Assignment 11

Open Source vs. Copyright

1. Read the Sections 4.7 - 4.9 of Ethics in the Information Age (on Protections for Software, Open-Source Software, and the Legitimacy of Intellectual Property Protection for Software.

2. In your own words, define "open source".

3.Review the scenario and contract (distributed in class) in Assignment 8 (The Back Door) and answer the following questions:

a. Under the System Development Agreement between Goodcare and Acme Software, which party is supposed to own which computer software? Include references to the contract sections that you believe support your conclusion. If the contract is silent on the point, discuss how US copyright law would dictate the result.

b. Assume that the open source software and libraries that "Joe" used in the development of the deliverables for Goodcare were available under the GNU General Public License (available at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html). Section 2.5 of the System Development Agreement provides that Acme Software may NOT use "publicly available software". So, assume that Acme decides that they should ask Goodcare to waive this provision and allow the open source code and libraries. Would the GNU general public license allow Acme to leave it in even with Goodcare's approval?