+ + Apps, App Stores, and Open Source. End-to-End Open Source Management. Enabling Successful and Safe Open Source Adoption At 300+ Enterprises

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John Blankenship
8 years ago
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1 Apps, App Stores, and Open Source Jilayne Lovejoy Corporate Counsel LinuxCon - August End-to-End Open Source Management Enabling Successful and Safe Open Source Adoption At 300+ Enterprises In the Data Center In the Cloud Software Support + + Services 2 1

2 Apps and App Stores - everyone s gotta have one 3 From the Wall Street Journal 27- Licensed Aug under OpenLogic, Inc. CC-BY 4 2

3 Compliance actions? 5 OpenLogic 2011 Mobile Apps Research Scanned 635 Top Apps with OSS Deep Discovery 123 Android Apps 512 ios Apps Picked top paid and free apps across various categories Identified 66 Apps containing code under GPL, LGPL or Apache 52 with Apache 16 with GPL/LGPL Examined those apps for compliance with key obligations 6 6 3

4 Areas of compliance analyzed Apache GPL & LGPL Provide copy of license Provide copy of license Notices/Attributions Provide source code 7 7 Compliance breakdown In Complance 29% Do Not Comply 71% 71% of Apps using open source under GPL, LGPL and Apache do not comply Source: OpenLogic Mobile Research 3/

5 2012 Mobile Apps Research Update Looked at currently available versions of the same apps that had contained OSS under Apache, GPL or LGPL from 2011 research Apps may or may not have been updated since 2011 Apps that were no longer available were not counted in terms of compliance Scanned currently available apps Examined these apps for compliance with key obligations Compared results to 2011 research Mobile Apps Research Update No Compliance Violation 58.3% Do Not Comply 38.3% App Obsolete 3.3% 38.3% of Apps using open source under GPL, LGPL and Apache do not comply Source: OpenLogic Mobile Research 8/

6 No compliance violations? App Obsolete 3.30% No compliance violations: removed FOSS 53.30% Do Not Comply 38.30% No Compliance Violations 58.30% No compliance violations: fixed violation 5.00%

7 13 Who is responsible for open source license compliance? (who distributes?) App Developers? App Store? 14 7

8 App Developers Distributes app to app store à therefore must comply with licenses for any open source software included in the app Challenges to compliance? Lack of awareness or open source policy/tracking Where to put attribution notices How/where to provide source code Agrees to app store s developer terms (which may have restrictions) 15 Developer terms OPEN? SOURCE OPEN SOURCE 16 8

9 Risk to App Developer? Legal Contractual agreement with app store holder of third party FOSS included in app Practical/Business Loss of $$ Loss of choice of distribution channels Reputation Less freedom in development process 17 App Stores Distributes app to end-user à therefore must comply with licenses for any open source software included in the app Challenges to compliance? Did developer comply? Attribution notices Provide source code Volume of apps End-user agreement has restrictions that are incompatible with open source licenses 18 9

10 App Store End User License Agreements Android Market Terms of Service Sec 4.2 Some components of Products (whether developed by Google or third parties) may also be governed by applicable open source software licenses. In the event of a conflict between the Terms and any such licenses, the open source software licenses shall prevail with respect to those components. If Apple has added something like this to the itunes terms of service, would that have been enough? 19 App Stores DMCA safe harbor? Congress sought to balance rights of copyright holders and liability of service providers Limits liability for copyright infringement for certain service providers or activities Bars money damages and limits injunctive relief Is an app store a provider of online services or network access, or the operator of facilities therefor? (17 U.S.C. 512 (k)(1)(b) If falls under DMCA protection, then must show: No actual knowledge or awareness of facts or circumstances from which infringing activity would be apparent Expeditious response to remove infringing material once has knowledge or notice Does not receive financial benefit directly attributable to infringing activity where service provider has right and ability to control 20 10

11 Risk to App Store? Legal holder of third party FOSS included in app, but... Practical/Business Loss of $$ Loss of choice of apps Reputation

12 FOSS-friendly App Store? 23 FOSS-friendly App Store? Should an app store allow open source software in apps? Should an app store restrict certain licenses? How can an app store encourage compliance by developers? Should an app store make compliance a requirement (and check)? Ask for a BOM as a requirement for submitting an app? Check for actual compliance? Provide a central repository for source code? Scan every app before it s accepted? Should app stores take a more active role in education and outreach around compliance? What else could app stores do to encourage, facilitate, and achieve compliance? 24 12

13 Questions? 2011 OpenLogic, Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit:

Open Source in Android Apps:

Open Source in Android Apps: Tips for Becoming a Good Open Source Citizen AnDevCon Kim Weins, SVP Marketing, OpenLogic What You ll Learn! How much open source is used in mobile apps?! What level of compliance