1 of 18

Open Source Licensing Considerations —a POV for the Kwaai community

Presented by Karsten Wade,

Founder & Partner at Open Community Architects

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

2 of 18

opencommar.ch/kwaai

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

3 of 18

POV overview

The “What”

  • What is “Open”?
  • What is “Open Source”?
  • What is the “Open Source Definition”?
  • What is the “Open Source AI Definition” (proposed)?

The “Why”

  • Why does this work?

The “How”

  • Factual (the Four Freedoms)
  • Cultural (the Four Opens)

Licenses and options

  • Our list

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

4 of 18

The “What"

sponsored by

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

5 of 18

What is “Open”?

The Open definition (https://opendefinition.org/):

​

“Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose (subject, at most, to requirements that preserve provenance and openness).”

​

Combine Open with the artifact of a field or domain:

  • Open Scholarship
  • Open Design
  • Open Source
  • Open Policy
  • …

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

6 of 18

What is “Open Source”?

Open Source is a kind of Open Work:

​

An Open Work delineates the meaning of “Open” with respect to work products and projects that are released into the public domain or under a license recognized by an entity such as, but not limited to, the Open Source Initiative (OSI), the Free Software Foundation GNU, the Creative Commons (CC) or the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) with the intent of promoting a robust community of collaboration around the work itself and other work that it may interoperate with.

​

https://openworkdefinition.com/

From Open@RIT

​

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

7 of 18

What is the “Open Source Definition”?

The Open Source Definition (https://opensource.org/osd/):

  1. Freely redistributable
  2. Source code included
  3. Derived works allowed
  4. Integrity of original author’s work
  5. No discrimination against persons or groups
  6. No discrimination against fields of endeavor
  7. Distribution of license
  8. License must not be product-specific
  9. License must not restrict other software
  10. Licensed must be technology-neutral

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

8 of 18

What is the “Open Source AI Definition” (proposed)?

The proposed Open Source AI Definition v0.0.3 (https://opensource.org/deepdive/):

​

“To be Open Source, an AI system needs to make its components available under licenses that individually grant the freedoms to:

  • Study how the system works and inspect its components.
  • Use the system for any purpose and without having to ask for permission.
  • Modify the system to change its recommendations, predictions or decisions to adapt to your needs.
  • Share the system with or without modifications, for any purpose.

https://hackmd.io/@opensourceinitiative/osaid-0-0-3

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

9 of 18

The “Why"

sponsored by

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

10 of 18

Why does “Open” work?

  1. Derived from instinctive human values of cooperation and collaboration
  2. Treated as a practice, not a perfection
  3. Once written down, it can be:
    1. Repeated more easily
    2. Studied and understood
    3. Iterated-on and improved
  4. ​

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

11 of 18

The “How"

sponsored by

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

12 of 18

How does “Open” work?

Two key factors:

  • Factual (the Four Freedoms)
  • Cultural (the Four Opens)

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

13 of 18

How does “Open” work?

Two key factors:

  • Factual (the Four Freedoms)
  • Cultural (the Four Opens)

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

14 of 18

Factual of “Open”

Factual means a grounding in an objective definition that relies upon the rule of law - the Four (Essential) Freedoms:

  1. The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose
  2. The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
  3. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others.
  4. The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html

​

​

​

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

15 of 18

Cultural of “Open”

Cultural means the sense of permission and freedom to tinker and collaborate - the Four Opens:

​

  1. Open Source
  2. Open Design
  3. Open Development
  4. Open Community

​

https://openinfra.dev/four-opens/

​

A license is as much a cultural choice

as it is a factual choice

​

​

​

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

16 of 18

Licenses and options for Kwaai

  • MIT License
    • PAI code can be used for any purpose without restrictions. Users are free to copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the software, as long as they include the original copyright notice and the license.
  • GNU General Public License (GPL)
    • If PAI code is modified, those changes must be shared back under the GPL. Any derivative work must also be open-sourced under the GPL (copyleft).
  • Apache License
    • PAI code can be used and modified, but any modifications must credit Kwaai and can't hold Kwaai liable. It also provides an express grant of patent rights from contributors to users.
  • BSD License
    • PAI code can be used freely for any purpose, but distributions of the code or derivative works must retain Kwaai's original copyright notice.
    • Ideal for: Projects that want minimal restrictions on redistribution, without a copyleft clause.
  • Affero General Public License (AGPL)
    • If PAI code is used for web services or network applications, any modifications to the code must be open-sourced under the AGPL.
  • Mozilla Public License (MPL)
    • Summary: PAI code can be integrated with other open-source or proprietary code, but changes to the PAI code itself must be shared under MPL.
  • Eclipse Public License
    • Summary: Contributions to PAI must be shared under the Eclipse Public License, but contributors retain their patents.
  • ISC License
    • Summary: Similar to the MIT license, but even more simplified. It permits use, modification, and distribution of PAI code in any form.

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

17 of 18

License options for Kwaai TBD

License

Permissive

Copyleft

Patents

Attribution

Services

Integration

MIT

yes

no

​

yes

​

?

GPL

no

yes

no

no

no

no

ASL

​

​

​

​

​

​

BSD

​

​

​

​

​

​

AGPL

​

​

​

​

​

​

MPL

​

​

​

​

​

​

EPL

​

​

​

​

​

​

ISC

​

​

​

​

​

​

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​

18 of 18

License and Open resources

License resources

​

Open resources:

CC BY SA 4.0 - https://opencommar.ch/kwaai

get involved, join us at: www.kwaai.ai

​