MODULE 1 -OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARES

Open source is a term that originally referred to open source software (OSS). Open
source software is code that is designed to be publicly accessible—anyone can see, modify,
and distribute the code as they see fit.
• A software is termed as an open source if you can download the software, access its source
code and modify the source code.
• A software whose source code is freely distributed with a license to study, change and further
distributed to anyone for any purpose is called open source software. • Dedicated programmers
improve upon the source code and share the changes within the community.
Some famous examples of Open-source products are :
• Operating systems –
Android, Ubuntu, Linux
• Internet browsers –
Mozilla Firefox, Chromium
• Integrated Development Environment (IDEs) –
Vs code (Visual Studio Code), Android Studio, PyCharm, Xcode
History of OSS
• The idea of making source code freely available originated in 1983 from an ideological
movement informally founded by Richard Stallman, a programmer at MIT(Massachusetts
Institute of Technology)
• Stallman believed that software should be accessible to programmers so they could modify
it as they wished, with the goal of understanding it, learning about it, and improving it.
• Stallman began releasing free code under his own license, called the GNU Public License.
• This new approach and ideology surrounding software creation took hold and eventually led
to the formation of the Open Source Initiative in 1998.
• In 1984 the American Programmer-Richard Matthew Stallman, RMS came up with the
Concept of free software.
• He designed /drafted a license and named it GNU GPL
• Under this license, four rules were mentioned ,Freedom to Use, Freedom to Study, Freedom
to Modify, Freedom to Share
• RMS put an operating system under GNU GPL License
• GNU→GNU’s Not Unix
• OS is a combination of Kernel and other applications(shell,programming tools, compilers)
• RMS designed applications first
• In 1990, a Finnish-American software engineer ,Linus Torvalds developed a kernel for
operating system and named it LINUX.
• LINUX OS was put under GNU GPL .
• This was used in a Combination and was termed as GNU/LINUX
Reasons why open source software at zero price offers remarkable benefits to the users
• Encourages Innovation . Expensive software forces IT organizations to purchase software
for proven applications. Lower costs allow organizations to experiment and develop new
applications and achieve greater business advantages.
• Enables IT organizations to minimize their software purchase budget allocation, which
in turn enables organizations to purchase software that they might not have been able to afford.
• Increases the testability and robustness of the software, making it more efficient and bug
free. More users using the software will make it possible to find bugs and report them to the
company and sometimes provide possible solution to debug.
Open Source Principles
1. Licensees are free to use open source software for any purpose whatsoever.
An open source license may not interfere in any way with the use of the software by licensees.
Restrictions on use, such as "for research and noncommercial purposes only," are not allowed
in open source licenses. The phrase free to use is also intended to mean, "without any
conditions that would impede use," such as a requirement for the licensee to report uses to the
licensor, or to disclose the means or manner of internal uses of the software. Note also that the
first word, licensees, means that open source software is only available under the terms of a
license to which each licensee must agree.
2. Licensees are free to make copies of open source software and to distribute
them without payment of royalties to a licensor.
This principle does not mean that a licensor cannot sell open source software. It merely says
that a licensee need not pay the licensor for additional copies he makes himself, even if those
copies are distributed to others. As a practical matter, this open source principle drives the price
of mere copies of open source software toward its marginal cost of production and
distribution.
3. Licensees are free to create derivative works of open source software and to
distribute them without payment of royalties to a Licensor.
Quality software is built upon the foundations of earlier software. Many advocates of free and
open source software contend that the requirement for open source licenses to permit the
unhindered creation and distribution of derivative works is essential to meet the goal of the
intellectual property laws as stated in the U.S. Constitution, "to promote the progress of science
and the useful arts." Under this open source principle, a licensor cannot charge a royalty for the
privilege to create and distribute derivative works, or require a licensee to pay a royalty for
copies of a derivative work that are distributed, or impose any restrictions on the type or
character of those derivative works.
4. Licensees are free to access and use the source code of open source software
Source code is written in a human language to instruct a computer how to perform certain
functions. Since the source code must be changed in order to instruct the computer to perform
different functions, access to the source code is essential to make the third open source
principle-the freedom to create derivative works of open source software-a practical reality.
Source code is a means to an end, not the end itself. The phrase free to access merely requires
the licensor to make source code available to licensees upon request at zero prices, not
necessarily to distribute the source code to everyone.
5. Licensees are free to combine open source and other software
Open source licenses may not impose conditions or restrictions on other software with which
the licensed software is merely combined or distributed. This prevents restrictions regarding
what other software can be placed on computer storage media or in computer memory. Open
source is one of many possible business and licensing models for software distribution, and
customers must be free to select and use those software alternatives. This open source principle
does not mean that licensors cannot impose reciprocal conditions upon licenses who create
and distribute derivative works, for the activity of creating derivative works is not the same as
merely combining software on media or on computers.
Benefits of Open-source contributions
• We code for real-world open-source projects.
• It refines our existing knowledge of programming and also helps us to learn new skills.
• Many open-source projects offer mentorship programs to guide and help us through our first
few contributions.
• We need not develop the whole thing from scratch, we just have to fork our favorite projects
and start experimenting with them.
• After making any open-source contribution, we get immediate feedback regarding our
