What every Computer Scientist Needs to Know about Software Licenses
Andrew Adams
University of Reading
GPL, LGPL, BSD, Apache, GNU, Shared Source, Open Source, Free Software. The
alphabet soup that needs swimming through when trying to decide how to best
release that piece of academic software can drown the idea at birth. However,
help is at hand. In this easy to follow, non-legalistic seminar, the basic
aspects of writing and understanding software licensing and related issues
will be explained. In particular, the long term ramifications for
exploitation (by the author(s) or others, by commercial or non-profit
organisations) will be covered, along with a bluffers guide to choosing the
right license. Know your rights and you can release software safe in the
knowledge tht you're releasing it in the right way. There may be thousands of
types of license out there but the choice is usually very simple.
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