When Too Much Is Enough: Addressing the Rising Number of Open Source Software Licenses and their Effect on Innovation

Natalie G. Banach, William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai'i

Abstract

This article addresses a growing problem in the open source software industry, namely license proliferation. The open source software movement is revolutionary in that its participants rely on a creative licensing scheme to foster innovation in the face of increasing restrictions in copyright law. Nevertheless, the impressive strides the open source software community has taken is now threatened by the growing number of complex and incompatible licenses. This article proposes that the solution lies in the application of a framework that every software programmer and legal practitioner can use to better understand the licenses and ultimately propel innovation in the way open source software is supposed to.