developmental work.
• While doing open-source contributions, we interact with like-minded developers from all
over the world and build connections along the way.
• As we get more closer to the open-source community, we get to know much more about our
field of interest and other related fields.
• The most important aspect of open-source contributions is It may fetch us a job in our field
of interest.
Open-source community and Contributions
• The open-source community is a worldwide community of programmers and software
developers who are continuously working on various open-source projects to make our lives
better. This community is self-governing and self-organizing, there are no executives to take
the decisions solely. This community plays a very crucial role in the sustainability of various
open-source organizations.
• The contributions made in any open-source project which improves its usability are called
open-source contributions. These contributions can be of any form not only
some software codes like we can work on improving its documentation, improving its UI/UX
(user interface and design), organize meetups, or find new collaborators.
FOSS –Free and Open Source Software
• Free and Open-Source is software that can be classified as both free software and open source
software.
• Free Software : “Free Software” is a matter of liberty not price. It provides freedom to Run,
Study how program works, Redistribute copies, Release improvement to Public. Free Software
provides the freedom to use software at lower costs.
• Open-Source software: In this type of software the source code is freely available. • FOSS is
freely licensed to use, copy, study and change the software in any way and the source code is
openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software.
• FOSS is also called FLOSS (Free Libre and Open Source Software or Free Livre
Open Source Software).
The FOSS Philosophy
Free software must provide the user the freedom to:
• Execute the program for any purpose.
• Study the working of the program and adapt it to the requirements. • It must provide access
to the source code.
• Redistribute the software copies to other users.
• Upgrade the software and release upgraded software to the public so that it benefits the whole
user community of the software.
Examples of FOSS
• Linux- Operating System
• Apache –Web Server
• NetBeans
• LibreOffice
• OpenOffice
• Firefox-Web browser
• CamStudio-Screen Recording
Open Source Tools
A program or an application, the software developers use to create, debug and maintain new
application is known as software development tool. These are small programs that provide a
platform to develop the application, test it and help to maintain it. Some of tools required for
the development of open source software are: • Communication tool
• Software engineering tool
• Bug trackers and task lists
• Testing tools
• Package management
Communication tool
Communication is an essential part of software development. Some electronic means
of communication is required to establish a link between the developer and the user.
Emails are the most common form of communication. Another important tool for
communication
is instant messaging. The IRC(Internet Relay Chat) is an example of real time internet
text messaging or chatting.
Another tool is web forums. It is become a common way for users to trouble shoot problems
they encounter when using an open source product.
“wikis” is one of the most popular web forums, the developers and the users use.
Software Engineering Tool
CVS ( Concurrent Version System) is one of the prominent source code collaboration
tools used in OSS projects. When several people work on a project at the same time, this
tools helps to manage files and codes of the project.
This is achieved by moving the files into the users directories and then merging the files when
the users finish their work. It also enables you to recover the previous version of a file stored
in the directory.
The Subversion Revision Control System (SVN) was developed to replace CVS. It is similar
to CVS. It supports some new versions of the file formats and is compatible with many OSS.
Bug Trackers and task lists
A bug tracker is a software application designed to assist programmers to maintain quality in
the design. It allows the developer to keep track of bugs as and when they are found in the
product. It is also used as Issue Tracking System(ITS). ITS is a software package that manages
and maintains the list of issues in a structured form as needed by an organization. Some of the
popular bug tracker software are Bugzilla, Request Tracker, Source Forge etc.
Testing Tools
Any OSS development project frequently undergoes integration. Integration is a process
of arranging all small software programs and creating a single software. For achieving
efficient integration, testing tools are used during the system integration for error detection.
Example: TinderBox, this tool enables the developers in an OSS project to detect errors during
integration of the system.
A computer program used to find and reduce faults and errors in other programs is known as
a debugger. GNU debugger(GDB) is an example of debugger software used in
OSS development. This debugger offers remove debugging.
Package Management
A collection of tools to automate the process of installing, configuration, upgrading
and removing software packages from a complex is known as Package Management System.
The Red Hat Package Manager(RPM) and Advanced Packaging Tool(APT) are
package management systems used by a number of Linux distributions.
OPEN STANDARDS REQUIREMENTS FOR SOFTWARE
The Criteria: To comply with the Open Standards Requirement, an "Open Standard"
must satisfy the following criteria. If an "Open Standard" does not meet these criteria, it will
be discriminating against open source developers.
• No Intentional Secrets
The standards MUST NOT withhold any detail necessary for interoperable
implementation. As flows are inevitable, the standard MUST define a process for fixing flaws
identified during implementation and interoperability testing and to incorporate said changes
into a revised version or super sending version of the standards to release under terms that do
not violate the OSR.
• Availability
The standard MUST be freely and publicity available (ex. From a stable web site) under
royalty-free terms at reasonable and non-discriminatory cost.
• Patents
All patents essential to implementation of the standards Must:
1. Be licensed under royalty-free terms for unrestricted use, or
2. Be covered by a promise of non-assertion when practiced by open source software. • No
Agreements
There MUST NOT any requirement for execution of a license agreement, NDA, grant, click-
through or any other form of paperwork to deploy conforming implementation of the standard.
• No OSR-Incomplete Dependencies
Implementation of the standard MUST NOT require any other technology that fails to meet the
criteria of this requirement.

