The Research On Legal Problem Of Open Source Software

Open source software is a sort of computer software whose source code is issued under the software license which is approved by OSIA. The reason why the open source software is different from other softwares is that it must be issued under the open source license.Open source license claimes that every software issued by its name must make the source code of the modifications available to others, and the contributor must grant everyone the right to use, modify, display and sublicense. If the user of open source software modifies the open source software and gets a new deductive work, he must make the source code of the modifications available to others according to the request of open source license, and also grants everyone the right to use, modify, display and sublicense.The issue of open source software originally was the behavior with personal hobbies that does not expected a profit. But as the intervention of commerce, the open source software becomes a carrier of commercial operation pattern gradually. It starts to desire for benefits. The relationship between the rights and obligations which are caused by the open source software has become more and more complicated and innumerable disputes have happened related to this kind of softwares at present.However, because open source software has its own special characters, the current software protection laws,regulations and the usual software protection theories can not provide the complete protection plan.It needs a more meticulous law which has stronger pertinence to adjust.This article will concentrate on three questions from various focal points of disputes in the current reality, which is no warranty of open source software, the copyrights of following explorers of open source software and the patent tort problem of open source software. This article tries to study through the particularity of open source software and clarify the difficulties of the three focal points in the present legal system.After the study which was done with a series of thoughts, this article discovers that open source software must be supervised by a special law which conforms to its specific characters. However, considering the economy actual and legislation reality of China, it is still too early to legislate individually. Consequently, it is more practical to adjust individual clauses or related judicial interpretations based on current legal frame. Then, the modulating conception of special law can be pursuited. Hopefully, this cautious arrangement is able to provide an explicit way for solving disputes of open source software.