Lawlines Vol 10 Issue 1 - eOASIS - Rajah & Tann LLP

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Vol 10 Issue 1 June 2008 • Rajah & Tann LLP’s Bi-Annual Journal on articles of current interest, features, and legal developmentsIN THIS ISSUE:A Round-Up Of LatestDevelopments In TheFirst Half Of 2008Rajah & Tann LLP Hosts9 th Lunchtime SeminarSeriesTax, Private Wealth &Trusts PracticeCourt Of Appeal DeliversJudgment On The LTA-Komoco Motors DisputeInsider Trading And TheVexed QuestionOf General AvailabilityCourts And Arbitration -A Question Of Balance?Recent Developments InSingapore LawDisclosure OfConfidential InformationBy ProfessionalIn The Pursuit Of ItsLegitimate InterestsPublic PrivatePartnership Projects– The ProcessOpen Source In IT ContractsThe open source model has been changing the way software is developed. For software developers,open source software provides a significant opportunity to reduce software development cycles,which is crucial in an industry where the life cycle of software products is measured in months.It also reduces the need to expend time and effort in programming for functionalities that maybe provided as discrete modules. The reduction of software development time directly resultsin a reduction of the costs of software development. This is a benefit that many IT managers,with limited IT budgets and seemingly unlimited calls by user departments on it, will keenlyappreciate.Another phenomenon of the open source model is the ability to gather the best and brightest ofdevelopers to contribute, often in their spare time, to the development of open source softwaremodules and sometimes complete systems. The pooling of worldwide talent results in unparalleledspeed in the maturation of open source software and the correction of bugs and errors, at least intheory, and in the case of open source software with an active developer community, realised to asignificant extent.As inhouse legal and IT manager, there are certain things to keep an eye out for when a softwarevendor offers a solution is that based on open source software components. This article takes abrief look at the mechanics of these open source software and licenses, as well as addresses theissues that have arisen from their application.Open Source In ITContracts70 /77
Vol 10 Issue 1 June 2008 • Rajah & Tann LLP’s Bi-Annual Journal on articles of current interest, features, and legal developmentsIN THIS ISSUE:A Round-Up Of LatestDevelopments In TheFirst Half Of 2008Rajah & Tann LLP Hosts9 th Lunchtime SeminarSeriesTax, Private Wealth &Trusts PracticeCourt Of Appeal DeliversJudgment On The LTA-Komoco Motors DisputeInsider Trading And TheVexed QuestionOf General AvailabilityCourts And Arbitration -A Question Of Balance?Recent Developments InSingapore LawDisclosure OfConfidential InformationBy ProfessionalIn The Pursuit Of ItsLegitimate InterestsPublic PrivatePartnership Projects– The ProcessThe Open Source DefinitionBroadly defined, open source is a set of principles and practices on how to write software,the most basic of which is that the source code must be openly available. The Open SourceInitiative (‘OSI’) (taken from http://www.opensource.org) founded in 1998 in California acts asthe stewards of the Open Source Definition (‘OSD’), which sets out the criteria a particular opensource licence must meet. These criteria or conditions thus form the cornerstone of the opensource movement, with the emphasis on the freedom to proliferate and apply the software. Theyare as follows:• Free redistribution – The licence shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away thesoftware. The licence shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.• Source code – The program must include the source code, and must allow distribution in sourcecode as well as compiled form.• Derived works – The licence must allow modifications and derived works.• Integrity of the Author’s source code – The licence may require that modifications are only redistributedas ‘patches’, to protect the integrity of the original source code.• No discrimination against persons or groups.• No discrimination against fields of endeavour – The licence must not restrict anyone from makinguse of the program in a specific field of endeavour.Open Source In ITContracts71 /77
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Lawlines Vol 10 Issue 1 - eOASIS - Rajah & Tann LLP

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