Free Software and Non Free Software (Author: Fu-hsiung Hsu; Language: Chinese)

The hypothesis of this article is that the software world is formed of two groups: free software and non free software. The author further uses the categories by Dr. Chao-Kuei, Hung on GNU Operating System website to illustrate free/non-free software types.

In addition, this article introduces Microsoft Shared Source Initiative Program (SSI) and analyzes its principle licenses. It then compares these licenses under SSI with free software licenses and explains the differences between these two licensing scheme.

The last part of the article mentions the criticism the above two group made to each other and talks about advantages, disadvantages, the development trend and impact of free/non-free software separately.

Left and Right Thought in the Field of Intellectual Property: Copyright, Copyleft and their future (Author: Wan-chiung Cheng, Wan-ping, Li; Language: Chinese)

This article firstly talks about the birth of copyright, and explains why copyright exists and what subject matter and rights copyright laws protect. This article then explains the concept of “copyleft” and tries to give it a definition.

In the second part of this article, it discusses the copyleft application in the field of biotechnology. It compares the similarities and differences between open source software movement and open source genomics movement from two aspects: (1) hacker ethic v.s. scientific research ethos; and (2) common core concern: opening up public goods. Under the above subsection (2), the authors use the analysis framework in Professor Lawrence Lessig’s book, “The future of Ideas” to compare these two movements.

The Limitation of Fair Use under Copyright Laws (Author: Yi-sheng Yang; Language: Chinese)

This article firstly talks about the purpose of fair use doctrine, followed by introducing four-factor test and quoting theories and practice developed under the United States case laws to explain how this doctrine operates. Based on this, this article then talks about the challenge fair use doctrine faces under the development of technology nowadays, and takes several precedents as examples to observe how the the Supreme Court of the United States applies fair use doctrine to copyright infringement resulting from emerging technologies.

In the second part of this article, the author discusses how license agreements and the legislation of technology protection measures affect fair use doctrine. The article last takes the “reverse engineering” as an example to explain how fair use doctrine applies to copyright infringement of software.

A Brief History of Taiwan Copyright Law: The History of Copying being Gradually Limited (Author: Chun-yen Lin; Language: Chinese

The article reviews the legislation of Taiwan’s past and current copyright laws from several stages: the Japanese colonial period~1945, before 1985 statute amendment, the amendments of copyright law under the effect of U.S.A., 2002 until nowadays. This article also introduces the characteristics of Taiwan’s copyright laws under each above-mentioned stage.

From Copyright to Copyleft: the birth, growth and future of GPL (Author: Florence T.M. Ko; Language: Chinese)

This article firstly talks about GNU project. Secondly, it explains the four freedoms of free software, and then introduces the concept and characteristics of copyleft. In addition, it analyzes essential contents of GPL (GNU General Public License) v2, such as action conditions for copying, distributing, and modifying a program, and the infection of GPL to modified program, etc. Finally, it introduces two famous cases related to GPL: SCO vs. IBM lawsuit, and the case about Harald Welte's preliminary injection request against Sitecom's German subsidiary. It briefly talks about the upgrade to GPLv.3 as well.

p.s. GPL v.3 had not yet been released while this articles finished. Thus, this article talks less about GPL v.3

GPL v.3 Non-responsibly Traditional Chinese Translation (Draft) (Author: Lucien C.H. Lin)

Unofficial GPL (GNU General Public License) v.3 traditional Chinese translation. The author translates the GPL v.3 by using plain description and in line with the sections of the GPL v.3 to help Chinese speakers understand the GPL v.3 better. Nevertheless, only the original English text of the GPL has legally binding force.

Making Your Open Source Software GPL-Compatible. Or Else. (Author: David A. Wheeler)

This essay argues that developers of Free/libre/open source software should use an existing widely-used licenses compatible with the GPL for your software. If you create your own license - and please try very hard to not create a new license - at least make sure that your new license is compatible with the GPL. You do not need to use the GPL - not even the Free Software Foundation, but make sure that your FLOSS software’s license is GPL-compatible. The rest of this essay explains why and how to do so.

(The above introduction is extracted from the essay itself)

Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing (Author: Andrew M. St. Laurent)

This book focuses on several topics. Started with basic concepts of open source licensing, contract and copyright law, it then in depth explains leading open source software licenses, including MIT, BSD, Apache, AFL, GPL, LGPL, MPL, QPL, Artistic License and non-open source licenses. It also talks about legal impacts of open source and free software licensing.
Furthermore, it answers a few questions such as: What rights am I giving up? How will my use of open source/free software licensing affect future users or future developers? Does combining free software with proprietary software leave me vulnerable to lawsuits?

Open Source Licensing-Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law (Author: Lawrence Rosen

The author of the book served as general counsel of the Open Source Initiative for several years. He explains the intellectual property laws that support open source licensing, and reviews today’s leading licenses, such as BSD, MIT, Apache, GPL, MPL, CPL in plain English, and helps developers, managers, users, lawyers and so on to choose the right licenses for their projects or organizations. This book is available online under the Academic Free licenses v.3.

The Unreasonable Fear of Infection (Author: Lawrence Rosen)

This author tries to build correct understanding of GPL to dispel the public's unreasonable fear of the GPL infection. He specifically explains section 2(b) of GPL v.2 that some people are frightened most. The author then comes to a conclusion: if a licensee creates a derivative work by modifying the original GPL-licensed program, or embeds the GPL-licensed program within his or her own program, the resulting work must also be licensed under the GPL. On the contrary, if there are no modifications to the GPL-licensed program, and it is not embedded within a proprietary program, the terms of the GPL don't apply to the licensee's program.