On this episode of the podcast we talk open source readiness, compliance, and how to understand the copyleft license. Copyleft licenses like the GNU GPL come with a higher compliance burden than more permissive licenses, because they require licensees to provide source code to recipients -- sometimes just for the open source component, and sometimes for any derivative work produced by the licensee. These licenses therefore raise the thorniest issues of license compliance.

In this podcast, FINOS Open Source Readiness lead Aaron Williamson discusses:

  • What is a derivative work of a software project
  • What constitutes distribution under copyright law
  • Incompatibility issues between copyleft and other licenses
  • The differences between GPL versions 2 and 3

Aaron Williamson: williamson.legal

PDF slides to follow along: https://www.finos.org/hubfs/OSR%20Meeting%202020-07-21.pdf

Video version: https://www.finos.org/blog/understanding-copyleft-aaron-williamson

FINOS Open Source License Compliance Handbook: https://www.finos.org/open-source-license-compliance-handbook

Open Source Strategy Forum - https://bit.ly/3l2cs3n

Members Meeting & OSSF London - 4-5 October - https://bit.ly/3x2JX8c

Members Meeting & OSSF NYC - 9-10 November - https://bit.ly/2TCETJV

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