CERN Software Licensing
Background
Status in IT
Issues
F.Fluckiger
Disclaimer

Though I took a degree in law … 26 years ago, …
I asked a professional lawyer Robert Abbott (ETT) to attend

Many others in IT are active/knowledgeable (CE, FH, AS, AP, BJ, …)

Topic is complex


often even simple questions needs a few days to answer …
Tried and simplify with my own taxonomy, language
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
2
"Internal" vs. "External" software
"Internal"
CERN Software

Available only within CERN
"Internal"
"External"
"External"

Made available,


in some way,
under certain conditions,
Binary only
Source
to "the outside" (1)

Sometime called "Published"
(1) Outside CERN or outside a group of developer organizations
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
3
Making SW available to the outside (1)
"External"
Binary only
Publicly
available
e.g.
downloadable
Source
Bilateral Agreements
e.g. "Collaboration
Agreements"
Publicly
available
"Open Source"
"Free Software"
(1) Outside CERN or outside a group of developing organizations
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
4
Examples in IT
"External"
Binary only
Publicly
available
e.g.
downloadable
Printing Package
Source
Bilateral agreements
e.g. Collaboration
Agreements
Publicly
available
"Open source"
"Free Software"
NICE 2000
EDG
Printing Package
CASTOR
SLIC
… EGEE
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
5
Bilateral vs. "Open Source"
Source
Bilateral agreements
NICE 2000
Printing Package
Bilateral Agreements
Development style
SW developed mainly
within CERN
Publicly available
"Open source"
EDG
CASTOR
Publicly Available
Source
Software developed in
a collaborative
external environment
Reasons for external Good relationships with Benefit from outside
release
external party
testing, improvement
Scaling
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
Notoriety
Does not scale
Notoriety
Scales well
6
Making SW publicly available
Free Software
does not mean
Public Domain
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
7
Publicly Available vs. Public Domain
Retain IPR
Relinquish IPR
"External"
Binary only
Publicly
available
Source
Publicly
available
Public Domain
e.g.
downloadable
Printing Package
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
"Open source"
"Free Software"
EDG
CASTOR
SLIC
8
CERN celebrates
Web anniversary
[…].
Berners-Lee's unique insight in marrying hypertext to the Internet to give
the Web its simple point-and-click ease of use certainly helped. And the
fact that CERN had the foresight to ensure that the Web became part of
the public domain, and not the property of any company or individual,
was decisive
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
9
Distribution of CERN WWW software
Francois Fluckiger (fluckiger@vscrna.cern.ch)
Tue, 15 Nov 1994 23:05:59 +0100
Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
Next message: David Koblas: "How about an "IF" markup construct..."
Previous message: dolesa@smtp-gw.spawar.navy.mil: "Windows Help to HTML conversion"
Dear Colleagues,
Some of you asked about the conditions for the distribution of
new versions of the CERN WWW Library of Common Code (libwww), the
CERN Line Mode Browser (www) and the WWW HTTP Daemon (httpd).
The new versions will remain freely available, for general use, and at
no cost.
The only change is that the material distributed will remain
copyrighted by CERN. As a consequence, a copyright notice will have to
appear in copies, but also, the rights of the users will be protected,
in particular by preventing third parties to turn free software into
proprietary software, and deny the users the rights to freely use the
material.
These principles are those used by most distributors of free software,
including the X consortium.
The proper copyright notice is being ratified and will be available in
a few days.
We hope all those who have trusted CERN WWW software will continue to
do so, and will appreciate that these conditions not only maintain the
free distribution but better protect it.
Francois Fluckiger
Leader, WWW development, CERN
Next message: David Koblas: "How about an "IF" markup construct..."
Previous message: dolesa@smtp-gw.spawar.navy.mil: "Windows Help to HTML conversion"
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
10
CERN celebrates
Web anniversary
[…]
In the words of the inventor himself, "CERN's decision to make the Web
foundations and protocols available on a royalty free basis, and without
additional impediments, was crucial to the Web's existence. Without this
commitment, the enormous individual and corporate investment in Web
technology simply would never have happened, and we wouldn't have the
Web today."
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
11
IP/Distribution/Disclaimer Statements
"External"
IP and Distribution statements
should be attached to any
"External" software:


