Free + Open Source Goodness

Jamie Tanna (@jamietanna)
Anna Dodson (@anna_hax)

Who are we?

Jamie

Software Quality Engineer @ Capital One
University of Nottingham Computer Science Alumnus ‘16
Hacksoc co-founder
4th time Hacktoberfest-er

Anna

I did a masters in CS here (I did not do an undergrad in CS)
Joined HackSoc, was one of the organisers of Inspire WiT 2016
My first hackathon was HackNotts
I am now a Software Engineer at Imosphere
I love my job
We use dot net… and a lot of open source tools too

So why is it important?

Tracey the farmer and her tractor that she can't legally self-repair

https://www.wired.com/story/john-deere-farmers-right-to-repair/

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apple-locking-down-macs-from-repairs/

https://itsfoss.com/linux-better-than-windows/

Open Source

Free Redistribution

no restrictions on selling / giving away, as part of “aggregate software distribution”
no royalty, other fees required

Source Code

Must include source code
Must allow distribution in source as well as compiled form
Can’t deliberately obfuscate, provide intermediate forms

Derived Works

allow modifications + derived works
must allow distribution under same terms of original license

Integrity of The Author’s Source Code

must allow distribution of software built from modified source code
although it may require different name, version

No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

may not restrict i.e. military, genetic research

Distribution of License

must apply to anyone the program is distributed to

No other licenses or requirements

License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

must not depend on being part of a software distribution

License Must Not Restrict Other Software

no restrictions on other software distributed with it

If you put it on a CD, would you also be able to put something proprietary?

License Must Be Technology-Neutral

not i.e. type of interface only

Free Software

“this is a matter of freedom, not price, so think of ‘free speech,’ not ‘free beer’”

Definitions via https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html

More of a ethical and philosophy movement than purely tech

Freedom 0

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).

Some licenses restrict the usages, such as being able to use it for military, medical purposes. This is no longer counted as free software.

Freedom 1

The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Freedom 2

The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).

Freedom 3

The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Licenses are hard

IANAL

I Am Not A Lawyer

Copyright vs Copyleft

Copyright: Only the author/creator has rights to copy, distribute, adapt the work

Copyleft: the public retains freedom to copy, distribute, adapt the work, provided it is under the same copyleft terms

Proprietary / All Rights Reserved

Yeah you’re not getting anything from this I.e. decompiling a Java, Android library - could be breaching IP by doing this

If you don’t put a license, this is what you say!

Source Available

Not technically a license!

Means you can access the source code, but don’t have any power for it

I.e. on GitLab, but no license

BSD (2-Clause)

BSD-2 Clause License on tldrlegal.com

MIT

MIT License on tldrlegal.com

Apache-2.0

Apache-2.0 License on tldrlegal.com

GPLv2

GPL-2.0 License on tldrlegal.com

AGPL

AGPL-2.0 License on tldrlegal.com

What about content like art, music, etc?

Creative Commons comes in here

https://creativecommons.org

Personal site content is Creative Commons, code is AGPLv3

Where do I get me some Open Source?

GitHub.com

GitLab.com

BitBucket.com

Other Source-hosting platforms

Not necessarily Git-based

Federation - all about the freedom to host outside of a silo!

Resources

TLDR; Legal

https://tldrlegal.com

Open Source Initiative

https://opensource.org

Open Source Guide

https://opensource.guide

Free Software Foundation

https://fsf.org

Hacktoberfest

https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/

https://webuiltthisforhacktoberfest.netlify.com/

Anna’s Hacktoberfests

2016

2017

Happy Hacktoberfest!

Hacktoberfest Pumpkin

https://webuiltthisforhacktoberfest.netlify.com/

Free + Open Source Goodness Jamie Tanna (@jamietanna) Anna Dodson (@anna_hax)