开源软件的著作权保护问题研究

Issues on Copyright Protection of Open Source Software

著作权专有权对软件的保护使得软件源代码处于闭源状态,很难参考借鉴他人软件,软件创新受阻,开源软件为了克服著作权保护的弊端应运而生,其本质上属于在开源许可证保障下的新型著作权许可模式。开源许可证为附解除条件的著作权许可合同。GPL许可证为不可撤销合同,著作权人选择了开源,就不得作出商业限制保留,亦不得撤销先前已经作出的许可证授权。在所有许可证种类中,GPL许可证最为严格,具有高传染性,对于在逻辑上与开源软件的源代码有关联且整体发布的衍生作品,只要有一部分受GPL开源许可证约束,则整个衍生作品都受GPL开源许可证约束而必须开源。用户若违反GPL开源许可证的约定,则其失去使用开源软件的条件,已获得的授权失效。著作权人可以选择违约救济或侵权救济,二者竞合,允许当事人择一救济方式维权。我国著作权法应重视对开源软件的规制,不断总结经验并完善相关制度,以促进我国软件产业稳步发展。

The protection of the exclusive rights of copyright to software makes the software source code in a closed state,so it is difficult to refer to other software,and software innovation is therefore hindered.Open source software came into being in order to overcome the disadvantages of copyright protection,and in essence,it belongs to the new mode of copyright license under the protection of open source license.Open source license is a copyright license with rescission conditions.The GPL license is an irrevocable contract,and the copyright owner who chooses open source may not make a commercial restriction or reservation,or revoke a previously granted license.Among all types of licenses,the GPL license is the most stringent and highly contagious.For derivative works logically related to the source code of open source software and distributed as a whole,as long as some of them are subject to the GPL open source license,the whole derivative works shall be subject to the GPL open source license and shall be open source as well.If a user violates the provisions of the GPL open source license,the granted rights are lapsed because the conditions for using the open source software failed.The copyright owner can choose the remedy for breach of contract or the remedy for infringement.The Chinese copyright law should attach importance to the regulation of open source software,summarize the experience and perfect the protection system constantly,so as to promote the steady development of its software industry.