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COMP 491/492

Dickinson College Computer Science Senior Seminar

Discussion of Licensing issues in FOSS; Licensing of chosen FOSS projects.

Defining the Most Common Types of Open Source Software Licenses - a quick introduction to FOSS licenses that will give you the big picture before getting into the details in the next reading.
Producing OSS: Legal Matters: Licenses, Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents - Read all sections of Chapter 9 using the Table of Contents or the “Next” link at the end of each page.
Facebook’s open source React library is increasingly worrying devs - a short article discussing an interesting controversy around the licensing of Facebook’s open source React library.
Post questions for class discussion to the Moodle forum. Please also feel free to comment on or respond to others’ questions as appropriate.
Determine which license has been applied to your selected project, research the particulars of that license and be prepared to discuss its advantages and disadvantages and the reasons why it may have been chosen for your project.
Determine if your project uses Copyright Assignment, a Contributor License Agreement or a Developer Certificate of Origin. Why might it have chosen that approach?

A Short Guide To Open-Source And Similar Licenses by Cameron Chapman gives a nice concise readable overview of a number of popular licenses.
Categories of free and nonfree software from GNU and the FSF.
Licenses & Standards - the main page of licensing resources from the Open Source Initiative (OSI).
Licenses - the main page of licensing resources from the Free Software Foundation (FSF).
Legal Notes: What’s the Deal with ReactJS’s Licensing Scheme? by John Petersen gives a lot more detail and analysis of the React licensing controversy.
Open Source Licenses in 2021: Trends and Predictions by Patricia Johnson looks at what is currently happening in open source licensing.

10/15/21 - 5-15 (Team)
11/05/21 - Blog Post II - Write a reflective blog post on a topic related to FOSS Licensing. See the syllabus for details about the posting. (Individual)
Project Activities (Teams)