Meeting 4: OS Economic Model & Licensing

There was no Meeting 3 because our Professor went to KL to speak at a conference.

The business aspect of open source project

Lecture slide: http://cpe802.pbwiki.com/f/cpe802-mtg4.pdf

PART I
Books - the oldest form of open source material
-You can borrow books from library
-Problem: how do you improve the books?
-Permission department? - How do you ensure you get permitted to use the
book's materials/How long would the permission last...?
-You do get money from book publishing

Creative Commons to the rescue
(work through example at http://creativecommons.org/choose/ )
With a Creative Commons license, you keep your copyright but allow people to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit — and only on the conditions you specify here. (Source: http://creativecommons.org/choose/)
-Grant permission to published materials
-Make sure that people can share
-Copyright holder's permission can override CC license
-Language translation is covered
-This is the license you get
- You share your improved version of the material with the original author

Moore's Law - a powerful observation
-Every 18 months, technology doubles its capacity at half the price
-Proven again and again over the last 40 years (since 1960)
-Not applicable for proprietary software

OSS - unlimited possibilities
-Change the dynamics of entrepreneurship, where the whole community of OSS is your workforce
-OSS is communism? - NOT true.

Open Standard - utmost optimality
-Don't confuse with OSS, but they have a great deal of common features.
-Problem with proprietary of entire chain of products (Eg.: handphone, handphone charger, cable): low efficiency. HTC is the only phone with USB charger.
-You can use it anywhere, with anything, and build any stuff around it!
Six principles of OS:
-Spring Singapore: manage all open standards in Singapore (ISO for international). The only problem is you have to pay X dollars to get the standard. Still, accessibility is secured.
-Maximize end-user choice
Example of breaking the principle: Turkey - EU - energy-efficient light bulbs - only from the daughter of the ministry :D
-NO royalties. Why?
allow you to start using without having to be cash-rich
allow you to forget about worries that royalties will increase when you are successful using the standards
-NO discrimination
Eg.: IDA if I am a tourist using ap hone from my country, do I need to get permission to use the network in Singapore? - No logical manner, despite technical reasonableness.
-Extension or Subset
"My plug emits indicating light and a nice smell!!!" -> this cannot become a standard.
-Predatory practices
Microsoft and Sunmicro System (bought by Oracle) - Java (1995-96) - Microsoft licensed Java to run on Windows - Tweaks that prevents standard java to run to control what can run on Windows

PART II
-De facto = "by [the] fact". In law, it is meant to mean "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but without being officially established"
-De jure = "concerning the law" when referring to matters of law, governance, or technique (such as standards) that are found in the common experience as created or developed without or contrary to a regulation. When discussing a legal situation, de jure designates what the law says, while de facto designates action of what happens in practice.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_facto)
-Proprietary Standards: have to open .doc with Microsoft Office
Eg.: EU - Microsoft - publish how they save documents in Microsoft Windows - able to read documents many years from now

Open standard - the only solution
-Not limited to software
Example: hardware (http://arduino.org/)

Question: LTA - we are going to drive on the other side of the road from tomorrow!
Problem: Rearrange the steering wheel - road - signs
Most accidents happen at the tunnel connecting UK and France, where people have to switch to the opposite side of the road.

Question: Plagiarism - how do we ensure students are not plagiarising
Solution: Blog whatever you do / Algorithms to check authenticity. The techniques are getting better by the day but our university is lagging behind so we are stuck with the exam.

No discrimination against fields of endeavor: you can use the source code in any business as deemed possible
Question: what if you use it for illegal purpose? who will be responsible?

Copyright law: automatically recognized.
You can also claim it outright with CC - No attribution - No Derivative
Are you protected in Singapore? - Yes, specified in Copyright Act.

Open source licenses
- 99.9& are the same, but due to legal issues we have a long list
-General Public License (GPL): A gives B a piece of software. B modifies the software can keep it to himself (B may inform A but not necessary). But the moment B gives it to C, he has to reveal the whole software he inherits from A plus his modification. B can charge C. B can put the source code on a will. BUT nobody can change the GPL code except the original author. It will be there forever.
Forking the code.
-Question: if A incorporate B's modification into his original GPL, who does the source code belong to?
-Slightly modified version of GPL: BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution - Advertisement license): B does not have to show C the modifications B has made. B still has to tell C where it comes from (A). BUT all good ideas are lost along the way of sharing.