An Intellectual Property Angle On Free Software Development

Abstract

This paper talks about the free-proprietary-free software development cycle over the past 30 years, dealing with the introduction of copyright law and the dubious economics of software piracy. It shows that free software continued to exist, despite the onslaught of copyright’s strictures. Free software and open source are defined and distinguished and their various licensing schemes discussed. The most popular free and open source software licence, the GNU GPL is analysed, both from legal and socio-legal perspectives. Latin America’s initiative on free software, initiated by groups such as Fundación Vía Libre, Software Livre and the Free Software Consortium is at a crucial point – while several proposals to promote free software in governments in the region have been made, so far they have only been passed at state level in Brazil. Success in other jurisdictions, however, is likely to follow in time due to the commitment and persistence of the aforementioned groups. An outstanding issue which also needs to be addressed in Latin America and, indeed the world over, is how best to legislate so that the licensing schemes are protected or preferably enshrined in statutory form.