Within the Source Code and
documentation
Publicly
available
e.g.
download
able
Source
Bilateral
agreements
e.g.
Collaboration
Agreements
Publicly
available
"Open
source"
Within the Agreement text
(for Bilateral Agreements)

Binary
IP/Dist/Liab
In Source
On the download web site (1)
(for downloadable Binary or Source)
(1) or any other distribution medium
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
IP/Dist/Liab
In Contract
IP/Dist/Liab Statement
On Download Web Site
12
Statements: 3 logical parts
Intellectual Property
Statement
Often covered by
Distribution Conditions
Publicly Available
(i.e. "Open
Source") licenses
also called
"Distribution License"
Sometimes called
"The License"
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
Copyright statement
Who owns the copyright
What are the rights and
obligations of those who
receive the SW
Liability, warranty
Disclaimer
13
IP/Distribution/Liability Statements
"External"
CERN Printing Package
Binary

Binary downloadable

Email request to Software
Manager (I. Deloose)


License Agreement to be
approved by user
About 280 organizations so
far
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
Publicly
available
e.g.
download
able
Source
Bilateral
agreements
e.g.
Collaboration
Agreements
Publicly
available
"Open
source"
Printing
Package
14
CERN Printing Package
License Agreement
COPYRIGHT CERN 1999
IP Stat.
The copyright and all other rights related to this computer software,
in whatever form, including but not limited to the source code,
the object code and user documentation, are vested in CERN.
Except as provided hereunder, this computer software may not be used,
copied, changed, modified, translated, displayed, distributed or made
available by any method (hereafter collectively and separately
referred to as "use") without prior written consent by CERN.
Distribution
Academic and scientific institutes only are herewith granted a
royalty-free and non-exclusive license to use this computer software,
subject to the condition that such use shall be for their internal
use only and that any use for commercial purposes is strictly
forbidden.
Disclaimer
The provision by CERN of this computer software is on an
as-is basis and CERN provides no express or implied warranties of any
kind, including but not limited to those of merchantability, fitness
for a particular purpose and non-infringement of the proprietary
rights, such as copyrights, patents and trade secrets, of third
parties. CERN accepts no liability whatsoever in connection therewith.
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
15
IP/Distribution/Liability Statements
"External"
NICE 2000 Source
Binary

No "public" web site for download

Request to Software Manager
(A.Pace)

Collaboration agreement signed by
the two parties: CERN and (so far)



Publicly
available
e.g.
download
able
Source
Bilateral
agreements
e.g.
Collaboration
Agreements
Publicly
available
"Open
source"
NICE 2000
ISO
Friedrich Miescher Institute for
Biomedical Research (on-going)
IP/Distribution/Liability Statement
inserted in the Source
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
16
IP/Distribution/Disclaimer for NICE2000
COPYRIGHT CERN 2000
IP Stat.
The copyright and all other rights related to this computer software, in whatever
form, including but not limited to the source code, the object code and user
documentation, are vested in CERN.
This computer software may not be used, copied, changed, modified, translated,
displayed, distributed or made available by any method (hereafter collectively and
Distribution separately referred to as "use") without prior written consent by CERN.
Request for permission to use this Computer software must be addressed to
......
As a matter of CERN policy, permission for non-commercial, scientific use is
frequently granted.
Disclaimer
The provision by CERN of this computer software is on an as-is basis and CERN
provides no express or implied warranties of any kind, including but not limited to
those of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement of
the proprietary rights, such as copyrights, patents and trade secrets, of third parties.
CERN accepts no liability whatsoever in connection therewith.
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
17
Copyright Statement

Any author's creation automatically
copyrighted:
Not compulsory to mark the copyright on a
work to retain IPR