Public Domain Software

Public domain software is software that has been placed in the public domain i.e., it is
a software for which there is no ownership such as copyright, trademark or patent.
Programs that are uncopyrighted because their authors intended to share them with everyone
else are in the public domain. This software is unrestricted by copyright or license and
therefore free to use for any purpose. Public domain software is Community supported as an
author does not support users directly.
Proprietary software
It is the software sometimes referred as closed source software is owned by an organization or
an individual. The organization that owns the rights to the software does not release the source
code and may insist that only those who have purchased a special license key can use it.
Examples of proprietary software include Microsoft Windows, Adobe Flash Player, PS3
OS, Orbis OS, iTunes, Adobe Photoshop, Google Earth, macOS (formerly Mac OS X and OS
X), WinRAR.

Open Source Software Proprietary Software

It refers to the software that is developed and It refers to the software that is solely
tested through open collaboration. owned by the individual or the organization
that developed it.

The project is managed by an open source The project is managed by a closed group
community of developers and programmers. of individuals or team that developed it.

Anyone with the academic knowledge Only the owner or the publisher who
can access, inspect, modify and redistribute holds the legal property rights of the source
the source code. code can access it.

They are not aimed at unskilled users outside They are focused on a limited market of
of the programming community both skilled and unskilled end users.

It provides better flexibility which There is a very limited scope of

means more freedom which encourages innovation with the restrictions and all
innovation.

