Legal Risks And Responses To Open Source Software Licenses

In the 1990 s,the open source movement in the world vastly promote the spirit of freedom and Sharing which has a far-reaching influence.Open source software can solve the problem to the exclusive use of a software,and ensure the users under certain conditions shall have the right to unlimited reproduction and modification of software.Open source software is like a "cardiac stimulant",inspiring enthusiasts to contribute their own power to the innovation and development of software technology.In recent years,the cases regarding violation of open source software licenses occurred all over the world,we should realize that open source software is not public software and using open source software shall strictly abide by the terms of the license.Otherwise you will face a serious legal risk.Research through our country's enterprises using open source software not complying with the software license,studying and finding out the reason is that our understanding of open source software has mistaken and some provisions of the license exist misunderstandings as well as fluky psychology to the legal consequences.Software licenses include seven categories of 63 different kinds software licenses,and the more common ones are GPL licenses,MPL licenses,and BSD licenses.In these licenses,some of the licensing features are common to all licenses,such as the obligation to publish,the integrity of the release code,modifications allowed,and the unwarranted terms.In addition to the common characteristics,each license has special provisions,such as the GPL license's very special "contagious terms" : requires allsoftware contain or combined with other software under the GPL software to apply the GPL terms as well.This article will summary and analysis these shared common license terms and common terms of license,summarized the software license possible legal risk and remind the matters that should be paid attention when using open source software license.In addition to the individual legal risks caused by the software license,conflicts between licenses,infringement risk,conflict between monopoly and license jungle is more complicated legal risks of license.Through the analysis of the license terms and conditions,analyze the related case and points out that legal risk between the license.Through the verdict of the United States and Germany on the software license,summed up the decision points and worth learning in the process of the lawsuit and using for reference,such as the temporary restraining order of United States and comparing with our country's system of preservation before an lawsuit and learn their advantages.After analysis the legal risk and foreign cases,summed up the legal risk aversion to permit the license terms.To common terms of the license,clear violation of the license terms belong to tort liability,explicitly permit infringement jurisdiction and applicable law issues of copyright infringement,to set up the open source software registration system and strengthen the open source community function and give the qualification of the plaintiff.Dealing with conflict between multiple licenses,we shall clarify the legal conflict between different license,a clear violation of license terms belong to tort liability,and handle the risk of the jungle.Open source software can promote enterprise development and progress,Chinese companies will also be suspended in the top of the head of the "sword of Damocles",once we violated the western enterprise interests,we will then face a threat of litigation by western companies.So we shall do the legal risk prevention.