A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects

"A Legal Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects" is made available by the Software Freedom Law Center. The intended audience for this Primer is any person interested in a basic understanding of the legal issues that impact FOSS development and distribution. While FOSS development can raise many legal issues, a few topics predominate in this work; these are the issues most integral to FOSS projects. Some of the specific topics addressed in this primer include:

  • copyrights & licensing,
  • organizational structure,
  • patents,
  • trademarks.