The MIT license and the BSD family of licenses

The MIT license is a permissive open source license that originated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology back in the 1980s. Currently, MIT is the second most popular among all OSS licenses, lagging behind Apache 2.0 with a narrow margin (30% usage for Apache 2.0 vs 26% usage for MIT based on data from WhiteSource).…Продължи да четеш

The Apache License 2.0

The Apache license 2.0 is one of the most popular permissive OSS licenses. There are many examples of prominent software products and successful projects licensed under Apache 2.0. The list includes Kubernetes (the famous open source system for deployment and management of containerized apps), the majority of the Android mobile platform and its documentation, Apache…Продължи да четеш

Open Source Software – The Challenges

After analyzing the numerous benefits offered by open source technology in our previous article, we will now focus our attention on the potential drawbacks that you should be aware of when OSS is used in a business setting. Being fully cognizant of those is crucial when you have to provide legal advice to key stakeholders.…Продължи да четеш

Open Source Software – The Advantages

When formulating and communicating legal advice to business stakeholders in a technological setting it is very important to be fully aware of the advantages and disadvantages presented by the use of open source software (OSS) products. OSS solutions can be highly beneficial for both internal use within an organization as well as integration or linking…Продължи да четеш

Source Code as a concept

There are two technical terms that you will often encounter when going through the pages of a software licensing agreement or a software development agreement. These are source code and object code. Nevertheless, before elucidating those concepts of source code and object code, it would make sense to first clarify what software is. Like many…Продължи да четеш

Main types of IT agreements

In this first installment of Tips on Tech Contracts we will focus our attention on some of the most common types of information technology agreements – software licenses and IPR assignments, cloud agreements, professional services and managed services agreements and hardware agreements.   Software licensing agreements and IPR assignments At the core of each software…Продължи да четеш

Legal protection of designs

The visual appeal of a product plays a key role for its potential commercial success. Brands such as Apple and Alfa Romeo are a clear example how the design of a product can be used to elicit an emotional response from the consumer that could ultimately result in a purchasing decision. All this goes to…Продължи да четеш