Lit Review: FOSS Primer
The other piece that we needed to review was the first two chapters of the FOSS Primer.
By Fontana et all, the primer is distributed by the Software Freedom Law Center.
The version we read for class was v1.5.2, published on 4 June 2008.
Overall, the chapters we read gave a quick overview of the different types of license, as well as some of the most commonly-used licenses and the differences between them.
The Good:
- Offers a succinct overview that should be enough to give the most important details
- Provides references for more information
- Explains simply the differences between the common licenses
The Bad:
- Very dense information
- Jumps right into licenses, which can be surprising for the reader
- Doesn’t contain much information about non-code licensing
The Questions:
- What benefit does copyright registration provide?
- What problems would copyright registration provide for the FOSS community?
- When would strong copyleft cause problems?
Rating: 7/8 Stallman Beards
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