However, copyright marking useful in
case of IPR violation and ownership
dispute


Note: In the USA copyrights may also be
registered
Recommendation:
Copyright © CERN 1999
Intellectual Property
Statement
Distribution Conditions
also called
"Distribution License"
Disclaimer
Include Copyright Statement in all CERN
Source SW

Difficulty: Multiple authoring organizations
…
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
18
Geant 4
License details under construction
DISCLAIMER
The following disclaimer summarizes all the specific
disclaimers of contributors to this software.
Neither the authors of this software system, nor their
employing institutes, nor the agencies providing
financial
support
for
this
work
make
any
representation or warranty, express or implied,
regarding this software system or assume any liability
for its use.
IP Stat.
This code implementation is the intellectual property
of the GEANT4 collaboration.
By copying, distributing or modifying the Program (or
any work based on the Program) you indicate your
acceptance of this statement, and all its terms.
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
19
EU DataGrid Software License
Copyright (c) 2001 EU DataGrid. All rights reserved.
EDG
This software includes voluntary contributions made to the EU DataGrid. For more information on the EU DataGrid, please see http://www.eu-datagrid.org/.
Installation, use, reproduction, display, modification and redistribution of this software, with or without modification, in source and binary forms, are permitted. Any
exercise of rights under this license by you or your sub-licensees is subject to the following conditions:
1. Redistributions of this software, with or without modification, must reproduce the above copyright notice and the above license statement as well as this list of
conditions, in the software, the user documentation and any other materials provided with the software.
2. The user documentation, if any, included with a redistribution, must include the following notice:
"This product includes software developed by the EU DataGrid (http://www.eu-datagrid.org/)."
Alternatively, if that is where third-party acknowledgments normally appear, this acknowledgment must be reproduced in the software itself.
3. The names "EDG", "EDG Toolkit", “EU DataGrid” and "EU DataGrid Project" may not be used to endorse or promote software, or products derived
therefrom, except with prior written permission by hep-project-grid-edg-license@cern.ch.
4. You are under no obligation to provide anyone with any bug fixes, patches, upgrades or other modifications, enhancements or derivatives of the
features,functionality or performance of this software that you may develop. However, if you publish or distribute your modifications, enhancements or derivative
works without contemporaneously requiring users to enter into a separate written license agreement, then you are deemed to have granted participants in the EU
DataGrid a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to install, use, reproduce, display, modify, redistribute and sub-license your modifications,
enhancements or derivative works, whether in binary or source code form, under the license conditions stated in this list of conditions.
5. DISCLAIMER
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE EU DATAGRID AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE ARE DISCLAIMED. THE EU DATAGRID AND CONTRIBUTORS MAKE NO REPRESENTATION THAT THE
SOFTWARE, MODIFICATIONS, ENHANCEMENTS OR DERIVATIVE WORKS THEREOF, WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY PATENT, COPYRIGHT, TRADE
SECRET OR OTHER PROPRIETARY RIGHT.
6. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
THE EU DATAGRID AND CONTRIBUTORS SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY TO LICENSEE OR OTHER PERSONS FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL,
INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, HOWEVER CAUSED
AND ON ANY THEORY OF CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, ARISING IN ANY
WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
20
Copyright from a non-corporate body

Current cases of cooperatively-developed SW
 Implications



Conclusion:


The non-corporate body couldn't appear in court against violators
Marks clear intention to protect IP
(declaring the work as copyrighted by a non-legally existing body is not
equivalent to relinquishing the copyright)
Seems it does not harm maintaining these current copyright statements
Future cases of cooperatively-developed SW (possible options)




List all partners
Distinguish between copyright owners (actual code authors) and
acknowledged partners
Opt for either differentiated or non-differentiated rights
Decide whether one partner only is in charge of possible appeals
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
21
Distribution Conditions
Establish rights and duties of the
licensee
Copyright Statement

Rights to
run, copy, change, improve, correct,
incorporate into other programs, publish,
distribute, charge, sell verbatim, sell
modified, sell services, …

