010-160 Open Source and Licensing 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following Creative Commons licenses allows others to distribute, remix, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you?
- CC BY-NC
- CC BY-SA
- CC BY (Correct answer)
- CC BY-ND
Correct answer: CC BY
The CC BY (Attribution) license is the most permissive Creative Commons license, permitting any use including commercial, provided attribution is given.
Question 2: What does 'OSI-approved' mean when referring to an open source license?
- The license was written by OSI members
- The license has been reviewed and certified as compliant with the Open Source Definition (Correct answer)
- The license is free to use without paying OSI a fee
- The license has been approved by the US government
Correct answer: The license has been reviewed and certified as compliant with the Open Source Definition
An OSI-approved license has been reviewed by the Open Source Initiative and confirmed to meet all criteria of the Open Source Definition.
Question 3: A developer writes a program that includes a GPL-licensed library. She distributes only the compiled binary. What must she provide to comply with the GPL?
- A written offer to provide the source code upon request (Correct answer)
- A fee payment to the library's copyright holder
- Only the binary file with no additional obligations
- A signed agreement with the FSF
Correct answer: A written offer to provide the source code upon request
GPL requires that when distributing a binary, you must also provide the corresponding source code or a written offer to supply it.
Question 4: Which of the following best describes 'open core' as a business model?
- Releasing all software as open source and charging for support only
- Offering a core product as open source while keeping advanced features proprietary (Correct answer)
- Allowing open source contributions but retaining all copyright
- Distributing software for free but charging for the source code
Correct answer: Offering a core product as open source while keeping advanced features proprietary
The open core model makes the basic version of a product open source while reserving enterprise or advanced features for a proprietary, commercial version.
Question 5: Which license is considered a 'weak copyleft' license because it only requires modifications to the licensed files themselves to remain open source?
- GNU GPL v3
- GNU AGPL v3
- GNU LGPL v2.1 (Correct answer)
- MIT License
Correct answer: GNU LGPL v2.1
The LGPL (Lesser GPL) is a weak copyleft license that requires only modifications to the LGPL-covered files to stay open, not the entire combined work.
Question 6: What is the significance of the year 2007 for the GPL?
- The original GPL was first published
- The Linux kernel switched from GPLv2 to GPLv3
- GNU GPL version 3 was released, adding provisions for patents and Tivoization (Correct answer)
- The FSF was founded and released the first GPL
Correct answer: GNU GPL version 3 was released, adding provisions for patents and Tivoization
GPL version 3 was released in 2007, addressing issues like software patents, Tivoization (hardware restrictions), and compatibility with other licenses.
Question 7: Under which circumstance does the GNU Affero GPL (AGPL) require source code disclosure that the regular GPL does not?
- When the software is modified internally
- When the software is run as a network service accessible to users (Correct answer)
- When the software is sold commercially
- When the software is installed on more than one machine
Correct answer: When the software is run as a network service accessible to users
The AGPL closes the 'ASP loophole' by requiring source disclosure when modified software is run as a network service, even without distributing binaries.
010-160 Open Source and Licensing 4
Which of the following Creative Commons licenses allows others to distribute, remix, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you?