A Chinese software development company used an open-source encryption library to develop software products and sold these products to customers in Europe and USA. This library was licensed under the GPL (GNU General Public License), which requires that all derivative works also be released under the same license with their source code published.
Shortly after the product was released, the company received a legal notice from the maintainers of the original open-source project, stating that the company had failed to comply with the GPL’s requirement to publish the source code. Additionally, because the encryption technology involved was subject to USA export controls, the company also faced an investigation by the U.S. government for failing to obtain the appropriate export licenses.
Main legal issues in open-source development:
1.Copyright Issues:
Open-source code can be freely used and modified but is still protected by copyright law. Users must follow the licensing requirements of the source code, such as retaining copyright notices, modification records, including the license text, stating copyright information, and disclosing the source code (when required). Failure to comply with these requirements could lead to copyright disputes.
2.License Compatibility:
Open-source projects may use various licenses, which can sometimes be incompatible with each other. License types include permissive licenses (such as MIT, BSD), weak copyleft licenses (such as LGPL), and strong copyleft licenses (such as GPL).
Some licenses may prohibit use with certain other types of licenses or have strict restrictions on the licensing of derivative works.
For example, the GPL requires that derivative works also be released under the GPL, whereas MIT and Apache licenses are more lenient.
3. Intellectual Property Conflicts:
Software developed using open-source code may include contributions from multiple contributors, which can increase the complexity of intellectual property rights. Failure to clearly indicate the ownership of various parts of the code can lead to legal issues.
4. Export Restrictions:
Compliance with international trade laws, especially USA export control regulations, is crucial because some software may contain restricted technology.
