Term paper: "Legal aspects of the development of an open operating system ReactOS"

Foreword

I am a graduate student of the second year of study at SKFU Institute of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, specialty "Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Modeling". It so happened that the topics of the course and subsequent master's work were devoted to a project that I have been working on for more than 7 years - the ReactOS operating system. In this regard, I believe that the final material should not just gather dust on a disk or shelf and should be published. I want to warn you right away that:

• I never purposefully received a law degree;
• the text may contain excessive quoting (up to borrowing), some factual, semantic, punctuation and spelling errors contrary to my desire to eliminate them;
• for the above reasons, I can’t call my work close to ideal.

For more convenient reading, I suggest downloading the full version of the work in PDF or ...
... welcome to cat.

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this work is to study the legal aspects of the development of the ReactOS operating system.
Any operating system as an object of law should be considered from different angles: as a complex product - combining the results of several different types of intellectual work; as software developed and distributed under a specific license.

Any complex software product, as a rule, has, as part of its supply, means of individualization and identification of the manufacturer (logos, trademarks and / or service marks, company names, trade dress), fonts, graphic works (icons, wallpapers, other images), audio works (sounds, notifications, music), object and, in some cases, source code. Each of these components to one degree or another is subject to legal protection in accordance with international agreements and laws of states. Three areas of legal protection can be distinguished: protection of means of individualization, protection of copyright and related rights, and patent law. The main starting point for their application is the definition of the state (i.e. jurisdiction),

The main organization managing the development of the project is the Reactos Foundation. The Reactos Foundation was established on June 5, 2002 and is registered in the Russian Federation as a non-profit organization in accordance with its legislation. The Fund operates in accordance with the guidelines of the charter of the Reactos Foundation and is engaged in supporting the project, assisting in the development of ReactOS and various subprojects within its competence. In addition, the Fund deals with trademark management, financing, and other legal issues. There is also ReactOS Deutschland eV, which is a non-profit organization registered in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany on January 24, 2009. She is responsible for accepting donations from residents of the Americas, the European Union,

In connection with the above circumstances of territorial and state registration, the ReactOS project in its activities focuses primarily on the legislation of the Russian Federation and the European Union. At the same time, declaring the status of international, the project respects the laws of other states and makes reasonable efforts to avoid potential conflicts

1. QUESTIONS OF TRADEMARKS, COMMODITY, LOGOS.

The ReactOS project seeks to respect other brands and takes measures to ensure the protection of its brands. The project’s trademark policy is as follows:

1. The integrity of the ReactOS brand must be maintained at all times. Developers should use the ReactOS brand carefully, and always ensure that the mark is present after first use in any published material.

2. Any participant in the project when writing such published materials as documentation, news articles, website content, etc., must take all necessary measures to protect other people's signs by indicating the appropriate marks (and) when using this sign for the first time.

3. Use of similar trademarks and service marks, logos. The provision on the non-use of similar trade and service marks prohibits the use of “famous” brands or well-known trademarks that can be confused with another well-known brand. ReactOS uses only one brand name, directly the ReactOS brand, and does not raise any questions about the use of any other brand names.

4. Presentation (Trade dress in the USA and India, Passing off in the UK). A trademark is a product design style that is protected by the laws of individual countries along with trademarks. The most famous examples are the Coca-Cola bottle and the Apple Macintosh computer user interface. Respect for the presentation of other products is a project policy. Currently, the project is not aware of any conflicts with the presentation of other products. Developers continue to make efforts to ensure that ReactOS has its own style, different from other products, which will avoid problems with someone else's presentation.

2. COPYRIGHT ISSUES

Programs and databases are protected mainly by copyright. This gives the specific implementation of the program legal protection against unauthorized use. In most countries of the world, the term of such protection is 70 years from the date of the author's death.
Under Russian law, software rights are protected in the same way as copyrights to works of literature. However, unlike literary works, the state has provided for the computer program an additional remedy - registration with the federal executive authority for intellectual property (Rospatent).

The state registration of computer programs and databases in Russia is regulated by article 1262 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

2.1 Certificate of official registration of the program in the Russian Federation for computers

The goals achieved through state registration are to create one of the evidence that the rights belong to a specific person and to deposit materials. The evidence is based only on the opinion of the applicant, which is not supported either by experts or even by third parties. Therefore, a certificate of state registration of a computer program is not in itself a title document.

However, the data indicated in the registration certificate pass only a technical check for the availability of necessary documents and materials, their compliance with the requirements for registration, and are not checked on the merits. Rospatent does not check whether the program is working and whether the registered code is the source code of the program in general.

Information entered in the Register of computer programs is considered reliable, since it has not been proved otherwise (Clause 6, Article 1262 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). This provision corresponds to the general presumption of authorship - the author is the person indicated as the author on the original or copy of the work, unless otherwise proved (Article 1257 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) and, therefore, does not add anything to the defense.

