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An Investigation of How Commercial Software Companies Should React to Open Source Software

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An Investigation of How Commercial Software Companies Should React to Open Source Software An Investigation of How Commercial Software Companies Should React to Open Source Software UW CSEP 590 TU Course Project December 10, 2004 Patrick Haluptzok, Bipin Karunakaran, Rodrick Megraw, Magdalene Tatum, James Welle, and Song Xue Abstract Open source software began as the hobby of a small number of programmers and has developed today into a worldwide phenomenon that is a viable economic alternative to proprietary software. As a proprietary software company, it is essential that you understand open source and how to interact with this type of software. You may choose to compete with open source or embrace it into your business model, but ignoring open source is not a viable option. We present this paper as a guide to open source software. First, we discuss what open source is and explain its history. We also explain the general advantages and disadvantages of open source software. Second, we explain the myriad of open source licenses and how they work. Next, we discuss how your workforce can safely and effectively coexist and interact with open source software. In the fourth section of the paper, we discuss the different open source business models and the benefits of each. Fifth, we discuss the specific legal issues involved with open source software and we highlight the recent SCO litigation. Finally, we present a case study on Microsoft Windows and other proprietary platforms and investigate how they have reacted to the open source phenomenon. We also investigate possible open source strategies for the Windows operating system. Haluptzok, Karunakaran, Megraw, Tatum, Welle, and Xue 2 0 Table of Contents 0 Table of Contents........................................................................................................ 2 Introduction......................................................................................................................... 5 1 Open Source Definition, Benefits, History, and Alternatives..................................... 5 1.1 Source Code Defined .......................................................................................... 5 1.2 Open Source Defined.......................................................................................... 5 1.2.1 Free Redistribution......................................................................................6 1.2.2 Source Code................................................................................................ 6 1.2.3 Derived Works............................................................................................ 6 1.2.4 Integrity of the Author's Source Code ........................................................ 6 1.2.5 No Discrimination against Persons or Groups............................................ 6 1.2.6 No Discrimination against Fields of Endeavor........................................... 6 1.2.7 Distribution of License............................................................................... 6 1.2.8 License Must Not Be Specific to a Product................................................ 7 1.2.9 License Must Not Restrict Other Software................................................. 7 1.2.10 License Must Be Technology-Neutral........................................................ 7 1.3 Why Open Source............................................................................................... 7 1.4 Open Source Advantages.................................................................................... 7 1.5 Open Source Disadvantages ............................................................................... 8 1.6 Open Source Today............................................................................................. 9 1.7 Open Source History......................................................................................... 10 1.8 Other More Recent Successes........................................................................... 12 1.9 Open Source Alternatives ................................................................................. 12 2 Open Source Licensing............................................................................................. 15 2.1 Characteristics of Open Source Licenses.......................................................... 15 2.1.1 Derived Works.......................................................................................... 15 2.1.2 No Warranty.............................................................................................. 16 2.1.3 No Liability............................................................................................... 16 2.1.4 Patents....................................................................................................... 16 2.1.5 Commercial Use........................................................................................17 2.1.6 Interaction with Other Modules................................................................ 17 2.1.7 Attribution statement ................................................................................ 17 2.2 Classes of Open Source Licenses ..................................................................... 18 2.2.1 Copyleft Licenses......................................................................................18 2.2.2 Weak-copyleft Licenses............................................................................ 19 2.2.3 Non-copyleft Licenses.............................................................................. 19 2.2.4 Hybrid Licenses........................................................................................ 20 2.2.5 Dual Licenses............................................................................................ 21 2.2.6 License Disjunctions................................................................................. 21 2.3 Non-Open Source Licenses............................................................................... 23 2.4 License Compatibility....................................................................................... 23 2.5 Creating a New License.................................................................................... 23 2.6 Making a Decision ............................................................................................ 24 3 Commercial Software and Open Source Coexistence .............................................. 25 Haluptzok, Karunakaran, Megraw, Tatum, Welle, and Xue 3 3.1 Protecting Proprietary Source Code Copyright ................................................ 25 3.1.1 Competitive Advantage of Proprietary Source Code................................ 25 3.1.2 Value of Proprietary Source Code ............................................................ 25 3.1.3 Traditional approaches to protecting proprietary source code.................. 26 3.1.4 New risks with respect to open source...................................................... 26 4 Open Source from a Business Point of View............................................................ 29 4.1 Do I Really NEED to Open Source?................................................................. 29 4.2 Engineer a Successful Open Source Project ..................................................... 30 4.3 Open Source Software License......................................................................... 30 4.4 The Traditional Software Business Model ....................................................... 30 4.5 Open Source Business Models.......................................................................... 31 4.5.1 Pure Open Source Business Models ......................................................... 31 4.5.2 Hybrid Business Models........................................................................... 34 4.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 35 5 Case Study: SCO v IBM and Open Source Legal Risks .......................................... 37 5.1 Introduction....................................................................................................... 37 5.2 Open Source Licensing Legal Risks................................................................. 37 5.3 The SCO Group v IBM..................................................................................... 37 6 Case Study: Microsoft Windows and Open Source Platforms ................................. 40 6.1 Introduction....................................................................................................... 40 6.2 Microsoft’s Historical Position......................................................................... 40 6.3 Other Proprietary Platforms.............................................................................. 42 6.3.1 Apple......................................................................................................... 42 6.3.2 Sun Microsystems..................................................................................... 43 6.3.3 Symbian .................................................................................................... 44 6.4 Possible Open Source Strategies for Microsoft ................................................ 44 6.4.1 The Windows Architecture....................................................................... 44 6.4.2 An Upper Layers Strategy ........................................................................ 45 6.4.3 A Lower Layers Strategy.......................................................................... 46 6.4.4 A Component
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