Simon Phipps, President, Open Source Initiative Open source is not about free stuff. It's a way of granting permission in advance so that innovation can happen without obstruction and so loose-knit communities can collaborate freely. As such, it's more important than ever in an age of APIs, devices and distributed web infrastructure. This session will: Explain the dynamics of open source licensing Consider the relative merits of licensing "strengths" for IoT Discuss the challenges of software patents to APIs and open collaboration.

1. Open Source & IoT
In which we consider how open source
lubricates & enables IoT & the API economy
September 24, 2014 for APICon, London
Simon Phipps, simon@meshedinsights.com · http://meshedinsights.com

2. About Me
● Technical background: electronics, programming
● Worked for three computer giants (Unisys, IBM,
Sun)
● Watched & helped history unfold for PCs, the Web,
Java, XML, Open Source
● British, US-based for 15 years while living in
England
● Now a consultant and author at InfoWorld
● Boards: OSI (president), ORG, OSfA -- all pro bono
o @webmink in most places
o Nexus is http://webmink.com

3. Open Source Is
Everywhere

4. Origins

5. Use
Study
Improve
Share

6. In The Age Of Cloud
Computing, Does Anyone
Care?

7. Yes!
Without A Permissionless
Model Cloud Scaling Is Impossible!

8. Changing Meaning of Business
Direct Trading
Distribution & Control Points
Meshed Engagement

9. Fund
Create
Deliver
Use
Use
Use
Use
Use
Use

10. “A corporation doesn't love you or hate you. Its like a lawnmower. Put your hand in,
it gets cut off. It doesn't hate you, its just a lawnmower; it cuts everything.”
– B. Cantrill

11. Create
Create
Use
Adapt
Adapt
Use
Use
Fund
Fund
Study
Use
Use

12. Industrial Society Required
Arbitration Of Ownership Of
Natural Control Points
&

13. Innovation
in a Meshed Society

17. What Is A Community?

23. Koan of Contribution
Altruism Without Sacrifice
Koan of Copyright
Possession Without Permission
Koan of the Commons
Order Without Control

24. Open Source Licenses
Unlock
Communities Of Use

25. Open Source Definition
1. Free Redistribution
2. Source Code Available
3. Derived Works Allowed
4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Use
7. Redistribution Maintains All Rights
8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

26. Permissionless

27. Flexibility

28. Freedom To
Leave

29. "Licenses are constitutions for
communities"
Eben Moglen

30. Rights Only Project-Scope
Copyleft
File-Scope
Copyleft
A B C

31. Rights-Only Licenses
● Clauses
concerning:
o Attribution
o Trademark
o Patents
● No requirement to
provide source
BSD
MIT
A
Apache

32. File-Scope Copyleft
● Clauses concerning:
o Attribution
o Trademark
o Patents
● Conditioned on
providing source
● Scope of trigger for
source requirement is
any file
● Scope of requirement is
the file you changed
MPLv2
CDDL
EPL
B

33. File-Scope Copyleft
● Clauses concerning:
o Attribution
o Trademark
o Patents
● Conditioned on
providing source
● Trigger is binary
distribution
● Provide full source
corresponding to
distributed binary
C
GPLv3
AGPL
EUPL

34. Special Case: LGPL
● LGPL is class C, not
class B
● Scope of "binary" is
restricted at a "library"
boundary limiting what
source must be
published
● Still project copyleft
though
● Beware especially
code reuse
LGPLv2
LGPLv3

35. Software Patents
Modern licenses include patent defences

36. Patent Threat Pyramid Patents
Threatening
Your
Software
Not To Scale

37. Defences Exist!
Remember, the goal is increased confidence,
not perfect elimination of the threat (that’s
impossible)

38. Patent Defences Pyramid Patents
Threatening
Your
Software
OIN Patent Pool
Open Standards
Scorched Earth
(Defensive Filing)
Open Source License
Not To Scale

39. Defence Via Open Source License
● Your open source license matters
● Modern licenses include patent peace
o Example: Apache License
o Also GPLv3, MPLv2
● Use these licenses!
● Patent peace means aggressors lose their
licenses
● Ineffective against trolls

40. Apache License Patent Clause
3. Grant of Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this
License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive,
no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section)
patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and
otherwise transfer the Work, where such license applies only to those patent
claims licensable by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their
Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s) with the Work to
which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If You institute patent
litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or
counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work or a
Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes
direct or contributory patent infringement, then any
patent licenses granted to You under this License for
that Work shall terminate as of the date such litigation
is filed.

41. Use Modern Open Source Licenses
● Old licenses have no explicit patent
treatment
o Example: BSD
● Possible implied license inadequate for
certainty
● New use of BSD etc may signal reservation
of right to sue

43. Summary
● IoT & API Economy need open source more
than ever
● Communities of use depend on elimination
of permission-seeking
● Freely licensing rights is the key enabler
● Open source licenses are proven &
understood & need no research
● Modern licenses protect as well as enable
● Open source gives API consumers the
freedom to leave so the confidence to stay

44. The API Economy
Needs
Open Source FlexibilityDon’t
Deploy Without It!

45. Simon Phipps
simon@meshedinsights.com
http://meshedinsights.com
Open Source Management Consulting
This presentation is the opinion of the presenter. It is not intended to offer legal advice, nor does it represent the
views of any entity including OSI and the clients of Meshed Insights Ltd.
(c) 2013-14 Meshed Insights Ltd · Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Unported v3.0