In a revealing analysis of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) copyright ownership, experts warn that most developers unknowingly give away their copyrights to employers, potentially weakening copyleft protections.
The default scenario for most FOSS contributors is that their employers automatically own the copyrights to code written during employment. This occurs through "work-for-hire" arrangements common in employment contracts worldwide.
"Almost no contributors to larger FOSS projects hold their own copyrights. If they have not assigned them to a charity, their employers likely own those copyrights," notes Bradley M. Kuhn, a prominent figure in FOSS advocacy.
This ownership pattern creates challenges for enforcing copyleft licenses like the GPL. Many companies that employ FOSS developers privately oppose GPL enforcement, viewing it as potentially damaging to customer relationships. Some executives have even threatened to abandon GPL-licensed software if enforcement continues.
The situation affects major projects like GCC and glibc, which are currently reconsidering long-standing copyright policies. Violations of these projects' licenses are more common than many realize, particularly in embedded systems where modified compiler toolchains are distributed without proper source code access.
Industry trends show an increasing shift of copyright ownership from individuals to corporations. The Linux kernel development statistics reveal fewer individual contributors and more corporate-owned contributions over time.
To address these challenges, experts recommend:
- Carefully reviewing employment contracts regarding copyright ownership
- Understanding employer policies on copyleft enforcement
- Considering copyright assignment to non-profit organizations
- Building collective developer consensus on copyright ownership
- Taking time to evaluate copyright policy changes carefully
The decisions made about copyright ownership today will impact FOSS projects for decades to come. As software codebases prove increasingly long-lived, the importance of thoughtful copyright stewardship grows.
"We have to think long term about the copyright ownership of copylefted works," Kuhn emphasizes. "Changing 30 years of careful planning about copyright inventory is not a decision to be finalized in just a few weeks or months."