오픈소스 소프트웨어 라이선스의 법적문제에 관한 고찰

Abstract

ABSTRACT

A Study on the Legal Problems on the Open Source Software Licenses

Yang Bitna Advisor : Prof. Han Ji-young, PH.D. Department of Law Graduate School of Chosun University

This study deals with contents and legal characteristics of open-source software and open-source software license contract, and how open-source software may be interpreted under current legal system in regards to various legal issues in Copy Right Act, Patent Law, Monopoly Regulations and Fair Trade Law, Business Secret, Civil Law. First of all, in chapter 2, we discuss about the meaning and significance of license contract, legal characteristics and how such binding force of license terms and legal protection of softwares under Intellectual Property Right and Trade Secret apply. In the third chapter, an overall inspection on open-source software license is made. This includes the history of how free software movement has developed to open-source software license, the backgrounds of open-source software such as diverse characteristics, core principles, types of open-source license as more and more companies utilize the open-source software. Furthermore, inquiry into the main issues of open-source software license, and in order to strengthen the understanding of open-source software licenses, we have also looked into various cases in and outside of Korea. In chapter 4, we focus on legal issues of open-source software license. The research has been made in issues regarding subcategories of Monopoly Regulations and Fair Trade Law, Patent Law, Copy Right Act, Civil Law and trade secret. Due to the nature of open-source software, there are multiple copyright holders, thus we have explored about copyright holder specific problems and various legal responsibilities when copyright holders did not abide by the license contract.