Research On Problems Of Intellectual Property Protection For Open Source Software

As a new software development method, open source has achieved rapid growth throughout the world in recent years. The concept of free distribution and sharing advocated by it has been deeply rooted in people's mind. With the widespread use of Internet technologies, open source software is now moving from among only programmers to commercial product that has taken considerable market share and challenged its traditional competitor.The reason why open source software has so strong influence and develops so rapidly is that it creates a series of new ideas and rules which are much vastly different from tradition intellectual properties. Most rules of open source software are a part of the open source software license. The vitality and influence of open source software is rooted in its protection mechanism, particularly the license. What is the legal nature of the open source license? To what degree is it compatible to current laws? What risks exist here? The answer to all these questions determines the future of open source software. In 2003, the famous Unix system developer SCO Group sued the second largest software manufacturer IBM for stealing intellectual property (IP). This case revealed the legal loophole in intellectual property protection of open source software - even the Regulations on Computer Software Protection cannot clearly define the problems existing in today's world. Consequently, scholars in an increasing number have focused on the legal research of open source software.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current problems in and provide suggestions to IP protection of open source software. Hope this paper will be useful to the development of open source software in China.The main body of this paper consists of four chapters.In the first chapter, the author introduces the definition, origin and development of open source software. The Open Source Initiative Association (OSIA) was also discussed in this part. In the second chapter, the author mainly focuses on the intellectual property protection mechanism of open source software. After analyzing their respective advantages and disadvantages, the author moves to the core concept of current protection mechanisms, open source license. Prevailing licenses are discussed here and compared against those of traditional commercial software. Based on this analysis, the author finally concludes that the legal nature of open source software license be a license contract of copyrights.In the third chapter, the author analyzes the current problems in open source IP protection. On one hand, inherent flaws in open source software license are discussed, such as the effectiveness, compatibility problems and those occur in license translation, interpretation and enforcement. On the other, IP risks in open source software are considered, including those of copyright and patent infringement.In the fourth chapter, the author provides suggestions from both technical and legal perspectives to management issues, such as risk reduction and license improvement of open source IP rights.