Open Source Software Policy Options for NASA Earth and Space Sciences (2018) / Chapter Skim
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2 Background Materials
2 Background Materials
Pages 15-27
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From page 15... ...
Open source license -- A software license, approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) as compliant with the Open Source Definition,2 granting permissions for anyone to inspect, use, modify, and distribute the software's source code for any purpose.
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Version control -- A system to automatically manage changing versions of a computer file, especially one that contains source code. In software development, version control preserves a complete history of changes to the source code and enables a developer to roll back to an earlier version if needed.
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The scenarios above demonstrate some of the different software development pathways that would be affected by an OSS policy. Additionally, NASA formally defines different software types in Appendix D of NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR 7150.2B)
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For the purposes of this report, the committee puts forward one possible classification scheme, detailed in Table 2.1.10 It is important to note that any of these categories can be considered "community software" when developed by a collective effort following open source best practices. Other conditions that may affect software policy include the following: the funding source, the parties involved, the development history, and the size and complexity of the software and computational requirements.
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• Copyright law and ownership, • The public domain, • Patent law, • Export controls, • Grant and contract terms, and • Considerations for institutional grantees. 2.3.1 Copyright Law and Ownership Copyright gives creators the exclusive right to make copies of an original creative work such as computer software.
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rights in software, including how long any copyright and any patent rights endure. Most open source licenses apply -- that is, require compliance with their terms and conditions -- only if the licensed work is protected by applicable copyright or patent law.
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This means that in the absence of specific terms requiring that software be developed and released under open source licensing terms, the decision about releasing software may be left to university technology transfer offices, or similar entities. Some grant programs, however, specify that software must be released under an open source license -- for example, the NASA Earth Science Data Systems program.19 Contractors may be subject to contract conditions that place high barriers for open source release.
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Finding: Unless public domain applies, source code without a license is considered "all rights reserved." Opening source code means both making it public and attaching an open source license. 2.4.1 Open Licenses A copyright license grants others the right to do something with a protected work that copyright would otherwise prohibit.
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, it is categorized as a custom license because unlike any other license identified here, it has been interpreted as requiring that all modifications be the original works of the person making the modifications. This precludes modifiers from including in their modifications open source software written by others, unlike the other licenses in this chart.
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This may preclude an individual or organization from modifying the software using portions of code written by others and may limit the utility and potential reuse and improvement, and therefore the impact of software licensed under NOSA 1.3.27 Others disagree with this conclusion and point to their experience contributing on NOSA projects that include third-party OSS.28 Provision 3I states, "A Recipient may create a Larger Work by combining Subject Software with separate software not governed by the terms of this agreement and distribute the Larger Work as a single product. In such case, the Recipient must make sure Subject Software, or portions thereof, included in the Larger Work is subject to this Agreement."29 Hence, there is confusion regarding how this license does or does not allow for software reuse and compatibility with other licenses.
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Open source licenses generally help clarify intent and remove ambiguity in the complex global legal framework. Some federal employees still are convinced that software developed as part of their official duties can only be public domain or released under a CC0 dedication, and some agencies enforce this per policy.
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Over time, they may mobilize new users to become contributors, the need for governance arises, and the project becomes community software. Finding: The open source development model involves a community of users, but code contributions are sanctioned via peer review and approved by maintainers or core developers.
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The Nebula team recognized that "open source development would facilitate a collaborative environment without borders."1 As soon as the open source code of Nebula was announced, industry became interested. The company Rackspace, Inc., running one of the largest public clouds in the world, had in-house software to perform similar functions, but recognized that Nebula had features it lacked.
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