THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF SOURCE CODEMichael Musick

INTRODUCTION

• Who owns software and the different types of developers

• The different types of licenses that covers software development

• The problem of piracy and how developers deal with it

• What aspects of software is considered owned

YOU BOUGHT THE SOFTWARE, DON’T YOU OWN IT?

• No, you don’t what you purchased was a license to use the software

• It is a popular belief that users own whatever software they buy and can do whatever they want with it

• The licenses tied to software comes in two forms: Open Source Licenses and the End User License Agreement (EULA)

• There are two groups of people, those who support open source development, and those who want a return on the time and money invested into software development

• There are two types of open software developers – those who feel software should be owned and those who dont

PIRACY

• People illegally downloading software costs companies millions of dollars per year

• Companies like Microsoft traditionally respond to acts of piracy through lawsuits – a large portion of these lawsuits comes from tips from their customers

• Video game developers combat piracy through uploading modified version of their games to file sharing sites

• The most ironic case of this was the modified version of Game Dev Tycoon

WHAT PARTS OF SOFTWARE CAN SOMEONE OWN?

• Developers can own software, but only specific protectable parts

• Source code – written by the programmer in a high level computer language

• Object code – a machine language translation of the source code

• Algorithm – the sequence of machine commands that the source code and object code represent

• Look and feel of a program – The way the program appears on the screen and interfaces with users

HOW DO DEVELOPERS PROTECT THEIR SOFTWARE

• Patents – A 20 year exclusive monopoly to make, use and sell an inventionPatents protect nearly everything involved with the invention

• Copyrights – A copyright duration can be the author’s life plus fifty yearsor in a work for hire situation seventy five years from the date it was publishedCopyrights protect the source code, object code (machine language), and unique aspects of the GUI

• Trade secrets – Can theoretically last forever but not subject to infringement protectionDoes offer theft protection so long as the secret is not generally known and reasonable steps have been taken to keep it a secret

LICENSES AND WHAT THEY DO

• Open Source Licenses – GNU General Public License, BSD License, MIT License, Apache License, Creative Commons

• Creative Commons licenses are not quite open source licenses

• Open source licenses are generally used to allow open source developers to freely distribute their software and keep it protected (It keeps other people from stealing their work and claiming it as their own)

• End User License Agreement – That long thing that no one bothers to read when installing software

SECTIONS OF THE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

• Grant of License – tells the user what their license rights are and by accepting the EULA you agree to not sell, share or distribute the software

• Licensing Restrictions – tells the user what they can and cannot do with the software

• Ownership – this is the part where the user is told that they do not own the software they are granted a license to use it

• Audit Rights – gives the vendor the right to audit the user at anytime

• Termination – gives the vendor the right to terminate software use if the user violates terms set forth by the EULA

• Warranty – Tells the user that the software is sol as is, what you see is what you get there is no warranty

END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT CONTINUED

• Damages – This section states that the vendor accepts no responsibility for damages incurred through use of the software

• Limitation of Liability – If the vendor has to pay out money for damages incurred through use of the software this limits the amount that the vendor has to pay out (the last part makes this bit rather meaningless)

ISSUES WITH THE EULA

• Length – they are extremely long and most users won’t take the time to read them

• Readability – The way the EULA is worded makes it hard to read and understand, the average user will have a hard time understand what is being said

• Click through aspect – Since most users don’t read through a EULA since it is so easy to just click ‘I agree’ and continue most users won’t know what they are agreeing to

QUESTIONS?

REFERENCES

• http://www.cracked.com/article_19162_6-hilarious-ways-game-designers-are-screwing-with-pirates_p2.html

• http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-29-game-dev-tycoon-forces-those-who-pirate-the-game-to-unwittingly-fail-from-piracy

• http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-settles-thousands-of-software-piracy-cases/

• http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-computer/#IntPro

• http://www.freibrun.com/articles/articl2.htm

• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/03/24/a-short-guide-to-open-source-and-similar-licenses/

• http://www.itassetmanagement.net/2014/06/04/eulas-explained-in-simple-terms/