Distribution Conditions
also called
"Distribution License"
Duties to
perpetuate copyright, publish
modifications, publish derivative work,
document changes, …
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
Disclaimer
22
Distribution Conditions: Bilateral Agrmnts
CERN ad-hoc conditions reflected in

Collaboration Agreement signed by
the two parties (e.g. Nice2000)

IP/Distribution/Liability Statement
inserted in the Source
Distribution Conditions
also called
"Distribution License"
"External"
Binary

Source
Usual CERN conditions




Copyright to be perpetuated
Royalty free license granted to
licensee to use, copy, modify
Modification to be notified to
CERN; CERN must be granted free
license to use modified versions
For internal use only. In general, no
commercial use (case by case
basis). No military use.
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
Publicly
available
e.g.
download
able
Bilateral
agreements
e.g.
Collaboration
Agreements
Publicly
available
"Open
source"
NICE 2000
Printing
Package
23
Distribution Conditions: "Open Source"



also called
"Distribution License"
One of the licenses developed
by third parties (Free Software
Foundation, MIT, Berkeley)

"External"
GPL, LGPL, X, BSD
Examples at CERN


Distribution Conditions
Use a Public License (1)
Binary
CASTOR
Use a CERN "ad hoc" licence

EDG (close to LGPL)

ROOT
Publicly
available
e.g.
download
able
(1) Usually also includes a Disclaimer statement
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
Source
Bilateral
agreements
e.g.
Collaboration
Agreements
Publicly
available
"Open
source"
EDG
CASTOR
SLIC
… EGEE
24
Existing "Open Source" licences
Dozens of licenses publicly available, from multiple sources.
Examples:
Universities
MIT
X License
Berkeley
MIT License
BSD License
SUN
Sun Community Source License (SCSL)
IBM
IBM PL
AOL
Mozilla Public License (MPL)
Trolltech
Qt Public License (QPL)
Free Software
Foundation
GPL
Academia
Industry
Not-for-profit
organizations
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
LGPL
25
Free Software and Open Source
Free Software
and
Open Source Software
are not synonymous
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
26
Free Software vs. Open Source

Free Software Foundation (FSF)
 Laid down Free Software (FS) principles, called:
FSD: Free Software Definition
 Developed the two major FS public licenses (GPL, LGPL)

Open Source Initiative (OSI)
 Defined Criteria for Open Source license, called:
OSD: Open Source Definitions
 Accredit (approve) some licenses, but …



No reason given for acceptance, rejection
Some Approved Licenses infringe the OSD (e.g. Qt PL)
40 Approved Licenses
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
27
Differences between public licenses
Run
Copy
Publish, Distribute
Licensee
Rights
Free of charge
At a charge
Change
Modify
Improve
Correct
Incorporate into other programs
Sell
Verbatim copies
Derivative work
Redistribute verbatim program exclusively under original license (OL)
In any case
Licensee
Release derivative work
as OL (i.e. Source)
Duties
Accompany any binary distribution with the source
Only if derivative work is "Published"
Notification of Changes Required (NCR) (to original licensor)
No restriction on publication/distribution
Table: FF's tool for comparing licenses; not official, non exhaustive
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
28
GPL principles

