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:
|
| Process Skills Practiced |
|
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
- Identify the license for the following projects:
- https://github.com/openmrs/openmrs-core: MPL 2.0 w/ HD © OpenMRS Inc.
- https://github.com/apache/incubator-fineract: This project is licensed under Apache License Version 2.0. See https://github.com/apache/incubator-fineract/blob/develop/LICENSE.md.
- https://github.com/regulately/regulately-back-end: No license was found
- Go to https://tldrlegal.com/ . Look up each of the above licenses. Identify the “cans” the “cannots” and the “musts” for each.
- 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.
Notes for Instructors
Assessment
Comments
| ACM BoK Area & Unit(s) |
What ACM Body of Knowledge Area and Unit(s) are covered? |
|---|---|
| ACM BoK Topic(s) |
What specific topics are addressed? The Computing Curricula 2013 provides a list of topics in Appendix A - The Body of Knowledge (page 58) - https://www.acm.org/education/CS2013-final-report.pdf |
| Difficulty |
Easy to medium |
| Estimated Time to Complete |
40-60 minutes |
| Environment / Materials |
Internet access |
| Author(s) |
Stoney Jackson and Karl Wurst |
| Source | |
| License |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
|
