Free Software and Open Source Code Software distributed or made public in source code is called open source,

and the open source movement is closely related to the free software movement. Richard Stallman best known advocate of free software, and open source code; president and founder of the Free Software Foundation - He claims that ownership of software programs is obstructive and counterproductive - Freely available to anyone who wants to use it, modify or customise it - Software development should be an evolutionary process, where a person takes a program and rewrites parts of it for one new feature, and then another person rewrites parts to add another feature. Open Source Code gives computer users direct access to the softwares source code, enabling them to fix bugs or develop incremental enhancements. The premise is that the collective programming wisdom available in the internet will help create software that is of better quality than any single or group of individuals within a company. Intellectual Property is any unique product of the human intellect that has commercial value. Examples: books, songs, movies, paintings, inventions, chemical formulas, and computer programs. Friends share all things Pythagoras Todays pirates operate not on the high seas but on the internet Recording Industry Association of America Software Copyrights The first software copyrights were applied for in 1964. Copyright Act of 1976 explicitly recognizes that software can be copyrighted Violations of Software Copyright 1. Copying a program onto a CS to give or sell to someone else 2. Preloading a program unto the hard disk of a computer being sold 3. Distributing a program over the internet Examples of Cases: Apple Computer Inc Vs Franklin Computer Corp Sega Vs Accolade Software Patents Safe Software Development In this strategy two independent teams work with each other. The 1st team assess the competitors source code and formulates a report on its functionality and workability excluding the code. Provides a technical specification how the product is supposed to function. While the 2nd team reads the specification and is responsible in actually typing the code.

According to Richard Stallman, there are harmful consequences of granting intellectual property rights to creators of computer software: 1. The copyright system was designed for an era which it was difficult to create copies. These measures infringe on our liberties. 2. The purpose of the copyright system is to promote progress not to make authors wealthy. Copyrights are not promoting progress in the computer software field. 3. It is wrong to allow someone own a piece of intellectual property. Cooperation is more important than copyright. Open Source Movement is the philosophical position that a source code to software ought to be freely distributed and that people should be encouraged to examine and improve each and others code. Open Source software characteristics: 1. There are no restrictions preventing others from selling or giving away the software 2. The source code to the program must be easily available by other means. (e.g internet) 3. There are no restrictions preventing people from modifying the source code, and derived works can be distributed according to the same license terms as the original program 4. There are no restrictions regarding how people can use the software 5. These rights apply to everyone 6. The license cannot put restrictions on other software that is part of the distribution. Beneficial Consequences of Open Source Software 1. It gives everyone the opportunity to improve it 2. Software evolves more quickly when everyone uses it thus new versions of OS programs appear much more frequently than new versions of commercial programs. 3. Eliminates the tension between obeying the law and helping others 4. Property of the entire community and not a single vendor 5. Shifts the focus from manufacturing to service which can result in customers getting better support for their software Examples of OP software: 1. 2. 3. 4. BIND provides DNS (Domain name service) for the entire internet Popular open source programming languages: Python, Ruby, PHP, Zope, TCL/TK Firefox GNU compilers for C, C++, Objective-C, Java, and Ada

Critique of the OS Software Movement 1. It does not attract critical mass of developers, the overall quality of the software can be poor

2. There may be users that will make enhancements that is incompatible with the programming language inputted. 3. Tends to have relatively weak graphical user interface making it harder to use compared to commercially made products 4. A poor mechanism for stimulating innovation Right- Based Analysis Just deserts proposed by Locke does not hold out well in intellectual property compared to tangible property Utilitarian Analysis 1st claim: Reduce sales of the software Argument: it is not always the case, hence it should not be a universal statement. Example: not interested in first, then been interested so he/she will buy the program to acquire more 2nd claim: decline in software industry Argument: why is Microsoft still flourishing? 99 percent counterfeit in Vietnam, 95 in China. Many people are willing to create software without being awarded financially. Desire to gain good reputation 3rd claim: software customers are responsible for the health of the software industry Argument: Not the only one that promotes the growth of the industry. Technology too. 4th claim: software packages benefit society Argument: its not the number of programs that matters, its what they can be used for. Conclusion : granting of intellectual property protections for software are not strong. References: Ethical Legal and Professional Issues in Computing by Penny Duquenoy, Simon Jones, and Barry G Blundell