Changes of Taiwan Companies’ FOSS Implementation:The 2007-2011 Legal Consultation Practice Aspect
P1 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Florence. I come from Taiwan. The topic of this short talk is “Changes of Taiwan Companies' FOSS Implementation”, I would like to share the consultation experience from 2007 to 2011, which my colleague Lucien and I dealt with. Were you have any questions about today's presentation, you can come and talk to us at any time during the workshop.
P2 First of all, we would like to explain why we are doing the FOSS consulation in Taiwan. We work in “Open Source Software Foundry”, also known as “OSSF”, this is a project supported by Taiwan's highest research institute, Academia Sinica. The main purpose of OSSF is to promote the development and use of FOSS in Taiwan.
P3 In the beginning, OSSF's target is to build a FOSS web-hosting platform, like SourceForge and GitHub, to help local communities develop and release their FOSS projects.
P4 However, we found that the local developers not only need the support for tools, but also need the support for license information. Many OSSF platform users asked us for the licensing support, to response those requests, we built a legal team.
P5 We have two-to-three law background co-workers in charge of the legal team.
P6 At first, we interpreted the glossaries and licenses, shared the Foss knowledges and case study informations via legal column on email newsletter every two weeks.
P7 To fullfill users' further needs, we provided consultations through forum, email, telephone, face-to-face meetings.
P8 This table shows the record of consulations from 2007 to 2011. There are 13, 52, 133, 120, and 140 events separately. Most of the consulation events came from the industry, the rest came from the communities and universities. The ratio between industry and others is about two-to-one.
P9 We can see that, due to the low popularity, the consulation events in 2007 is the lowest.
P10 Comparing 2008 to 2009, we can find that the consulation events had been doubled. My inference is that the great recession cause the dramatic change. To reduce the cost, Taiwan's OEM, ODM companies adopted much more FOSS projects to develop their products.
P11 This page shows the license-related table.
P12 It can also be switched to pie chart like this. The most asked questions are about GPL, LGPL, and Apache License.
P13 The strong Copyleft and license inheritance character of GPL and LGPL, make them the most asked licenses. These questions had been proposed by Taiwan's companies repeatedly.
P14 Besides the GPL and LGPL, we can see that Apache License were also asked for many times, especially in 2009, this year is exactly the same year that Android has expanded its scale in mobile devices. We think Google have made Apache License more influential than ever.
P15 Another interesting phenomena is about CDDL. In 2010, it has been asked for more times, back then, the Sun Microsystem has just been acquired by Oracle. After 2010, the question related to CDDL was back to none, We think the possible reason is the continuing support of CDDL by Oracle is in doubt, many people said they don't even know if there will be CDDL 2.0 or not.
P16 This table shows the consulation events in content attribution.
P17 Due to the time constraint. We will focus on the top 5 asked content attribution.
P18 The top1 asked questions is about “Compliance process when implementing FOSS”, including
- What does this clause say?
- Which way I can use these FOSS projects properly?
- Should I release the Source Code in specific format or method to meet the expectation from the copyright holder and other community members?
P19 The top2 asked questions is about “the definiton and scope of FOSS derivative works”, including
- Why that GPL-licensed component eats up all my own codes?
- What's the criterion the GPL/LGPL/MPL/CDDL applied in defining the derivative work coverage?
- Do the static link, dynamic link, pipe, command line interaction methods keep my codes from falling under the scope of the FOSS derivative works?
P20 The top3 asked questions is about “FOSS Business Model recommendation”, including
- Can we charge any fees by distributing FOSS projects when only part of the codes are modified or written by our company?
- Which FOSS license I should pick for my research project to make sure it can be switched to commercial product smoothly later, or staying in the FOSS license mode still but earning money concurrently?
P21 The top4 asked questions is about “Copyleft separation and avoidance technique”, including
- Is there any method I could possibly apply to make sure my own codes will not be deemed as derivative work of other FOSS projects?
- Can I build the same middle layer mechanism like Android, say build a LGPL-licensed library in between, to keep away the license inheritance effect from the GPL or other strong Copyleft FOSS projects?
P22 The top5 asked questions is about “Copyright notice and software list when redistributing the FOSS related products”, including
- How could we express properly in the copyright notice, when redistributing the FOSS projects originally written by others but slightly or largely modified by us later?
