Debian Publishes Patent Advice for Community Distros

Monster · Jul 10, 2011

Slashdot alerted us of an article by the Debian project, the Community Distribution Patent Policy FAQ.

This document presents information about patents and patent liability useful for developers working on community distributions of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). By community distributions, we mean collections of free software packages maintained and distributed by organizations composed of volunteers, where neither the organization nor the volunteers seek to make a profit from the activity. Such community-based distributions may sell as well as give away their work product, possibly on CDs or USB storage media or by paid-for downloads as well as by gratis distribution.

This document has been prepared by lawyers at the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) at the request of the Debian project, and may be helpful to similar community FOSS distributions. Its statements about legal matters are accurate as of the date of composition regarding US law, and may be applicable to other legal systems. But this document does not constitute legal advice. It has not been based on analysis of any particular factual situation, and any lawyer providing an opinion on the questions presented below would need to ascertain the particular facts and circumstances that might vary this information in a particular setting. You should not rely upon this document to make decisions affecting your project's legal rights or responsibilities in a real-life situation without consulting SFLC or other lawyers.
Click to expand...

One important issue being addressed is this:

Are there any guidelines to limit our risk of patent infringement?

Yes. This document is meant to educate about patent risk, and while it is difficult to give advice regarding every reader's specific situation, there are a few guidelines that may be extracted.

Reading patents, especially when researching how to design a contribution to your free software project, may expose communities to liability that they would not otherwise have.

Parts of a free software community that distribute source code and not object code probably have slightly less patent risk.

Distributing free software commercially is probably more risky than distributing software gratis.

Having the ability to remove features and packages quickly and easily from distribution will help mitigate any damages the community could incur.

Patent litigation is not an amateur sport. If you are contacted by anyone threatening to assert a patent against you, contact the Software Freedom Law Center or another qualified attorney as soon as possible.

Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

Debian Publishes Patent Advice for Community Distros

Monster Admin Talk Staff

Share This Page

About Us

Quick Navigation

Follow us on Twitter

Log in or Sign up

Useful Searches

Debian Publishes Patent Advice for Community Distros

Monster Admin Talk Staff

Share This Page