Blue Oak Council

Blue Oak Council opens the software commons up to those who can’t find or afford specialized legal help by bringing experienced lawyer-technologists together to publish free, practical materials about software licenses.

Jump To: Solutions, Educational Resources, Building Blocks, Statements

Solutions

Easy-to-read, practical solutions to software licensing problems:

• Establish a company policy for use of open software, at a small organization or larger company.

• Require software developed under a grant to be open for everyone to use and build on.

• Require software developed on contract to be open for everyone to use and build on.

• Make sure a software contractor uses open software under good licenses.

Is your small or nonprofit organization facing a common software licensing problem? E-mail the council new ideas for general solutions to publish here.

Resources

• Read an introduction to open software licensing.

• Read answers to frequently asked questions from lawyers in other specialities.

• Read a guide to common legal and practical issues in mergers and acquisitions.

• Browse a reading list for lawyers interested in open software licensing.

• Browse a list of video presentations for lawyers interested in open software licensing.

• Review the Council’s “test suite” for new public software licenses.

Building Blocks

Blue Oak Council’s solutions rely on a few shared building blocks:

• The council’s license list identifies and rates standardized permissive public software licenses.

• The council’s model license uses all the techniques a license can use to make software free and simple for everyone to use and build on, in everyday language that everyone can understand.

• The council’s contributor license gives project stewards the rights and assurances they need to accept and manage contributions.

• The council’s guide to copyleft explains copyleft and groups common standardized copyleft public software licenses in families.

Statements

From time to time, Blue Oak Council publishes statements from attorney contributors.

You can subscribe to council statements via Atom.

• March 6, 2019: Use the Blue Oak Model License