| Consider first the process of software licensing from the perspective of the recipient of the license, the licensee . Ofcourse, a licensee doesn't choose the license; open source software is usually offered on the licensor's terms, without negotiation. In some cases, even the licensor may actually have no choice in the license, as when an open source project uses a reciprocal license, as in the GPL, MPL, or OSL that mandates a license for modifications. So since you probably can't negotiate the license, the main issues that should concern you if you in-license software is whether the terms and conditions of the license being offered are acceptable given your business goals. These are the typical considerations: -
Do you understand the terms and conditions of the license, or are there ambiguities and uncertainties that might affect license interpretation by reasonable parties or by a court ? -
Are you intending to create and distribute derivative works of the software? If so, can you accept the reciprocity obligation of the license? Are you willing to distribute your derivative works under the same license? Are you satisfied with the license's definition of derivative works? -
Does the license grant you sufficient patent rights to create derivative works? If not, what other patent licenses will you need to make, use, sell, offer to sell, or import derivative work software? -
Does the licensor actually provide source code? Will you actually ever need it? -
Will you need any additional rights not included in the license, such as the right to apply trademarks to your goods? -
Are you prepared to honor license conditions relating to copyright and other notices? -
Do you need broader warranty protection than is offered under the license? If you do, is additional warranty protection offered at a price? -
Do you accept the limitations of liability under which the software is offered? -
Are you prepared to accept the jurisdiction, venue , and governing law provisions of the license? If you ever have to litigate this license, where and how would it be done? -
Are you prepared to accept the license termination provisions? Assuming you are going to invest in adopting and using the software in important ways, what is the chance that your license to the software may terminate? Notice that there is one consideration that has already been dealt with if you accept an approved license listed on the Open Source Initiative website, www.opensource.org : You may be certain that the software license meets the Open Source Definition and the five Open Source Principles listed in Chapter 1 of this book. You can copy, create derivative works, distribute, make, use, and sell the open source software that you in-license. |