- Is there any FOSS list example for us to follow? When redistributing some FOSS codes along with our own doing to other cooperation companies?
P23 In short, the need of “Compliance Guidance” is a consistent need in Taiwan, because most enterprises in Taiwan are in medium and small scale. Their legal departments have little time and limited experience dealing with affairs other than arbitrations and contracts.
P24 As for the high percentage of “Derivative Definiton” and “Separate Technique” questions, we have to admit that many Taiwan companies are still trying to treat FOSS as merely Freeware. Some of them do know the FOSS implementations come with license obligations, but they still expect free meal.
P25 But let's look at the bright side, if we look deep into the content of “Compliance Process”, “Derivative Definition”, and “Separate Technique” questions altogether, we will find that in the early stage, most questions combined these three characters are direct, like “How can I not to release my Source Code, if there is any way I don't have to release my Source Code?”, but after 2009, those questions became more sensible, such as “I know I have to release some part or the whole part of my Source Code, but which part I should release precisely, and how could I release the Source Code in proper way?”
P26 Since 2009, with the popularity of mobile devices, the FOSS-related patent issue and Android platform implementation questions are increasing too.
P27 Lastly, we also notice that, the needs of FOSS governance and analysis system are elevating recently. FOSS governance is the well-functioned FOSS implementation process, and analysis system is automatic or semi-automatic tools helping the FOSS adopter identify the license status of codes more easily.
P28 If possible, we would like to work as as a neutral third party, to introduce these informations and knowledges to industrial enterprises in Taiwan in the near future. It will be our great honor if you can share any of your “Governance System” and “Analysis Tool” experiences with us.
P29 This slide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license, you are welcome to redistribute it accompanying the copyright notice to anyone. If you have any concerns or questions about the presentation, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Thanks for your time and patience.
Changes of Taiwan Companies’ FOSS Implementation:The 2007-2011 Legal Consultation Practice Aspect
p1 各位好，我的名字叫葛冬梅，來自台灣，大家可以直接叫我冬梅。今天要分享的題目是「Changes of Taiwan Companies' FOSS Implementation」，主要的內容是從2007年開始到2011年，在台灣當地進行自由開源軟體授權諮詢的量化分析。這位簡報是由我與同事林誠夏先生一同製作的，林先生今天也有參加這個會議，對於簡報內容有任何問題，歡迎可以隨時找我們討論。
P1 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Florence. I come from Taiwan. The topic of this short talk is “Changes of Taiwan Companies' FOSS Implementation”, I would like to share the consultation experience from 2007 to 2011, which my colleague Lucien and I dealt with. Were you have any questions about today's presentation, you can come and talk to us at any time during the workshop.
P2 首先要說明的是，我們在台灣從事自由軟體授權相關諮詢的原因。我任職的單位是自由軟體鑄造場，這是一個由台灣最高研究機構中央研究院所支持設立的專案，主要的設立目標，是要在研究與應用方面推廣自由開源軟體專案的使用。
P2 First of all, we would like to explain why we are doing the FOSS consulation in Taiwan. We work in “Open Source Software Foundry”, also known as “OSSF”, this is a project supported by Taiwan's highest research institute, Academia Sinica. The main purpose of OSSF is to promote the development and use of FOSS in Taiwan.
P3 OSSF這個專案一開始的建立目標，是要在台灣建制一個協助自由開源專案進行開發與釋出的開發平台，例如SourceForge與GitHub這樣的平台。
P3 In the beginning, OSSF's target is to build a FOSS web-hosting platform, like SourceForge and GitHub, to help local communities develop and release their FOSS projects.
P4 然而在平台營運的過程中我們發現，台灣自由開源軟體專案的開發者，他們所需要的不只是開發工具的支援，有時候也常常需要自由開源軟體授權方面資訊的協助，許多OSSF平台專案的使用者向我們提出了授權方面的需求，所以為了因應這層需求，OSSF專案為此增設了一個法政研究團隊。
P4 However, we found that the local developers not only need the support for tools, but also need the support for license information. Many OSSF platform users asked us for the licensing support, to response those requests, we built a legal team.
P5 這個法政團隊的編制目前有2到3個同仁，成員皆具有基礎的法學知識與背景。
P5 We have two-to-three law background co-workers in charge of the legal team.