Users do not need to have Users need to have a valid

authenticated license to use this software. and authenticated license to use this
software

Users can get free software for free of cost. Users must have to pay to get
the proprietary software.

Software Licensing
Open source software (OSS) licensing refers to licensing (granting permission to
use intellectual property rights, such as trademarks, patents, or technology, under
defined conditions) the software that is licensed to the users with the rights to execute the
program for any reason, to transform the program, to reallocate duplications of either the
original or transformed program (without royalties, etc).
Open source licensing is mainly advantageous when you want to prohibit an individual
or group of users to completely utilize a work only for their own purpose. It also enables
your work to reach a wide audience and also to have some commercial gain from such
work. However, creators are required to surrender all the rights granted by copyright to
the entities like the users of the work. These entities are capable of using the work of the
creator and also distributing it according to the copyright law.
License A software license is a legal entity which gives the user the ability to either use and/or
redistribute particular software.
A software license is an agreement that grants a user access to software and its
functions. Although daily interactions with software may be similar regardless of whether
you purchase or license, there are benefits to each option of accessing software.
Understanding both can help you determine whether licensing is ideal for you. Software
licenses often place restrictions on how a user may work with the software, and licenses may
be conditional, such as a piece of software offering basic functions for free and more
advanced functions or opportunities for a licensing fee.
Types of OSS licenses
1. Copyleft License
i. Strong/ Weak license
ii. Full/ Partial license
iii. Share alike license
2. Permissive License

Copyleft licenses:
Copyleft license refers to the license that tries to assure that the public keeps the rights to use,
transform, and/or reallocate a creative work and all other works based on it, instead
of restricting such rights. This license is used to keep up copyright conditions. Copy left
licenses is also divided into different categories, which are as follows:
Strong/weak copyleft license:
'Strong copyleft' license refer to the license which is exercised to all inherited works.
For example, GNU General Public License which consists of listing of all terms and conditions
for duplicating, transforming, and allocating free software.
Weak copyleft license refer to the license which is exercised only to the work that
is copylefted, not to the remaining elements of the package.
For example, Mozilla Public License acts as the controlling licensing for the Mozilla
web browser and related software.
Full/partial copyleft license: Full copyleft license remains when all parts of a work
(except the license itself) can only be transformed, and allocated terms of work's copyleft
license. But, partial copyleft license permits allocation of some transformations under terms
other than the Open copyleft license, or do not impose all the principles of copylefting on the
work.
Share-alike copyleft license: Share-alike imposes the necessity that any right that is permitted
or granted relating to the original work must be permitted on absolutely the same or adaptable
terms in any inherited work. For example, some permutations of Creative Commons Licenses.
Permissive license: A permissive license refers to a license which permits reuse on
much broader terms, including transformation and release in non-open forms. Its purpose is
to maximize the use of a piece of software. For example, MIT license.
Most popular Open Source Software (OSS) licenses are Apache license, Berkeley
Software Distribution (BSD) license, GNU General Public License (GNU GPL),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) license, Mozilla Public License (MPL) and so
on.

