Separating Myth From Facts: Understanding Open Source Software

Mark Webbink, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Red Hat, Inc., wrote this article for corporate attorneys, explaining free and open source software and comparing various open source licenses, detailing how the GPL really works, explaining US copyright law, and listing some corporate law office best practices for software, from the standpoint of what policies are prudent for the corporate environment. He also explains how derivative works are defined, touches on the indemnification issue and the difference between open source and "shared source", and highlights some of the main myths and misconceptions about the GPL and open source.