GPL: General Public Licence

Maximize dissemination (openness) of SW

To maximize dissemination, maximize constraints on licensees

Prevent commercial exploitation by third parties

By obliging licensees to publish source of their derivative work

Allow original licensor to benefit from derivative work

Yet, preserve some form of commercial exploitation by original
licensor
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
29
Differences between public licenses
GPL
Run
Yes
Copy
Yes
Publish,
Distribute
Rights
Modify
Free of charge
Yes
At a charge
Yes
Change
Yes
Improve
Yes
Correct
Yes
Incorporate into other programs
Sell
Duties
Yes
Verbatim copies
Yes
Derivative work
Yes
Redistribute verbatim program exclusively under OL
Yes
Release
In any case
derivative work as
Only if derivative work is "Published"
OL (i.e. Source)
No
Yes
Accompany any binary distribution with the source
Yes
Notification of Changes Required (NCR) (to original licensor)
No
No restriction on publication/distribution
Yes
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
Table: FF's tool for comparing licenses; not official, non exhaustive
30
GPL Chain
Original
Licensor
GPL
Licensee 1
GPL
Licensee 2
GPL
GPL
GPL
May sell
Original
Licensor
GPL
Licensee 1
GPL
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
GPL
GPL
Prop.
Prog.
Derivative
Work
Licensee 2
May sell
GPL
GPL
Derivative
Work
31
GPL Contamination
Original
Licensor
GPL
If "Published"
Licensee
Prop 1
Prop 2
GPL
GPL
GPL
Prop 3

"Published" :
 understood as released to the outside
 includes selling, licensing in any way, …
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
32
GPL Contamination: Consequence for IT
Original
Licensor


"External" Software
 Make sure no GPL module
has been used if SW
published under a different
(non compatible) license
GPL
If "Published"
Licensee
Prop 1
Prop 2
GPL
GPL
GPL
Prop 3
"Internal" Software
 If GPL modules have been
used, make sure the software
is not inadvertently
"published"
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
33
Open Source commercial exploitation
Original
Licensor
Program
GPL
GPL
GPL
May sell
GPL
GPL
Prop
Bilateral License
Commercial
partner
Program
Proprietary
License
Propr. SW
Propr. SW
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
34
GPL, less known features
Free Software
does not mean
Free of charge

Licensee may resell verbatim
program

If derivative work constrained within
licensee organization, its source
does not have to be published
Initial licensor may not
benefit from changes
The original licensor may publish a
program under GPL, and exclusively
license it to a third party for
commercial exploitation (i.e. no need
Commercial exploitation of
a GPL program by the
original licensor is possible

to publish source of derivative work)
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
35
Castor
CASTOR DISTRIBUTION CONDITIONS
CASTOR Distribution: 24 July 2002
CERN allows free distribution of CERN owned software under the same conditions as the gnu public
licence. The definitive version of this is to be found at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
Some of the software included in the tarball (currently db and imake) is itself being redistributed under
similar 'right to use and distribute' conditions.
The CASTOR system is distributed as a tarball containing all the server components plus the interfaces
to the devices (eg tape drives and robotics) currently in use at CERN. CERN will integrate interface
code to other devices sent in by outside institutions as far as possible but cannot guarrantee correct
working. Use of some devices may require the user to purchase additional software licences from a third
party. CERN cannot provide such software.
The source contains an overview README file, a version history and comments and installation
instructions but correct installation and setting up at any site is the responsibility of the site. CERN is
preparing a detailed installation guide as an aid and will answer technical questions sent to
castor.support@cern.ch as far as possible. It is assumed that installation will be done by local staff with
the correct level of computer system administration expertise and CERN cannot provide such expertise
should this not be the case.
The tarball can be obtained from the CERN web site
http://cern.ch/castor
Users should use the 'Download' link then the link 'CERN or AUTHORISED people'. This will ask for a
userid and password. Requestors should obtain these keys in advance from castor.support@cern.ch and
they should not be revealed to a third party. castor.support@cern.ch
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
36
CASTOR

GPL

Distribution does not formally comply to Free Software Definition
or Open Source Definition

No indiscriminate access
 Users must request access; CERN may reject request
 Initial motivation: comply to CERN "rules" (but what are they?) for
non-military use

Question I raised recently:
 What is CERN policy for compliance to "non-military use of our
outcome" (but is it a formal policy?) in the case of "Open Source"
SW?
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
37
LGPL principles

LGPL: Lesser General Public Licence

Allow more commercial exploitation

Designed for libraries (initially called Library General Public Licence) to
be linked with non –free programs

