Open Source Software Licensing

Steve Lee, JD, Harvard Law School

5/09/2008
(Original Publish Date: 4/28/1999)

This paper argues that open source licenses -- whether they are lenient, like the BSD and the Artistic licenses, or they are strict, like the GNU GPL and the NPL/MozPL -- are legally enforceable. This paper also discusses how the open source movement has cultural norms and qualitative advantages that make the open source development model viable, with or without the law.