Research Report on Intellectual Property Rights of open source software and commercial software (medium)

Historical experience shows that intellectual property rights are a powerful means to promote technological progress and develop the economy. In his book "Intellectual Property: a powerful means to boost economic growth", Dr. camir Idris, Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, vividly describes the basic model of intellectual property rights for economic development: ask questions -- use knowledge to solve problems -- achieve innovation -- achieve intellectual property -- new technology and new methods -- the economy is promoted and growing.

Intellectual property rights are a typical combination of science and technology, economy, and law. Intellectual property rights mechanisms are important legal mechanisms to promote and safeguard technological progress and economic development; intellectual property rights have become a major form and means of competition in international trade.

Promotion of copyright (copyright) Law Protection to the software industry

Since the 1980s s, the development of the software industry has proved that copyright protection plays an important role in promoting software technology innovation, product circulation and use, and even in the whole process of industrial development.
According to the electronic Intellectual Property Consulting Service Center of the Ministry of Information Industry and the China Software Industry Association "China Software Industry Development Environment Survey Report", software piracy is one of the most important factors restricting the development of China's software industry.
The IDC Report also believes that the rapid growth of the IT industry can not only continue, but also accelerate the fight against piracy and improve the level of Software Protection (see figure 2 ).
Software Piracy not only seriously harms the development of commercial software, but also threatens the development of open-source software. According to our investigation, a considerable number of computer users in China have bought a computer pre-installed with Linux, and have not used Linux, and installed pirated windows without permission, this shows that Linux with a "price advantage" still cannot be pirated.

Expanding software patent protection

Compared with copyrights, patent protection features short protection periods, great protection capabilities, and public technologies.
The advantage of patent protection for computer software is that patent right is an absolute right, and patent protection is extended and used in the process and method. Therefore, the protection of patent law is far stronger than that of copyright law, and it has stronger monopoly on technology. Software patents not only have an important impact on commercial software, but also have an absolute impact on open-source software. In addition to copyright law and patent law, intellectual property rights of software also involve trademark law, contract law, and anti-Unfair Competition Law. These laws fully protect software from various aspects.

Software circulation mechanism-Intellectual Property License System

The value of software can only be reflected by intellectual property rights. According to the general rules of intellectual property rights: this value is achieved by granting certain proprietary rights to the right holder by law and then using the license contract system of the right, in the end, software companies can share their achievements with others and the public. At the same time, software companies can withdraw their initial development and other investments, continue to develop, upgrade, and launch new products, and make profits. In the end, a virtuous circle will be formed to promote industrial and economic development.
Commercial software and open-source software (Free Software), in the sense of copyright law, mainly because they use different licenses for circulation mechanisms. Software can be divided into commercial software, open-source software (Free Software) and public software according to the copyright license.

Commercial software license Analysis

To a certain extent, software license fees are an important way for software to realize its economic value. Through the software license fee, commercial software enterprises can recover costs and gain benefits, and continue to develop new products, or continuously improve the performance and quality of software, forming a virtuous circle. In the face of various market demands, enterprises not only need to develop various software products and provide various software technical services, but also force enterprises to use various license and price for competition, thus forming a dynamic software market and a continuously evolving industry.
● Commercial software licenses generally define the copyright ownership and legal rights of the licensor, and fully guarantee the rights and interests of software developers.
● Commercial software generally provides defect guarantees and defaults.
● Commercial software licenses provide different texts for different environments and licensee (user.
● More and more commercial software licenses include technical services such as installation, training, Operation Support, troubleshooting maintenance, and version upgrade. Specify who is responsible for providing the service and whether the service is charged, that is, whether the technical service fee is included in the license fee or otherwise.

Open source software and license Analysis

"Open-source software" is derived from "Free Software". The main difference between "open-source software" and "Free Software" is that the definition angle is different. Open source softwareSource codeSoftware) is a definition at the technical level, that is, the sourceCodeIs public. "Free Software" is defined at the intellectual property licensing level, that is, licensed people have a great deal of freedom.
The foundation of Open Source Software (Free Software) is still copyright law, and open source software (Free Software) is still copyrighted.
The basic difference between open-source software and traditional commercial software is that the two licenses may be different in different ways.
At present, the number of software licenses for Open Source Software certified by Osia has increased to more than 60.

According to the definition of open source code (the Open Source Definition) of the open source code initiative, the organization has the following criteria for identifying open source software and licenses:
● Freedom of publishing
● Requirements on source code
● About deductive works
● Integrity of source code
● Do not discriminate against any individual or group
● No discrimination against any application field
● Release of licenses
● AboutProgramPart
● The license shall not affect other software

Typical Open Source software license Analysis

GPL license
The GPL license is one of the open source software licenses of the Free Software Alliance GNU. It is one of the most prestigious open source software licenses, GPL is also the most restrictive license for licensee rights in the open source software field. It embodies the spirit of pure Copyleft.
GPL first acknowledges the copyright of the software-the software has the original copyright owner, and then includes the copyright license constraints of the free software. With the premise of copyright recognition, the copyright permission of the software is required to realize the right of freedom. The most important feature of a GPL license is that it requires the software (for example, the most influential Linux) released according to the GPL license to modify and translate the deductive works, even if any part of its code is published in GPL, all programs must be subject to the GPL license, that is, they must continue to comply with the GPL license regulations, some people call it the "virus effect" of GPL ".

BSD license
Compared with other open-source software licenses, especially GPL licenses, BSD (berkly Software Distribution) licenses may be the most "tolerant" for licensee, although BSD licenses have general requirements for open-source software licenses, however, the BSD license only requires the licensee to attach the original license and copyright information of all developers. In general, BSD licenses focus on "names". In terms of "benefits", BSD licenses give the licensee the right to fully use (including commercial use) the source code.
BSD licenses do not generate "virus effects" like GPL licenses at all. They are open-source software, in particular, the open-source software that is used as the scientific research achievements of schools and public scientific research institutions has opened the door for full use of products.