Open Source Software: Compliance and Risk Mitigation

Abstract

The proprietorship of software was not a familiar concept in the 50’s and 60’s. The hardware and software were seen as an inseparable “system” and the cost for the operating system or any associated software used to be included in the price of the hardware. The human readable form of software i.e. source code were distributed along with the hardware to ensure that the user can make their own changes or modification for smooth running of the hardware. Users generally distributed the software, bug-fixes and any modification with each other freely as there were no strict licensing terms and even if there were few organisations who included license terms, enforcement of such terms was not usual.