No good writer would openly take another author’s work and claim it as their own, as that would be plagiarism or stealing intellectual property. This dishonest act not only carries serious legal consequences—like expensive lawsuits—but it also damages the chance for future collaboration between two creators.
In the same way, members of the open source community need to follow certain regulations to ensure that the sharing of ideas and innovation can keep going without any possible issues. For instance, an open source Web developer can change existing open source code, but only if it follows the code’s licensing guidelines and always traces back to the original source code. By doing this, Web developers acknowledge the person who originally created the code, just like writers must quote and cite sources for words taken from someone else’s work.
In order to standardize a sound collaboration, members of the open source community employ what’s called “copyleft”. This is a policy which states that software can be used, modified and distributed but only so long as it is in compliance with an established set of ground rules and conditions. As such, developers can easily add their own contributions to existing code and integrate it with other software.
Additionally, the policy allows companies to distribute software that contains this source code. This is how open source code could easily land within a business’s IT infrastructure without them ever being aware, which raises another issue. When organizations use open source software they might not be fully aware of the many components of that particular technology. For instance, the software may contain several third-party elements that couldn’t initially be detected. As such, businesses run the risk of becoming incompliant with a particular code’s licensing or intellectual property agreement.
To mitigate the risks associated with noncompliance in open source licensing agreements, organizations must make it their standard operating procedure to utilize intellectual property software audit services. By using this advanced auditing service organizations can raise the awareness of potential vulnerabilities and hightlight risks.
So, it’s a Web developer’s duty to ensure they aren’t acting as the plagiarists of the technology world and it’s a business’s duty to ensure they are compliant with open source rules and regulations.
