As director of intellectual property strategy for the Linux
Foundation and an attorney at Choate Hall & Stewart, Karen
Copenhaver knows a bit about open source software licensing. She
recently spoke with Dr. Dobb's editor in chief Jonathan
Erickson. Dr. Dobb's: Are open source and public domain the same
thing? Copenhaver: Not at all. Open source licenses are granted
by the copyright holder and the license is an exercise of the
copyright. In order to enjoy the benefits of the license, you
must comply with its terms. If you don't comply with the
license, you're not licensed -- and another word for unlicensed
use is "infringement." Dr. Dobb's: There are usually no signed
license agreements with open source software. How, then, can
users be subject to licenses? Copenhaver: Confusion is often
caused by the fact that the software is made generally available
for download. Users may assume that if something is made
available for free, it's thus licensed for use without
restriction. That's not the case. A license may