P6 初期、我們透過專業辭彙與授權條款的翻譯及逐條釋義，來將自由開源軟體相關的知識及案例研析，透過電子報的專欄文章散布出去。
P6 At first, we interpreted the glossaries and licenses, shared the Foss knowledges and case study informations via legal column on email newsletter every two weeks.
P7 其後、呼應使用者的進一步需求，我們開始擴展新的諮詢途徑來與使用者互動，這些方式包括透過法律論壇、電子郵件、電話，以及面對面約談的方式，來回覆使用者感到疑惑的授權資訊。
P7 To fullfill users' further needs, we provided consultations through forum, email, telephone, face-to-face meetings.
P8 這張總表所列的，就是2007年到2011年這些互動式諮詢的量化紀錄。2007年有13件、2008年有52件、2009年有133件、2010年有120件、2011年有140件，這些諮詢案件多數是來自企業界的提問，剩餘的則是來自軟體社群及大專院校的提問，以比例來看、歷年來產業界與社群界的比例約為2比1。
P8 This table shows the record of consulations from 2007 to 2011. There are 13, 52, 133, 120, and 140 events separately. Most of the consulation events came from the industry, the rest came from the communities and universities. The ratio between industry and others is about two-to-one.
P9 從列表來看、2007年開始時的諮詢件數是比較少，全年約13件而已，我的看法是此時這個諮詢服務的名氣還沒有完全打開。
P9 We can see that, due to the low popularity, the consulation events in 2007 is the lowest.
P10 而從2008年及2009年的諮詢件數來做比較，大家可以看到從52件一躍到二倍多的133件，合理的分析是這個時段資通訊產業是已經碰到2008年末的經濟大蕭條，所以台灣的OEM、ODM廠商，為了減輕成本，於是大採用自由開源軟體專案來進行產品開發。
P10 Comparing 2008 to 2009, we can find that the consulation events had been doubled. My inference is that the great recession cause the dramatic change. To reduce the cost, Taiwan's OEM, ODM companies adopted much more FOSS projects to develop their products.
P11 而如果進一步將這些諮詢案件，改以「條款相關」的面向來做分析的話，可以得到如畫面所示的量化列表。
P11 This page shows the license-related table.
P12 讓我們將這個列表轉為圓餅圖來強化比例的顯示。大家可以看到GPL相關的問題為最大宗、共169件，其次為LGPL相關的問題、共22件，第三順位為Apache License相關的問題、共20件。
P12 It can also be switched to pie chart like this. The most asked questions are about GPL, LGPL, and Apache License.
P13 而為什麼GPL與LGPL合起來的諮詢件數會居高不下，我想最核心的原因就是GPL授權專案較為嚴謹的著佐權與授權拘束特性，許多台灣廠商都是針對此點向我們反覆洽詢。
P13 The strong Copyleft and license inheritance character of GPL and LGPL, make them the most asked licenses. These questions had been proposed by Taiwan's companies repeatedly.
P14 而從列表看來，Apache License的詢問次數在2009年之後有明顯升高，這一年確實也就是Google透過Android系統大舉進行行動式裝置市場的時間，所以我們可以看出來，Apache License本來因為Apache Software Foundation的使用而有很大的重要性，但2009年之後、因為Google的採用而讓影響層面更加擴大。
P14 Besides the GPL and LGPL, we can see that Apache License were also asked for many times, especially in 2009, this year is exactly the same year that Android has expanded its scale in mobile devices. We think Google have made Apache License more influential than ever.
P15 CDDL授權條款的詢問比例也是一個有趣的現象，2010年的時候有一個較諸之前都更高的比例，這一年年初就是SUN被Oracle收購的時間，許多廠商擔心Oracle接手之後的政策會有大改變，所以當年度CDDL的被詢問比例提升，而到2011年之後這個狀況就回歸於零，因為客觀推論、Oracle並不會延續SUN時期的作法，甚至CDDL未來也很可能不會有2.0新版本的產生。
P15 Another interesting phenomena is about CDDL. In 2010, it has been asked for more times, back then, the Sun Microsystem has just been acquired by Oracle. After 2010, the question related to CDDL was back to none, We think the possible reason is the continuing support of CDDL by Oracle is in doubt, many people said they don't even know if there will be CDDL 2.0 or not.