Rospatent is not responsible for the information that he brings to the certificate. He does not even violate the rights of the author if he makes false information, because The Certificate itself is not a normative act and in itself cannot be challenged. If the proper author proves his authorship in court, then Rospatent, on the basis of a court decision, will have to amend the Register.

2.2 ReactOS Copyright

The ReactOS project develops and distributes most of the source and object code under the second version of the GNU GPL (General Public License). Each project developer receives copyright in the source code being developed, but irrevocably licenses the code under the GPL license for its use in the ReactOS project.

Some parts of ReactOS may have other licenses representing large vaults, including the BSD, GNU Lesser GPL, or may be transferred to the public domain. Usually this is allowed only when it is necessary to ensure compatibility with other projects.

The GNU GPL Free Software License, created as part of the GNU Project, was released in 1991. The license was developed and maintained by the Free Software Foundation, FSF, registered in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The license allows the free use, modification, copying of source codes for software products falling within its scope (including for commercial purposes). If you use them in your designs and distribute derivative object code, the developer is obliged to provide the source codes of derivative products at first request and license them under the same license.

World jurisprudence has confirmed the legitimate status of the GNU GPL license in litigation SCO against IBM, SCO against Novell, Red Hat against SCO.

An analysis of the provisions of the GNU GPL license shows that this document is a mixed type agreement that combines the provisions of the copyright agreement and the sales contract.

The GPL, like the EULA (end-user license agreement - an agreement between the owner of a computer program and the user of its copy, the most characteristic example of such licensing is Microsoft Windows), can be described using legal concepts of Russian civil law. In accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the GPL is an accession agreement, the terms of which are defined by one of the parties in a standard form and can be accepted by the other party only by joining the proposed agreement as a whole. The moment of entry into force of the GPL for the user is clearly indicated in the license: if the user has made changes or distributed copies of the software licensed under the GPL, he thereby confirmed his accession to the license as a whole, including the conditions

For example, EULA takes effect and becomes mandatory for the user if he opened the packaging of the software product or installed the software on his computer. Such a way of expressing an intention to conclude a contract is described in the textbooks on civil law many times and is called in the legal theory “conformative actions”, that is, actions expressing the will of a person to conclude a transaction, but not in the form of an oral or written expression of will, but by behavior by which to conclude such an intention.

The fundamental difference between the GPL and EULA is that EULA prohibits a number of actions (copy, redistribute and modify), while the GPL allows and encourages them under certain minimum conditions.
In general, on the basis of Articles 421, 432 of the first part and Articles 1235, 1236, 1270, 1286 of the fourth part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and letter of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation of 05.05.2009 N D05-2235, we can conclude that the use of free software is subject to the relevant conditions version of the GNU GPL license complies with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation on copyright and is lawful.

Nevertheless, when using the GPL in Russia, some difficulties may arise, which are divided into two blocks. The first are in the field of private international law (civil relations involving foreign persons or civil relations complicated by another foreign element. Article 1186 of the third part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), as well as related to differences in copyright laws of Russia and the USA. The latter are more practical in nature - in particular, this is a matter of the status of the Russian translation of the GPL, which can be of significant importance in protecting the interests of free software developers in court.

Therefore, unlike the United States, in Russia, electronic distribution channels of the distribution of the GNU GPL licensed operating system must necessarily be supplemented by the distribution of this operating system on physical media, accompanied by the original printed license text in English, as well as one of its recommended unofficial translations into Russian tongue. In this case, in case of discrepancies in the texts in Russian and English, the text in English will prevail.

By order of Rosstandart dated December 6, 2011 N 718-st approved and entered into force on January 1, 2012 GOST R 54593-2011. The standard applies to free software.

GOST R 54593-2011 establishes general provisions in the field of creation, distribution and use of free software, including for state and municipal needs.

This standard is also intended for use by organizations, enterprises and other entities of scientific and economic activity, regardless of ownership and subordination, as well as by government bodies of the Russian Federation at all stages of the life cycle of free software.

The document outlines the merits of introducing free software in corporations and the public sector. The main terms are defined regarding open source, free and proprietary software, open standards, protocols and specifications. The goals, objectives, classification and criteria of free software are presented, and the infrastructure for the development and use of open source software should also be included.

For example, the advantages of open source software include safety, reliability, financial attractiveness, ensuring technological independence of development, avoiding binding to a specific manufacturer, independence in choosing a hardware platform, low initial cost of equipment, early detection of defects in software and the possibility of their quick fix, lack of mandatory fees for the right to use products, stimulating the development of the domestic industry in program development, expanding Opportunities for the participation of domestic developers in the performance of work and the provision of services for state and municipal needs. GNU / Linux distributions, the Apache http server, OpenOffice.org, Firefox, and FreeBSD are noted as examples of successful free applications.

However, it is worth noting that in the Russian Federation the federal law on technical regulation No. 184-ФЗ dated December 27, 2002 separates the concepts of "technical regulation" and "standard", in connection with which, all standards must be lost and applied voluntarily.

