribute your modifications
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7. Key copyleft issues not
dealt with here
What is a modification?
What constitutes
distribution?
“Weak” or “Strong” copyleft
GPL v.2 vs. GPL v.3
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8. CASE: MySQL
Dual-licensing
The software company perspective
The same code is licensed under two
different licences:
MySQL Community Server: GPL v.2
with FOSS exception
MySQL Enterprise: Commercial license
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9. Copyright and control
MySQL has exclusive copyright to
the code
MySQL controls and certifies the
code
The GPL does not give any rights
to use MySQLs trademarks
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10. Why pay?
Certification of the code
Warranties
Maintenance and support
Copyleft exemption
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11. Still not convinced?
MySQL AB was in 2008
bought by Sun Microsystem,
Inc. for approximately USD
$1 billion in total
consideration
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12. The Mindstorm story
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13. LEGO goes open source
1 May 2006. LEGO press release
Hackers, Get Ready! LEGO Group Announces
Open Source Firmware, Developer Kits for
LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT
Consu mer - directe d robotics experience
creation to enter “NXT” phase with open
firmware, Software, Hardware and Bluetooth
Developer Kits to launch in August
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14. Background
Mindstorms robots launched in 1998
●
The best-selling LEGO product ever
●
Huge Mindstorm community
●
LEGO was and is not a software
●
company
Only minor upgrades to the
●
firmware
Several parallel Mindstorms OS’s
●
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15. Challenges
LEGO was not comfortable with
●
“openess”
LEGO has been and is extremely reliant
●
on strong IPRs
”You don't give away IPRs for free”
●
Turbulent period for LEGO in general
●
Third party software included
●
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16. Solution
Embrace User driven innovation
●
Open source as the enabler
●
Third party permission for redistribution
●
under an OS license
Choice of license
●
− ”Genuine” open source licence
− Permissive (Academic) or Copyleft
(reciprocal license)
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17. The OS license choice
Mozilla Public license v. 1.1
●
Weak copyleft
●
Modification is limited altering the
●
files
“I did not understand GPL v.2”
●
LEGO was only concerned with
●
modifications of the actual files
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18. The “beauty” of the
solution!
Huge press coverage and goodwill
Large number of downloads of code
Much more “intelligence” in the bricks
Convincing strategy towards competitors
Option to “close” the code again
Many more bricks sold!
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19. CASE: NITA
Danish National IT and Telecom Agency
eFaktura (eInvoice)
Electronic invoices to, from and between
public agencies
Core service: UDDI registry for webservice
to identify senders and receivers
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20. Challenges
Two applications provided by NITA to user
(e.g. ERP vendors)
API between users’ ERPs and UDDI WS
Reference implementation integrating API
with ERP
NITA wanted to release the application
under an OS license
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21. Goals
Satisfying the politicians
Wide adoption of UDDI
Community based improvement of the
API
Many vendors should integrate API into
their ERP
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22. Solutions
API
Copyleft
Mozilla public license v. 1.1 (maybe EUPL
v. 1.1)
Reference implementation
Permissive licence
FreeBSD license
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23. Thanks for the
attention!
mhg@bvhd.dk
martin@groenbaek.net
http://www.bvhd.dk
http://suse.groenbaek.net/openlife
Slides available at
http://www.slideshare.net/vonhaller
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