Programmes linked with LGPL libraries do not have to be released
under LGPL

Still, allow original licensor to benefit from improvements
(modifications of the libraries)
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
38
Differences between public licenses
GPL
LGPL
Run,
Yes
Yes
Copy
Yes
Yes
Free of charge
Yes
Yes
At a charge
Yes
Yes
Modify
Yes
Yes
Incorporate into other programs
Yes
Yes
Verbatim copies
Yes
Yes
Derivative work
Yes
Yes
Redistribute verbatim program exclusively under OL
Yes
Yes
In any case
No
No
Modified library
Yes
Yes
Work linked to the library
Yes
No
Accompany any binary distribution with the source
Yes
Yes
Notification of Changes Required (NCR)
No
No
No restriction on publication/distribution
Yes
Yes
Publish, Distribute
Rights
Sell
Duties
Release derivative
work as OL (i.e.
Source)
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
If
"Published"
Table: FF's tool for comparing licenses; not official, non exhaustive
39
LGPL Chain
Original
Licensor
Program
Licensee 1
LGPL
LGPL
Licensee 2
LGPL
LGPL
LGPL
LGPL
May sell
May sell
Modified
library
Original
Licensor
Program
Licensee 1
LGPL
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
LGPL
Prop.
Prog.
Proprietary Program
Linked with library
Licensee 2
Any
License
Prop.
Prog.
40
EDG
Installation, use, reproduction, display, modification and redistribution of this software, with or without modification, in
source and binary forms, are permitted. Any exercise of rights under this license by you or your sub-licensees is subject
to the following conditions:
1. Redistributions of this software, with or without modification, must reproduce the above copyright notice and the
above license statement as well as this list of conditions, in the software, the user documentation and any other
materials provided with the software.
2. The user documentation, if any, included with a redistribution, must include the following notice:
"This product includes software developed by the EU DataGrid (http://www.eu-datagrid.org/)."
Alternatively, if that is where third-party acknowledgments normally appear, this acknowledgment must be reproduced
in the software itself.
3. The names "EDG", "EDG Toolkit", “EU DataGrid” and "EU DataGrid Project" may not be used to endorse or
promote software, or products derived there from, except with prior written permission by hep-project-grid-edglicense@cern.ch.
4. You are under no obligation to provide anyone with any bug fixes, patches, upgrades or other modifications,
enhancements or derivatives of the features,functionality or performance of this software that you may develop.
However, if you publish or distribute your modifications, enhancements or derivative works without
contemporaneously requiring users to enter into a separate written license agreement, then you are deemed to have
granted participants in the EU DataGrid a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to install, use,
reproduce, display, modify, redistribute and sub-license your modifications, enhancements or derivative works, whether
in binary or source code form, under the license conditions stated in this list of conditions.
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
41
Next …
Medium Term issues

Do we want
 Recommendations to software authors?
 Better know what we decide, and why?
 Better record what we are doing?
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
42
Next …
Elements for possible IT actions

Recommendations for any software (Internal and External)



Insert copyright statement
Record licensing conditions of external modules used (in particular, GPL–like
licenses)
When Releasing External Software
 Need to select the form





Need to adopt appropriate Source license


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Binary Publicly Available
Binary via Bilateral Agreements
Source Publicly Available
Source via Bilateral Agreements
Select appropriate public license, or
Develop specific CERN license
Clearer decision-making process needed within IT?
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
43
Next …
Elements for possible IT procedures

Do we need a (automated) mechanism for "registering" any ITdeveloped SW?

Name, purpose, author, physical location, documentation pointer, external
modules, licensing status, …

Would imply we know how to define a SW piece (granularity issue)

Licensing issues alone does not justify the effort, I think

Any other benefits?
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e.g. Do we "loose" from time to time SW written by visitors?
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
44
CERN SW licensing CERN-wide

TAB discussing an ETT proposal on
CERN-wide decision-making process for licensing of Inventions
Called "Invention Workflow"

Inventions include CERN-developed SW

Status
 Workflow specifies mechanisms to decide on



Proprietary vs. Open source SW
Commercialisation, …
Individual SW Cases to be evaluated by ad hoc inter-divisional team
set up by ETT:

DTTO, author, ETT , "Case Officer", …
François Fluckiger, DMM, 4 June 2003
45