A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects

Richard Fontana, Software Freedom Law Center, Bradley M. Kuhn, Software Freedom Law Center, Eben Moglen, Software Freedom Law Center, Matthew Norwood, Software Freedom Law Center, Daniel B. Ravicher, Software Freedom Law Center, Karen Sandler, Software Freedom Law Center, and James Vasile, Software Freedom Law Center

4/18/2008
(Original Publish Date: 3/3/2008)

While FOSS development can raise many legal issues, a few topics predominate in our work; these are the issues most integral to FOSS projects. This Primer provides a baseline of knowledge about those areas of the law, intending to support productive conversations between clients and lawyers about specific legal needs. We aim to improve the conversation between lawyer and client, but not to make it unnecessary, because law, like most things in life, very rarely has clear cut answers. Solutions for legal problems must be crafted in light of the particulars of each client's situation. What is best for one client in one situation, may very well not be best for another client in the same situation, or even the same client in the same situation at a later date or in a different place. Law cannot yield attainable certainty because it is dynamic, inconsistent, and incapable of mastery by pure rote memorization. This is why we do not provide forms or other tools for "do it yourself" lawyering, which are almost always insufficient and, in fact, can be very harmful to a project's interests.