CENG1006 Social and Professional

Issues in Computer Science

Spring 2021
Dr. Barış İşçi Pembeci
[email protected]
Free Software and Open Source
Movements

We have examined two ways of

protecting intellectual property. However,
some have argued for the view that no
formal legal protection should be given to
intellectual property even if we do grant
such protection to physical property.
 Free Software MoveFree Software
and Open Source Movementsment
One of the best known, and perhaps most
controversial, arguments for why
conventional intellectual property rights
should not be granted to computer
software has been made by Richard
Stallman, who views software ownership as
disregarding the general welfare of society.

As an alternative to this trend, Stallman

proposes that programmers work together
to make software freely available for
humankind rather than supporting efforts
to restrict its use.
Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU
project
 Free Software and Open Source
Movements
Although Stallman has been a staunch advocate for the view that software should be free, we
should note that he intends “free” to refer to liberty, not to price (or “free” as in free speech
vs. free beer).

Stallman’s position on why software should be free may have been influenced by the culture
of the at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where source code could be freely
exchanged.

As we saw earlier, however, that practice began to change in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Also during that period, the flourishing computer industry hired many of the best software
developers and programmers from academic computing labs, and some of those individuals
took the software they developed with them.
As a result, some of that software eventually became proprietary. In response to these
trends, Stallman began his GNU project in 1984. GNU’s goal was to develop an entire Unix-
like operating system, complete with system utilities, that was “open” and freely accessible.
 Free Software and Open Source
Movements
◼ GNU is a recursive acronym for
"GNU's Not Unix!"
◼ It began with a UNIX-like operating
system, a sophisticated text editor,
and many compilers and utilities.
GNU now has hundreds of programs
freely available and popular among
computer professionals and skilled
amateur programmers.
◼ Thousands of software packages
are available as free software,
including audio and video
manipulation packages, games,
educational software, and various Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU
science and business applications. project
Free Software and Open Source
Movements
GNU and the Free Software Foundation

As stronger intellectual property rights began to be granted to software

“owners” in the early 1980s, and as more and more software became
proprietary, some programmers were concerned about whether they
would be able to exchange software programs with each other in the
future.
They also worried that someone other than themselves would “own” their
creative works.
In 1985, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) was formed in response to
these concerns, as well as to support Stallman’s GNU project.
 Free Software and Open Source
Movements
According to FSF, four “freedoms” are
essential for free software. These include
freedom to
1. run the program, for any purpose;
2. study how the program works, and
adapt it for your needs;
3. redistribute copies so you can help
your neighbor;
4. improve the program, and release
your improvements to the public so
that the whole community benefits
 Free Software and Open Source
Movements
The software that is produced by programmers adhering to “free software”
requirements (freely downloadable from www.fsf.org/) is typically accompanied by
a licensing agreement that is designed to keep it freely available to other users
“downstream,” who can continue to modify the source code.

The best known of these is the GNU Public License (GPL). The kind of protection
granted by this license is also known as copyleft
 What is Free Software?
Whereas copyright law is seen by FSF’s
proponents as a way to restrict the right to make
and redistribute copies of a particular work, a
copyleft license included in GPL uses an
alternative scheme that “subverts” the traditional
copyright mechanism in order to ensure that
every person who receives a copy, or derived
version of a work, can use, modify, and also
redistribute both the work and the derived
version of the work.

All derivative works of GPL software must also be

licensed under GPL. In this way, the four
freedoms of FSF are propagated in future
software developed under this agreement.
 What is Free Software?

Stallman compares software to a recipe.

We can all decide to add a little garlic or
take out some salt without paying a
royalty to the person who developed the
recipe.
 Free Software and Open Source
Movements
By the early 1990s, the GNU project had produced many important software
development tools in compliance with FSF guidelines and the specifications for
Unix-like source code.
Throughout the 1980s, however, there was some confusion as to just what “Unix”
meant, since several versions of that operating system existed—some at
universities such as Berkeley, and others in the private sector such as AT&T Bell
Laboratories where Unix was originally developed.
This resulted in lawsuits and counter lawsuits regarding which sections of Unix
software source code could be freely distributed and which sections were
proprietary.
The legal problems created some difficulties for Stallman and the GNU project
because GNU still lacked the core of its (Unix-like) operating system—that is, the
kernel.
 Free Software and Open Source
Movements

However, this issue was finally

resolved in the early 1990s, when …
 Free Software and Open Source
Movements
Linus Torvalds developed the kernel for
a Unix-like operating system that he
called Linux.
At this point, GNU realized its goal of
having a complete, functional
operating system with all of the source
code freely available for inspection,
modification, improvement.
The GNU project and FSF significantly
influenced another, related software
development initiative known as the
Open Source Software (OSS)
movement.
 Free Software and Open Source
Movements
The “Open Source Software” Movement: OSF vs. FSF

OSS, which began in 1988, shares many of the same goals as FSF—
most notably, the ability of a software user to look at, understand,
modify, and redistribute the source code for that software. Like FSF,
OSS requires that its source code be freely available.

