This unique and comprehensive resource provides you with a broad introduction to the area of software licensing in the information age. The book helps you to understand the basic philosophy and key issues of open source software development and offers expert guidance on how to draft an open source license. Drawing on the author’s legal and technical background, this invaluable reference explains the legal framework that has been developed to support the increasingly popular internet-based open source and free software community. Open Source Software Law and Policy explores the formal and legal aspects of two revolutionary views of software development and distribution: that software should be offered to users with open access to the source code and that end-users should be freely able to modify, copy or redistribute the software they have legally acquired. Moreover, the book examines an innovative legal response to the conflict between copyright law and digital technology, and includes an analysis of the legal regime that an increasing number of software developers have come to prefer when developing and distributing software online.