The Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_license has four:
1. The Rise of Open Source Licensing, by Mikko Valimaki 2. Die GPL kommentiert und erklart, by ifrOSS (a German organisation) 3. Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing, by Andrew M. St. Laurent 4. Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law, by Larry Rosen
I don't know if any of them are any good. I've heard the 2nd one is good, but I can't read German. I have a suspicion that the 4th is quite bad.
Does anyone know of other books?
I'm not necessarily looking for good ones, or even ones that support a software freedom point of view. Just wondering what's out there.
Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
Does anyone know of other books?
Volker Grassmuck: Freie Software -- Zwischen Privat- und Gemeineigentum http://freie-software.bpb.de
On 29 Dec 2006 14:55:28 +0000, Ciaran O'Riordan ciaran@fsfe.org wrote:
The Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_license has four:
- Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing, by Andrew M. St.
I corrected the wikipedia page, moving the book "Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing" to the freely-licensed books section.
The link to the free version is http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/osfreesoft/book/
bye
--- Stefano Spinucci FSFE Fellow
On Fri, 2006-12-29 at 14:55 +0000, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
The Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_license has four:
- The Rise of Open Source Licensing, by Mikko Valimaki
- Die GPL kommentiert und erklart, by ifrOSS (a German organisation)
- Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing, by Andrew M. St. Laurent
- Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law, by Larry Rosen
I don't know if any of them are any good. I've heard the 2nd one is good, but I can't read German. I have a suspicion that the 4th is quite bad.
Does anyone know of other books?
Putting some of those listed into Google scholar returns possible titles which cite the above - you might be able to find more of what you're looking for that way.
On what basis do you suspect the Rosen book is bad, btw?
(Aside from the coverage of 'controversies', eg. SCO, I was of the impression it was basically a factual hand-in-hand walk through basic IP law?)
Cheers,
Alex.
Alex Hudson schrieb:
On Fri, 2006-12-29 at 14:55 +0000, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
[...]
- Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law, by Larry Rosen
I don't know if any of them are any good. I've heard the 2nd one is good, but I can't read German. I have a suspicion that the 4th is quite bad.
[...]
On what basis do you suspect the Rosen book is bad, btw?
(Aside from the coverage of 'controversies', eg. SCO, I was of the impression it was basically a factual hand-in-hand walk through basic IP law?)
As there is nothing common in patents, copyright and trademark laws and as they have very different histories, putting them together into one pot called "Intellectual Property" is very bad. Thus I would suspect this book to be bad and guess that's the reason of Ciaran to do so, too.
Best wishes Michael
Sáb, 2006-12-30 às 13:38 +0100, Michael Kallas escreveu:
Alex Hudson schrieb:
On Fri, 2006-12-29 at 14:55 +0000, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
[...]
- Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law, by Larry Rosen
I don't know if any of them are any good. I've heard the 2nd one is good, but I can't read German. I have a suspicion that the 4th is quite bad.
[...]
On what basis do you suspect the Rosen book is bad, btw?
(Aside from the coverage of 'controversies', eg. SCO, I was of the impression it was basically a factual hand-in-hand walk through basic IP law?)
As there is nothing common in patents, copyright and trademark laws and as they have very different histories, putting them together into one pot called "Intellectual Property" is very bad. Thus I would suspect this book to be bad and guess that's the reason of Ciaran to do so, too.
Also, if there's no "Intellectual Property Law" but many laws, how can I take such a lawyer as credible?
Rui
On Sat, 2006-12-30 at 13:38 +0100, Michael Kallas wrote:
Alex Hudson schrieb:
On what basis do you suspect the Rosen book is bad, btw?
(Aside from the coverage of 'controversies', eg. SCO, I was of the impression it was basically a factual hand-in-hand walk through basic IP law?)
As there is nothing common in patents, copyright and trademark laws and as they have very different histories, putting them together into one pot called "Intellectual Property" is very bad.
Referring to them collectively is not bad; making statements about them collectively is - it's completely different. If you go into any law bookshop, you'll find virtually every introductory textbook on those laws groups them together.
Suspecting a book is bad simply because it contains a "bad word" in the title is about the clearest form of judging a book by its cover that I can think of.
Cheers,
Alex.
Alex Hudson home@alexhudson.com wrote:
Suspecting a book is bad simply because it contains a "bad word" in the title is about the clearest form of judging a book by its cover that I can think of.
I suspect that book's bad not simply because it has a very confused title, but also because IIRC Larry Rosen was OSI's legal counsel. Larry Rosen encouraged licence proliferation by creating at least two licences with extremely questionable terms (choice-of-venue in the AFL and OSL, again IIRC), OSI's licence approval process is even worse than FSF's (somewhat opaque) one and OSI still publishes their FUD against "free software". I'd probably start with the alternatives to any book written by Larry Rosen or similar OSIer.
(Those of you who have been reading newsforge lately may know that I'm rather irritated that SPI has recently decided to give away the valuable opensource.org and .net domains to OSI, removing one of the last formal community influences over OSI. SPI's board seemed to take a leaf out of FSF-Boston's book, with pre-decision discussions kept out of sight - not only from the public, but from SPI's members. If there are any SPI members reading this who want to help, please email me - or wade into spi-private. If you're eligible for SPI membership: ( * active members of SPI affiliated projects * active members of any large free software development project * any person who has made a significant contribution to the free software community * any person who actively contributes to the free software community ), please consider joining and voting for community control.)
Hope that explains,
On Sat, 2006-12-30 at 18:36 +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
I suspect that book's bad not simply because it has a very confused title, but also because IIRC Larry Rosen was OSI's legal counsel.
That would be a sounder reason (not that he was OSI, but the things that he has therefore been involved with).
I did ask without revealing my personal prejudices, but I have heard interesting points of view from Rosen before - OSL doesn't particularly fill me with happiness either. I would have a similar inclination to Ciaran, and (I assume) yourself. I wouldn't be able to put my finger on a single thing that he wrote that makes me think that way, though (maybe I could have in the past..)
Cheers,
Alex.
Alex Hudson home@alexhudson.com writes:
On what basis do you suspect the Rosen book is bad, btw?
His explanation of why "click-wrap" contract licences are good: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6409 didn't convince me.
His two new licences seem to be unnecessary licence proliferation.
He also proposed a business model recently, and while I didn't read his proposal, the community response suggests that it's a bit slimey: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2006091118502284
In general, his writings don't inspire me with confidence.
On Sun, 2006-12-31 at 16:02 +0000, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
Alex Hudson home@alexhudson.com writes:
On what basis do you suspect the Rosen book is bad, btw?
<snip>
He also proposed a business model recently, and while I didn't read his proposal, the community response suggests that it's a bit slimey: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2006091118502284
In general, his writings don't inspire me with confidence.
Eh.
I would probably state it in stronger words based on the International Characters business model; I remember reading it at the time it was published and being horrified.
I didn't really even understand how it was supposed to be GPL compatible (as in, I think a non-commercial patent licence is pretty obviously incompatible).
Cheers,
Alex.
On 29-Dec-2006, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
Does anyone know of other books?
I'm not necessarily looking for good ones, or even ones that support a software freedom point of view. Just wondering what's out there.
Though it covers many different aspects of a free software project (and in spite of the probably publisher-imposed "open source" title), this book does spend some effort on the topic of licensing for free software:
Producing Open Source Software: How to run a successful free software project Karl Fogel; O'Reilly Media