P16 如果進一步、依問題的內容屬性來為這些諮詢案件下TAG的話，可以得到如畫面所示的量化列表。
P16 This table shows the consulation events in content attribution.
P17 由於時間的關係、我們下面聚焦介紹最常被問到的五個問題。
P17 Due to the time constraint. We will focus on the top 5 asked content attribution.
P18 常見問題的第一名是、Compliance相關的程序與步驟！共有118件。這類的問題包括：
- What does this clause say?
- Which way I can use these FOSS projects properly?
- Should I release the Source Code in specific format or method to meet the expectation from the copyright holder and other community members?
P18 The top1 asked questions is about “Compliance process when implementing FOSS”, including
- What does this clause say?
- Which way I can use these FOSS projects properly?
- Should I release the Source Code in specific format or method to meet the expectation from the copyright holder and other community members?
P19 常見問題的第二名是、Derivative Work的定義與範圍，共有74件。這類的問題包括：
- Why that GPL-licensed component eats up all my own codes?
- What's the criterion the GPL/LGPL/MPL/CDDL applied in defining the derivative work coverage?
- Do the static link, dynamic link, pipe, command line interaction methods keep my codes from falling under the scope of the FOSS derivative works?
P19 The top2 asked questions is about “the definiton and scope of FOSS derivative works”, including
- Why that GPL-licensed component eats up all my own codes?
- What's the criterion the GPL/LGPL/MPL/CDDL applied in defining the derivative work coverage?
- Do the static link, dynamic link, pipe, command line interaction methods keep my codes from falling under the scope of the FOSS derivative works?
P20 常見問題的第三名是、自由開源軟體專案的Business Model，共有50件。這類的問題包括：
- Can we charge any fees by distributing FOSS projects when only part of the codes are modified or written by our company?
- Which FOSS license I should pick for my research project to make sure it can be switched to commercial product smoothly later, or staying still in the FOSS license mode but earning money concurrently?
P20 The top3 asked questions is about “FOSS Business Model recommendation”, including
- Can we charge any fees by distributing FOSS projects when only part of the codes are modified or written by our company?
- Which FOSS license I should pick for my research project to make sure it can be switched to commercial product smoothly later, or staying in the FOSS license mode still but earning money concurrently?
P21 常見問題的第四名是、自由開源軟體專案授權拘束性的避除術，共有39件。這類的問題包括：
- Is there any method I could possibly apply to make sure my own codes will not be deemed as derivative work of other FOSS projects?
- Can I build the same middle layer mechanism like Android, say build a LGPL-licensed library in between, to keep away the license inheritance effect from the GPL or other strong Copyleft FOSS projects?
P21 The top4 asked questions is about “Copyleft separation and avoidance technique”, including
- Is there any method I could possibly apply to make sure my own codes will not be deemed as derivative work of other FOSS projects?
- Can I build the same middle layer mechanism like Android, say build a LGPL-licensed library in between, to keep away the license inheritance effect from the GPL or other strong Copyleft FOSS projects?
P22 常見問題的第五名是、散布自由開源軟體專案時著作權標明方式、以及上下游軟體清單的問題，共有37件。這類的問題包括：
- How could we express properly in the copyright notice, when redistributing the FOSS projects originally written by others but slightly or largely modified by us later?
- Is there any FOSS list example for us to follow? When redistributing some FOSS codes along with our own doing to other cooperation companies?
P22 The top5 asked questions is about “Copyright notice and software list when redistributing the FOSS related products”, including
- How could we express properly in the copyright notice, when redistributing the FOSS projects originally written by others but slightly or largely modified by us later?
- Is there any FOSS list example for us to follow? When redistributing some FOSS codes along with our own doing to other cooperation companies?
P23 我們從這些數據看到，台灣廠商在商業化運用自由開源軟體授權專案上，這個Compliance方面的指引需求是一直持續存在並擴大中的，因為從產業結構上來看，台灣近98％的廠商都是中小企業，部份中型企業雖設有法務人員，但其傳統上的工作範疇仍然主要在商務仲裁、契約簽訂方面，並沒有能夠從事自由開源軟體應用分析的專職人員，所以長久以來我們面對到最多的諮詢問題，就是Compliance Guidance方面的問題。
P23 In short, the need of “Compliance Guidance” is a consistent need in Taiwan, because most enterprises in Taiwan are in medium and small scale. Their legal departments have little time and limited experience dealing with affairs other than arbitrations and contracts.
