Software, copyright and the learning environment: an analysis of the IT contracts Swedish schools impose on their students and the implications for FOSS

Συγγραφείς

  • Andrew Katz Moorcrofts LLP
  • Björn Lundell University of Skövde
  • Jonas Gamalielsson University of Skövde

Λέξεις-κλειδιά:

Law, information technology, Free and Open Source Software, schools and education, further restrictions, GPL, Sweden

Περίληψη

Free and open source software (FOSS) is commonly made available to students in schools, but the schools do not necessarily take a holistic approach to their provision of IT (including software) which takes into account the nature of FOSS. In particular, we have identified a number of contracts with which Swedish students who are provided with laptops by their schools are required to comply which set out conditions for the use of the laptops, and associated software and content. Many clauses in these contracts are legally incompatible with certain FOSS licences, or contain misconceptions about FOSS, licensing and culture. This paper explores the relationship between the contracts and FOSS licensing and culture, and suggests a number of resolutions to the contradictions and misconceptions, as well as considering related issues.

Βιογραφικά Συγγραφέων

  • Andrew Katz, Moorcrofts LLP

    Andrew Katz is a visiting researcher at the University of Skövde, Sweden and a partner at boutique law firm Moorcrofts LLP, based in England's Thames Valley. Andrew specialises in technology law and has a particular interest in open design and development. He can be contacted at [email protected]

  • Björn Lundell, University of Skövde

    Björn Lundell is a senior researcher at the University of Skövde , Sweden. He leads the Software Systems Research Group, has conducted research related to free and open source software in a number of projects, and his research is reported in over 100 publications in a variety of international journals and conferences .

  • Jonas Gamalielsson, University of Skövde

    Jonas Gamalielsson is a researcher at the University of Skövde , Sweden. He has conducted research related to open source in several projects for a number of years and he is a researcher in the Software Systems Research Group .

Λήψεις

Δημοσιευμένα

2016-05-23

Τεύχος

Τόμ. 8 Αρ. 1 (2016)

Ενότητα

Articles

Άδεια

The most restrictive licence we will accept for submission is Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) SPDX identifier CC-BY-4.0

Πώς να δημιουργήσετε Αναφορές

Software, copyright and the learning environment: an analysis of the IT contracts Swedish schools impose on their students and the implications for FOSS. (2016). Journal of Open Law, Technology & Society, 8(1), 1-28. https://www.jolts.world/index.php/jolts/article/view/108