Open Source Law

The US Legal System

• Criminal vs. Civil law

• Trials and settlements

• The appeals process

IP: A collection of bits

• Copyright
• Patent
• Trademark
• Trade Secret

Copyright

• Covers an expression of a creative work

• Everything since about 1930

• Currently obtained by...creating

• Gives right to

  • Reproduce
  • Prepare derivative works
  • Distribute copies
  • Perform, Display

Enforced by civil suit (mostly)

(Utility) Patents

• Covers a novel, useful idea

• Last 20 years

• Application process through USPTO

• Right to “practice” idea

• Enforced by civil suit

Trademarks

• Covers a distinguishing mark

• Last as long as in trade use

• Application through USPTO

• Right to use mark (c.f. Lanham Act)

• Enforced by civil suit

Trade Secrets

• Covers a “secret" (probably even if otherwise not protectable)

• Created by not disclosing

• Last as long as the secret stays secret

• Right to prevent employees etc from disclosing the secret

• Enforced by civil suit (mostly)

Protecting your IP

• Send "cease and desist" (C&D) letter
• Sue! But then you lose

"Open" IP

• Movement for collective creation

• Typically focused around copyright, source code

• Idea: License away individual rights

• Two flavors:

  • Vanilla ala Creative Commons, Open Source
  • "Viral" ala GPL

• Licenses at http://opensource.org

Adding Your Marks

• My README.md:

  ## License
  
  This program is released under the "random license".
  Please see the file `LICENSE` in this distribution for
  license terms.
  

• Every file in my program:

  /* This program is released under the "random license".
     Please see the file LICENSE in this distribution for
     license terms. */
  

• My LICENSE file

  Copyright © 2013 Bart Massey
  
  This program is released under the "random license".
  
  Random License text yadda yadda