COMPSCI 92L Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Viral License, Conditionality, Copyleft
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11 May 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
COMPSCI 92L
Astrachan
Spring 2016
3-2-16
Programming and Ethics of Software Licensing
● When we create a web app to display a randomized list of classmates’ birthdays, we can
code a set of instructions in PHP, which makes requests to the server, and then outputs
this request to the webpage.
● East Coast, West Coast open source code
○ East Coast - don’t tamper with copyright code
○ West Coast - open to reusing open-source software in other programs, “new
school”
○ Similar to copyright issues in music, where artists will remix, mashup and cover
prior recorded works (ex. Ice Ice Baby Baby, Vanilla Ice got sued for copying
someone else’s work)
■ bits/atoms, digital copying
■ It is possible to remix analog music
● Linus Torvalds created an intersection between coding as a philosophical art (Richard
Stallman) and coding as a business model rather than ethical/software (Cathedral)
● Definition of open source:
○ Free redistribution - can’t force someone to use it, nor can you prevent the sale
of open source code
○ Source code - must be available, cheap or free
○ License to modify, redistribute
○ Integrity of source, must be patchable, versioning
■ A code patch is inserted into software code to fix bugs and are used in
between major software updates. They are usually available as Internet
downloads and can be free or sold cheaply.
○ No discrimination against persons or groups
○ No discrimination against fields of endeavor
○ Distribution “no strings attached,” no further licensing
○ License not bound to whole, part redistribution is ok
○ No further restrictions
○ Technology neutral - can’t prefer one operating system over another
● Copyleft license - viral, requires redistribution to be the same or similar whereas free
licenses have no downstream restrictions
● GPL - Gnu public license, major open-source software database
● Copyleft - right offered to users to freely distribute work with the assumption that the
original protections are retained at each level of distribution
● Viral license - allows derivative works only when modified versions of the original work
are embedded into the new work; pejorative term describing copyleft systems
○ Applies specifically to GPL licenses
○ GPL is viral? Threat to intellectual property
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com