== Copyright in FOSS Consulting ==
You know what the General Public License (GPL) is <ref>The worlds most popular software license. It was recently updated in 2007. A license utilizing the current legal framework to the advantage of the user AND author of the software. https://www.blackducksoftware.com/resources/data/top-20-open-source-licenses See http://gnu.org and http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html to learn more.</ref>, because you are a Linux hacker, web developer, or other consultant who lives and breathes free software. You consult for clients, doing DevOps using Software Engineering tools such as [[Subversion]], and [[Git]] or build automation like [[Jenkins]]. You work with database engines like [[MySQL]], [[Postgres]], and [[MongoDB]]. You do System Administration on [[RedHat]], [[Ubuntu]], and [[Debian]]. You build web services, proxies, reporting systems and more on [[Apache]] and [[Nginx]] web servers. You build extensions for [[MediaWiki]], modules for [[Drupal]], or plugins for [[WordPress]]. You do User Interface based on [[jQuery]] <ref>jQuery is licensed using the MIT license, the second most popular "Open Source" license https://www.blackducksoftware.com/resources/data/top-20-open-source-licenses</ref> and [[JavaScript]]. You extend, improve or integrate GPL software and systems, that is to say [http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page 50,000 market leading, state of the art software products]. You '''consult ''' for companies, universities, governments, other organizations large and small and they all use boilerplate contract language that is completely oblivious of the software they are using, and the work that you are doing for them in a proper legal context. To a certain degree, this is understandable - technology changes rapidly while legal systems and bureaucracies evolve slowly. In the definition of Copyright <ref>http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/101</ref>, the word software never appears. The phrase 'digital transmission' is the only hint of technology that was to come in the ensuing decades. In fact, section 102 <ref>http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/102</ref> on the Subject matter of copyright expressly excludes software in concept:
<blockquote>
In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.
== Further Resources ==
* [http://www.law.cornell.edu/ Legal Information Institute ] - a project started in 1992 by the Cornell University Law Schoolthat publishes the law online, for free. See the [http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution U.S. Constitution] and [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text U.S. Code], etc.
* [http://copyfree.org/resources/references Copyfree], offers a collection of interesting articles, essays etc. about the problems of Copyright and offers an alternative copyright regime.
* [http://www.ifosslr.org/ifosslr International Free and Open Source Software Law Review] is a collaborative legal publication aiming to increase knowledge and understanding among lawyers about Free and Open Source Software issues. Topics covered include copyright, licence implementation, licence interpretation, software patents, open standards, case law and statutory changes.