Intro to Copyright and Licensing (Activity)

Title	Intro to Copyright and Licensing (Activity)
Overview	Participants will explore different types of licenses frequently used by open source projects.
Prerequisites	None
Learning Objectives	After successfully completing this activity, the learner should be able to: Identify a project’s license Identify constraints license imposes on your contributions Articulate whether or not you are comfortable contributing to a project with a given license
Process Skills Practiced	Critical Thinking Communication

Background

A quick YouTube search will yield a number of good videos on copyright and licensing. I recommend watching one or two on each topic: copyright and licensing. Here are a few of our favorites.

• Copyright Clearance Center. “Copyright Basics”. 2010. https://youtu.be/Uiq42O6rhW4 . This video explains copyrights from a business perspective.
• Intel Software. “Open Source Basics”. 2014. https://youtu.be/Tyd0FO0tko8 . This video explains how open source software is enabled through licensing.
• Watch Now, UK. “Creative Commons & Copyright Info”. 2012. https://youtu.be/8YkbeycRa2A This video explains the purpose of licenses from a content producer’s view who wants to let other use their work without having to ask permission. It specifically talks about the Creative Commons licenses.
• CppCon 2015: Kevin P. Fleming “A Crash Course in Open Source Licensing". https://youtu.be/cJIi-hIlCQM . A much more in-depth, longer talk on copyright, software, and open source licensing.

Directions

1. Identify the license for the following projects (look for a LICENSE file in the project's root; if it's not there assume no license):
   • https://github.com/openmrs/openmrs-core
   • https://github.com/apache/incubator-fineract
   • https://github.com/regulately/regulately-back-end
2. Go to https://tldrlegal.com/ . Look up each of the above licenses. Identify the “cans” the “cannots” and the “musts” for each.
3. For each license, state whether you would (or would not) be comfortable contributing code to that project and why (or why not).

Deliverables

POSSE: On your user wiki page, a section answering the above questions.

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