Open Source Licences
General introduction
In order to understand what the benefits of open source software are, it is useful to have an understanding of how it is licensed and the differences between open source and commercial software licences (commercial licences will also apply to software that is known as ‘freeware’ ie. software you can use for free, but are unable to copy, distribute or change the source code for).
Commercial licences
If you have installed software you will have agreed to accept the licence under which the software is made available. For commercial software this will often be referred to as the End User Licence Agreement (EULA) and may restrict the number of machines the software can be used on. The licence will usually advise you of the copyright associated with the software and the penalties to be incurred if it is copied or redistributed without permission.
Open source licences
Open source software may frequently be distributed under an EULA, but it will also be available under an open source licence, and the open source licence will usually mean that and EULA is not terribly restrictive.
Open source licences come in two major categories, “copyleft” licences and “permissive” licences. “Copyleft” licences usually require that if you incorporate a piece of software under a copyleft open source licence into your software, you have to release your software under the same licence. This property of some open source licences has been (wrongly) used to create fear of using open source software. If you are using open source software under a copyleft licence, (rather than developing with it), these conditions do not apply to you.
“Permissive” licences tend to have few or no requirements on people developing the software. Even if you incorporate open source software in your own programme, under a permissive licence you are seldom required to do anything other than possibly credit the original author.
A licence is considered to be “open source” if it has been approved by the Open Source Initiative, or OSI. The OSI is widely recognised within the industry as controlling use of the term, “open source”, although it should be noted that the term is not a trademark and can therefore be misappropriated. To see whether or not a software licence is approved as “open source” by the OSI, you should refer to the OSI's list: http://opensource.org/licenses
The most widely used open source licence is a copyleft licence, the GNU General Public Licence (GPL). Version 2 of the GPL has been especially widely used, including such projects as Linux. The licence is now developed by the Free Software Foundation http://www.fsf.org/ who last year released version 3 of the licence. Further information is available from the GNU website http://www.gnu.org/licences/gpl.html
The preamble to the GPL licence (v3) gives a useful indication of how it differs from commercial software licences:
"The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works.
The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program--to make sure it remains free software for all its users. We, the Free Software Foundation, use the GNU General Public License for most of our software; it applies also to any other work released this way by its authors. You can apply it to your programs, too.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying you these rights or asking you to surrender the rights. Therefore, you have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom of others.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights."
Other popular licences include the BSD licence and the Apache Software Foundation licence, which are both permissive licences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licences#BSD-style_licences
What open source licences mean for general users
If you use open source software made available under open source licences you will usually be able to:
- Obtain the software and code at no charge
- Install the software on as many machines as you wish and redistribute it to others
- Modify the code to suit your needs
If you want to simply install and use an open source application, you will not need to know anything more about licences. For those who wish to develop existing open source code or to start an open source project from scratch, more information on licences can be found at:
http://opensource.org/docs/osd
Useful links
The Open Source Initiative information about open source licences
Free Software Foundation information about free software licences:
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/education
Creative Commons Licence
The Creative Commons Licence relates to content. Creative Commons is an organisation that is working to provide an alternative to the traditional copyright protection which has ‘all rights reserved’ by maintaining the copyright of the author whilst granting some rights for users to copy, distribute and remix the content. So while Creative Commons does not relate to software, it is based upon similar principles to open source and can also be beneficial for education.
You may have noticed that this site has the following graphic on it:
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This graphic is conveying information about how the content within the site is made available for use by others. It shows that content is: |
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Using a Creative Commons License… |
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…that allows people to copy, distribute and remix the content as long as they give credit to the creator… |
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…content is available as ‘Share Alike’ – people can create remixes and derivative works based on the content as long as they in turn make the content they create available under the same Creative Commons License. |
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Other options that can be incorporated in a Creative Commons license include: |
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Non – commercial – the content may not be used for commercial purposes (ie. sold) without the permission of the content creator |
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No derivative works – people can only copy and redistribute verbatim copies of the content and not make any derivative works based on it without the content creator’s permission |
You can use a Creative Commons licence for content you create, and can also use content created by others under the Creative Commons licence system (subject to the terms of each licence). An important consideration for teachers is to understand who owns the copyright – whether it is the teacher or the school (or the students). It is necessary to clarify this with your school before you release any content.
Creative Commons licenses are used in education to share learning resources for example:
The Blog run by José Picardo to support Modern Language teaching http://www.asisehace.net/blog/
SEN teacher http://www.senteacher.org/Home/
The Open University has developed the Open Learn website on which its learning materials are available free and under a Creative Commons licence. These include a variety of resources for education professionals based on the education courses offered by Open University http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/home.php
If you are interested in finding out more about using Creative Commons approaches and licences for sharing learning resources, there is a dedicated part of Creative Commons - ccLearn which is a portal for creators and users of Open Educational Resources. This provides information on how educational users can create, share and use resources using CC licensing http://learn.creativecommons.org/
Useful links
Introduction to Creative Commons license PDF http://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/6/62/Creativecommons-informational-flyer_eng.pdf
QIA information on Creative Commons http://excellence.qia.org.uk/page.aspx?o=ferl.aclearn.resource.id43075