P24 而從Derivative Definition與Separate Technique兩類問題居高不下的狀況，不可諱言的、可以推知台灣多數廠商仍然僅將自由開源軟體視為免費軟體，雖然他們確實知道自由開源軟體與免費軟體有本質上的不同，然而他們還是期待可以透過某些方式，讓自己得以免費使用這些軟體專案來降低成本，提高自己的收益，但同時盡量不要受到授權義務性條款的拘束。
P24 As for the high percentage of “Derivative Definiton” and “Separate Technique” questions, we have to admit that many Taiwan companies are still trying to treat FOSS as merely Freeware. Some of them do know the FOSS implementations come with license obligations, but they still expect free meal.
P25 但是實際這個狀況也並非真的如此悲觀的，其實將Derivative Definition、Separate Technique兩類的問題，合併Compliance Process方面的問題內容來看，早期台灣廠商提出自由開源軟體專案程式源碼的釋出問題時，多直接詢問 “How can I not to release my Source Code, if there is any way I don't have to release my Source Code?”，然而在2009年之後，這類提問的內容多改為 “I know I have to release some part or the whole part of my Source Code, but which part I should release precisely, and how could I release the Source Code in proper way?”
P25 But let's look at the bright side, if we look deep into the content of “Compliance Process”, “Derivative Definition”, and “Separate Technique” questions altogether, we will find that in the early stage, most questions combined these three characters are direct, like “How can I not to release my Source Code, if there is any way I don't have to release my Source Code?”, but after 2009, those questions became more sensible, such as “I know I have to release some part or the whole part of my Source Code, but which part I should release precisely, and how could I release the Source Code in proper way?”
P26 此外、從列表上我們也可以看到，從2009年開始、隨著Mobile Device裝置的普遍化，自由開源軟體相關的專利爭議及Android平台相關的諮詢次數，也在逐年提升中。
P26 Since 2009, with the popularity of mobile devices, the FOSS-related patent issue and Android platform implementation questions are increasing too.
P27 最後、我們也從這份列表中發現，台灣廠商對於自由開源軟體的智財管理系統。以及授權分析工具的需求更是逐年提高。所謂自由開源軟體的智財管理系統，指的是哪些自由開源軟體元件的採納符合公司政策，哪些不符合公司政策，而這些採用流程如何被公司進行系統性的管理；而授權分析工具，指的則是企業如何認證其所採用的自由開源軟體究竟是何種授權狀態，能協助確認這類資訊的自動化與半自動化分析工具。
P27 Lastly, we also notice that, the needs of FOSS governance and analysis system are elevating recently. FOSS governance is the well-functioned FOSS implementation process, and analysis system is automatic or semi-automatic tools helping the FOSS adopter identify the license status of codes more easily.
P28 而為了因應這個日漸加高的需求，OSSF的法政同仁，未來有打算就這方面的資訊，專題的向台灣的廠商進行介紹，因為如之前談到的，台灣的產業結構裡大多數為中小企業，不若大型企業會較有魄力的建置專職部門來處理自由開源軟體授權相關事宜，所以若是有一個中立團隊可以將這些資訊媒合介紹進來，那麼日後多數公司同步採用的機率才會更為提高。所以如果在場的貴賓們，願意分享Governance System與Anylysis Tool方面的資訊與經驗的話，歡迎隨時找我們討論！
P28 If possible, we would like to work as as a neutral third party, to introduce these informations and knowledges to industrial enterprises in Taiwan in the near future. It will be our great honor if you can share any of your “Governance System” and “Analysis Tool” experiences with us.
P29 最後、This slide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license，歡迎大家拿到簡報後自由散布，對於簡報內容有任何問題的話，也歡迎隨時與我們聯繫討論。謝謝您的耐心聆聽！
P29 This slide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license, you are welcome to redistribute it accompanying the copyright notice to anyone. If you have any concerns or questions about the presentation, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Thanks for your time and patience.