So, both movements are similar with respect to their requirements

for the free use of their source code in the software development
process.
 Free Software and Open Source
Movements
The “Open Source Software” Movement: OSF vs.
FSF
However, there are significant differences in the
“attitudes” or philosophies of these two groups.

Whereas FSF continues to focus on promoting its

philosophical position that software should be free, OSS
has concentrated its efforts more on promoting the open
source model as an alternative methodology to “closed-
source” development for software.
 Free Software and Open Source
Movements
The “Open Source Software” Movement: OSF vs. FSF
OSS and FSF also differ with respect to requirements for how the
software is used downstream.
For example, FSF requires that all derivative pieces of software be
subject to the original requirements and thus remain “open” and
nonproprietary. OSS, on the contrary, is flexible with respect to its
derivative software. Unlike FSF, which requires that users strictly
adhere to its GPL license in all derivative uses of its software, OSS
supports less restrictive licenses such as Berkeley’s Software
Distribution (BSD) and Netscape’s Mozilla Public License (MPL).
These licenses are considered more “lenient” than GPL because they
permit programmers to alter the open source software and to release
it as a proprietary product.
 Free Software and Open Source
Movements
The “Open Source Software” Movement: OSF vs. FSF
Another difference between OSS and FSF can be found in their
attitudes toward the business community. The former is less
anticommercial than the latter.
Whereas Torvalds believes that OSS and commercial software can
coexist, Stallman does not believe that this is possible in the long run
because of the profit incentives that drive investors in the
commercial sector.
Stallman also condemns the business community’s practice of
producing proprietary or “closed” code as unethical, and he claims
that signing a typical software licensing agreement is like “betraying
your neighbor.”
 An Alternative: The Creative Commons

The Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization

launched in 2001, was founded by Lawrence Lessig and
others. The principal aim of this organization is to provide
creative solutions to problems that current copyright laws
pose for sharing information.
One of CC’s goals is to expand the range of creative work
available to others legally to build upon and share. To
accomplish this objective, CC provides a set of licensing
options that help creators give others the freedom and
creativity to build upon their creativity.
 An Alternative: The Creative Commons

Lessig (2004) points out that such a

“creative” scheme for licensing is needed
because many people now realize that the
current intellectual property rights regime
does not make sense in the digital world.
 An Alternative: The Creative Commons

We should note that CC does not aim to

undermine the principle of copyright. Lessig
concedes that copyrights protect important
values and are essential to creativity, even in a
digital age.
He also believes that if the essence of copyright
law is to allow creators to have control, then
there should be a way to maintain ownership of
copyrighted works and still make it possible for
the average person to license the use of those
works.
 An Alternative: The Creative Commons

Lessig notes that, unfortunately, the current version of

copyright, which was not written for a world of digital
creativity, “restricts more than it inspires.”

Traditional copyright regimes tend to promote an “all or

nothing” kind of protection scheme with their “exclusive
rights” clauses.

CC provides a “middle ground” with respect to copyright

protection because it makes possible a “some rights
reserved” approach vs. an “all rights reserved” policy.
 An Alternative: The Creative Commons

CC provides a menu of options in its licensing and

contract schemes, available on its Web site
(http://creativecommons.org) free of charge, that
enable copyright holders to grant some of their rights
to the public while retaining others.
 An Alternative: The Creative Commons
The following options are provided:

Attribution—permit others to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and
derivative works based upon it only if they give you credit.

Noncommercial—permit others to copy, distribute, display, and perform the

work and derivative works based upon it only for noncommercial purposes.

Derivative—permit others to copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim

copies of the work, not derivative works based upon it.

Share alike—permit others to distribute derivative works only under a license

identical to the license that governs your work.

By specifying one or more of these options, you can retain the copyright for your
creative work while also allowing for uses of it under some circumstances.
 Aaron Swartz
◼ In 2011, Swartz was arrested
by Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) police on
state breaking-and-entering
charges, after connecting a
computer to the MIT network
in an unmarked and unlocked
closet, and setting it to
download academic journal
articles systematically from
JSTOR using a guest user Swartz in 2002 with Lawrence
Lessig at the launch party for
account issued to him by MIT. Creative Commons
Source: wikipedia
 Aaron Swartz
◼ Aaron Hillel Swartz (November
8, 1986 – January 11, 2013)
was an American computer
programmer, entrepreneur,
writer, political organizer, and
Internet hacktivist.
◼ He was involved in the development
of the web feed format RSS (at age
14) and the Markdown publishing
format, the organization Creative
Commons (15), and the website
framework web.py, and was a co-
founder of the social news site
Reddit (at age 19).
A sign in a pub in Granada notifies
customers that the music they are listening
to is freely distributable under a Creative
Commons license.
Creative Commons, since 2011, has
created many "ports", or adaptions, of its
licenses to make them compatible with the
copyright legislation of various countries
worldwide.
 Watch and Read

◼ Lawrence Lessig, the Net’s most celebrated lawyer:

Laws That Choke Creativity

◼ Creative Commons: A Shared Culture (video)

◼ Swartz’s Guerilla Open Access Manifesto. He wrote:

“The world's entire scientific ... heritage ... is increasingly being digitized and
locked up by a handful of private corporations....”
“The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not
sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the
Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it.”