Copyright
Copyright refers to the legal right of the owner of intellectual property. In simpler
terms, copyright is the right to copy. This means that the original creators of products and
anyone they give authorization to are the only ones with the exclusive right to reproduce the
work. Copyrights are legal protections on creative works of the mind, or according to the
United States Patent and Trademark Office "original works of authorship." They include visual
art, literary works, other writings, choreography, and software. Copyrights prevent others
from reproducing the work without the expressed permission of the copyright owner. Like
other intellectual property, copyrights are granted for a specific time, allowing the holder
to benefit from its creation.
Copyright law gives creators of original material the exclusive right to further use
and duplicate that material for a given amount of time, at which point the copyrighted
item becomes public domain.
Under copyright law, a work is considered original if the author created it from independent
thinking void of duplication. This type of work is known as an Original Work of Authorship
(OWA). Anyone with an original work of authorship automatically has the copyright to that
work, preventing anyone else from using or replicating it.
Not all types of work can be copyrighted. A copyright does not protect ideas,
discoveries, concepts, or theories. Brand names, logos, slogans, domain names, and titles also
cannot be protected under copyright law. For an original work to be copyrighted, it has to be
in tangible form.This means that any speech, discoveries, musical scores, or ideas have to
be written down in physical form in order to be protected by copyright.
Patent
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention. In other words, a patent is an exclusive
right to a product or a process that generally provides a new way of doing something, or offers
a new technical solution to a problem. A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its
owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited
period of time
Contract
A contract is an intentional, planned and legally enforceable agreement between two or more
proficient parties.
A contract is verified by:
• An offer.
• An acceptance of the offer.
• A legal and valuable consideration.
Issues with Copyrights and Patents
To clearly understand the issues with copyrights and patents, we need to understand the two
aspects of licenses.
Licensor: Licensor is the person granting the license.
Licensee: A licensee is someone who has been granted a license.
Relationship between the licensor and the licensee: Both the licensor and licensee
are necessary for the efficiency of the license. If the first party of the license is present and
the licensor has all the necessary rights to be granted to licensee, then the only thing that is
the subject of worry is the relationship between the licensor and licensee under the terms of the
license. The main problem arises when a third party has authentic legal claims to the work
claiming to be licensed.
Licensing of original work: A creator of an original work, can confidently license that
work, at least to the level to which it may be administered by copyright law. The creator
knows that he or she has not plagiarized the work from another and therefore have the right
to license it.
Obtain and retain a patent: We need to realize the complex issues that are related
with patents. One main issue is that it is probable violation of a patented procedure by
the licensor or may be by very difficult to obtain and retain a patent in the first place. A risk of
the licensor's licensees, is always there
Filling of complex forms: We need to know that a long paperwork and filling
of comparatively complicated forms are needed to obtain a patent from the Office of
Patent and Trademark which is a legal body that grants patent and trademark. Some
explanation of the originality of the patent in question and how it differs from procedures or
methods already known are also needed. This generally requires the involvement of an
experienced patent legal representative. Due to the profitability of patent percentages, patent
owners tend to be very envious of their rights. They also watch the boundaries of their
patents dynamically, attempting through the magistrates to extend the limitations of their
patents as much as possible. At the same time, they also try to narrow the scope of patents held
by others. This can be an extremely costly and time-consuming trial.
Possession to protect the patent: You as a patent holder will not have the possessions
to protect the patent to be licensed under open source license, after you license that
patented software as open source software. This may have a significantly indifferent penalty
for the licensees of that patent. Sometimes, the licensee will initiate the use of the licensor's
patent in achievement with the terms of the license. However, at some point in the future,
that patent may be reduced or removed through a lawsuit by a competitive patent holder.
Due to the ongoing use of that reduced or removed patent, the licensee of the original
patent may be legally responsible to an opposing patent holder for a state of violation. It is
likely that such a licensee would want to take action to defend the licensor's patent. This can
be done by commencing or contributing in a patent lawsuit in situations in which the licensor
is reluctant or unable to protect the patent. This can, of course, get costly.
Warranties
Warranty is a written surety or security that some product or service will be offered or will meet
particular specifications. Another term related to warranty know as a disclaimer. It is a
protective measure, normally used with the objective of protection from unnecessary claims or
liability.
OPEN SOURCE LICENSES
THE GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE [GNU GPL]
• GNU GPL license was created by a computer programmer Richard Stallman in 1989. • GNU
GPL is the base for the open source licenses.
• This license was created under the guidance and principles of the Free Software Foundation
(FSF), which has made many contributions to the open source coding. • GNU GPL is a copyleft
license which gives the freedom to share as well as modify the works, which ensures that the
software is free for all its users.
• As it is a copyleft license, the derivative works must be distributed under the terms of the
original works.
• This license ensures that any modifications or add-ons made on the original works do not
affect its freedom to be an open-source. This feature makes it different from other permissive
free software licenses like the BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) license.
• GPLs are created to allow you to change the software or use a part of it in your new software
programs.
• If you decide to modify a program and later distribute the copies of that program, free or at
some cost, then you must pass on the same rights that you received from the original developer
of the software you modified to the recipients of your modified software.
• GNU GPL is usually opted for projects that are authorized by the FSF, which include GNU
Emacs Editor and the GNU C Compiler.
Conditions for the distributions the licensed work under GNU GPL License 1. This license
is applicable to software which contains the copyright holder’s notice saying that the software
may be distributed under the terms of GPL. The software here is the original software, any
derivative work from the original software, other software containing a part of copyrighted
software or translation of the software into other programming languages.
2. You have the right to distribute the original copies of the software source code licensed
under GPL. However, you have to make sure that the copyright notice and disclaimer of
warranty is published on each copy of the software before it is distributed and the recipients
of the software also gets a copy of the license along with the software. You even have the right
to charge a fee for physical transfer of the software and you can also offer warranty protection
for the software and charge some fee for it.
3. You can modify the entire or part of the software and this modification will be considered
as a derivative of the original software. However, you are supposed to follow the mentioned
condition while distributing the derived software work. If the
software contains only few portions of the licensed work along with the code which you have
written, then the license is applicable only to the portion of work that is derived from the
original licensed software and not for the codes that you have written. If you make few
modifications in the original program then you are supposed to license your modified work as
a part of the licensed work. You are supposed to distribute the modified or derived software
under the same license.
4. You may distribute the software in executable form following the mentioned conditions 2
and 3. You must distribute the copy of source code along with the executable code. The
distributed copies must also contain a written offer with a minimum validation period (3 years
for charging a fee for physical distribution of the software).
5. You will not have the rights to copy, modify or distribute the software in any other form
other than that is mentioned under this license. In case any activity performed by you that is
against or other than the terms and conditions mentioned in the license the you will not be able
to the enjoy the license rights further. Therefore, you are supposed to obey the conditions the
way it is mentioned in the license.
6. It is not mandatory for you to accept the license for using the software. However, if you
want to modify or distribute the original or modified software, you are supposed to accept the
license and strictly follow it. Without accepting the license, you cannot modify or distribute
the licensed software.
7. The person receiving the modified copy of the software from you also receives the license
from the original licensor to copy, modify or distribute the software. You do not have any rights
to impose new restrictions or conditions on the recipient.
8. The copyright holder has the freedom to limit the distribution of the software only to selected
countries.
9. The revised or new version of the license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
with different version numbers may be used to license the distribution of the modified
software. However, you are supposed to use any one complete version of the license and you
are not allowed to combine two licenses.
10. You must take the permission of the license holder if you want to introduce portion of the
software into other software under different licensing conditions.
THE LIBRARY GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE [ LGPL]
• The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a member of the GNU family of open
source licenses, along with the GNU GPL v2, the GNU GPL v3, and the GNU AGPL License.
• It was published by the Free Software Foundation as part of Richard Stallman’s
GNU Project.
• It is a copyleft license.
• But unlike the GPLs and AGPL, the LGPL is what’s known as a “weak copyleft” license.
• The LGPL is primarily applied to libraries. In fact, when the first version of this license was
released in 1991, GNU LGPL stood for GNU Library General Public License. The name was
changed when version 2.1 was published in 1999. The Free Software Foundation released the
Version 3.0, in 2007 along with the latest version of the GNU GPL (also v3). For example, the
C language library offered with Linux systems is termed under LGPL.
• The only difference between GPL and LGPL is that GPL allows you to license the
entire software product, while LGPL allows you to license only the software library of
the software product.

• The LGPL License (both versions) allows users of the licensed code to: ➢ Use the code
commercially: Like GPL, LGPL imposes no conditions on using the code in software that’s
sold commercially.

➢ Change the code: Users can rework the code, but if they distribute these modifications,
they must release these updates in source code form.

➢ Place warranty: Distributors of the original code can offer their own warranty on
the licensed software.
Conditions for distributions of the licensed work in LGPL
1. The license allows you to copy and distribute any number of original library software copies
in source code form. When distributing the copies, it will be your responsibility to distribute
it along with its copyright notice and warranty disclaimer. You can charge a fee for physical
transfer of copy to the user along with an offer of warranty.
2. You can modify the original copy of library software and developing software based on the
modified library and it can be distributed. This modified work must be a library not some
application software.
3. You have the freedom to change the license from LGPL to a GNU GPL. For this you need
to alter all the notices in the software that refers to this license. However, once you make such
change it will not be possible for you to switch back to LGPL again. This option helps you
when you want to use a part of the code in the library into your program directly.
4. You have the right to distribute the executable form of the library according to the mentioned
conditions 2 and 3 along with the source code of the software. 5. When you develop a software
that doesnot contain any derivative form of the library, it is termed as “work that use the
library”. Such a work is not considered as the derivative work and does not come under the
license. However, it may be linked or compiled with the library. When you link your software
with a Library and generate an executable code then this is a derivative of a Library and is
covered under this license. Therefore, it is only your software executable code that
contains the files from the GNU library is considered as the derivative work not the original
source code of the software. In case, a portion of your source code contains any code taken
from the library then it is considered as the derivative work. 6. You can store other library files
along with the GNU licensed library files but, the other library files will not come under this
license. In case of distribution of such a combined library you need to include a copy of your
work consisting of the combined library and another copy of the same work comprising only
the licensed library files and you need to include a notice explaining where to find these
two copies of work.
7. You are supposed to strictly follow the licensing conditions for any use of the library files.
In case, you do not follow the license you will not be allowed to use the software for any other
activity in future.
8. According to the law you accept the license when you start modifying or distributing the
library. Even though you do not sign any written agreement the activity you perform using the
software will define whether you are supposed to accept the license or not. Therefore, if you
perform the activities like copying, distributing or modifying the library reflects that you have
accepted the license.
9. It is your duty to make sure that the recipient of the software receives the original license
text of the library along with the library code files and you do not have the rights to impose
new restriction on the recipient.
10. The copyright holder has the freedom to limit the distribution of the software only
to selected countries.
11. The revised or new version of the license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
with different version numbers may be used to license the distribution of the modified
software. However, you are supposed to use any one complete version of the license and you
are not allowed to combine two licenses.
12. You must take the permission of the license holder if you want to introduce portion of the
software into other software under different licensing conditions.
Comparison between GPL and LGPL

Parameters GPL LGPL

 Description The GPL is used by many free software LGPL is essentially a
projects,
modified version of
including Linux. It assures that all users GPL. The scope of this
have access to the application under licence is usually restricted
this licence, allowing them to edit, modify to software libraries.
and redistribute the source code.

Protection Users of the software are better protected Under the LGPL,
under GPL than LGPL.
software users are
less protected than GPL.

Modification GPL does not allow users to modify and LPGL is a software
request return the library that allows users to
source code. modify and return the source
code.

Convert to The GPL cannot be The LGPL can be

translated into LGPL terms. translated into GPL
terms.

Used for For execution files, the GPL is utilised. For software libraries, the
LGPL is utilised.

1. What is a open source software?

2. Give examples of open source software.
3. List the reasons why open source software at zero price offers remarkable benefits to the
user.
4. List the principles of OSS.
5. Expand: OSS, OSI, FOSS, FLOSS, FSF
6. What is a public domain software?
7. What is a proprietary software?
8. Give example of proprietary software.
9. What is a License?
10. What is copyleft license?
11. What is a strong copyleft license?
12. What is a weak copy left license?
13. What is permissive license?
14. What is a copyright?
15. What is a contract?
16. What is a warranty?
17. Who created GNU GPL ?
18. GPL is which type of license? (copyleft or copyright)
19. LGPL is which type of license ? (strong copyleft or weak copyleft) 20. LGPL is a derived
from which license?
21. What are the distributions terms and conditions of GNU GPL?
22. What are the distributions terms and conditions of LGPL?