2.3 ReactOS Exceptions for Binary Product Licenses

The GNU GPL typically prohibits combining proprietary software with software under the GPL, such as ReactOS. Despite this (as well as regarding other similar policies), the official position of the ReactOS project regarding binding to non-free modules is as follows: ReactOS can be used and distributed with non-free software, such as commercial device drivers and commercial applications. This exception does not supersede any other GPL licensee obligations.

This exception is considered by the project as a compromise. We do not encourage the use of proprietary software ethically. We urge the use of equipment that does not require the use of proprietary software for normal operation, and we support and recommend companies that provide free drivers, programs and tools. In addition, the project encourages developers to continue creating free drivers for hardware devices for which only non-free drivers currently exist.

2.4 Third Party Copyrights

The ReactOS project is dependent on copyright laws to protect its code, and at the same time, it respects other people's copyrights.
The following are ReactOS copyright policies.

Copying code from third-party software is absolutely unacceptable, unless the copied code is in the public domain or distributed under a free software license that allows it to be combined with a program under the GPL license, such as, for example, ReactOS (that is, the code is GPL-compatible) . It should always be assumed that a license is not available, unless explicitly granted.

Non-free source code cannot be included with ReactOS. This includes header files, support files, and source code files. Such a code can be used for study, however, it is assumed that the student has a license to own this code. For example, in the absence of explicit agreements, as well as with a valid license, it is possible to study and learn from examples of proprietary code.

A significant side effect of a non-free license is the inability to copy and paste code from a non-free system into ReactOS. In addition, simply retyping existing code is copying and is a violation of copyright. To create code that works similar to the existing code sample, the developer is allowed to reverse-engineer the program to study and understand the existing code, taking into account licensing conditions. The developer, however, must create new code from scratch, based on the generalized knowledge he received.

Developers are advised NOT to try to copy proprietary code. Although the style of writing may not be subject to copyright, the style of writing free code, similar to or completely identical to the style of writing non-free code, causes distrust of this new code.

Comments from the source code are also copyrighted, and they can NOT be copied, even to a completely different original work, except in cases of fair use.

The source code obtained under the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is a special case that requires examination of the non-disclosure agreement itself. Before using the knowledge gained from studying this code, you should discuss the specifics of the non-disclosure agreement with the ReactOS project administrators.

In any case, the ReactOS project requires its members to adhere to the license terms of all software used in the development of ReactOS. The preferred strategy is to completely avoid the use of any proprietary licenses.

Fair use Copyrighted materials carry certain irrevocable fair use rights. One of them is the right to study copyrighted work for educational purposes. That is why third-party development kits that are not protected by a non-disclosure agreement are being studied so that project participants can create compatible software.

Reverse engineering Many proprietary software packages contain clauses in their licenses prohibiting their reverse development. The creators of the ReactOS project are of the view that these licensing restrictions apply only to the extent that they prohibit the intentional conversion of object code to the appropriate source code, followed by a statement of ownership of that source code. Reverse development in the part that takes place every time a developer monitors (traces) the code in the kernel of the operating system using a debugger in order to find problems with his code is a legitimate fair use. Any source code directly obtained through reverse engineering should be treated in the same way.

Disassembling object code is seen as a form of reverse engineering. Disassembled code listings have the same licensing restrictions as the object code itself.

“Tainted Developers.” There is a legal theory that is sometimes expressed when performing work similar to that already published previously and protected by copyright. There is a concern that if the creators of a new work saw the original work, they will not be able to create such a work without violating the copyright of the original. The position of the project is such that this theory is invalid for a number of reasons. As a rule, there is no reason why a developer who sees proprietary code cannot write code for ReactOS that is similar only in terms of the general logic of work.

The project coordinators make every effort to ensure that the code base meets the requirements of all copyrights and licenses throughout the entire code that is part of the system. However, due to the size and complexity of the system, it is not possible to guarantee that such a violation will never occur. The project website provides a special form for accepting applications for such violations. Project coordinators undertake to immediately remove any code containing such violations from the code base after reporting such a violation, subject to the provision of relevant documentary evidence and the confirmation by the project administrator.

2.5 Development Tools

ReactOS requires several third-party SDKs for its development. Each of them presents unique legal issues. The following SDKs are used in the development of ReactOS:

- Microsoft Platform SDK (including its associated SDKs and SDKs of components): This SDK is located at www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate . It contains header files, libraries, documentation and other support files, as well as sample source code for programs that illustrate the use of the API defined in the SDK. This is the main development tool used to create third-party software that runs on and is compatible with Microsoft operating systems.

- Microsoft Driver Development Kit (DDK): a special SDK designed to develop kernel-mode software (including device drivers).

- Microsoft Installable File system Kit (IFS): A special purpose SDK designed to develop certain kernel-mode components known as file systems. This kit is licensed for approximately $ 1,000.

SDK license restrictions. Some of the SDKs often used by project participants are distributed under non-free licenses. Some of these licenses include various restrictions on the use of software developed using this SDK. In particular, Microsoft imposed restrictions on which operating systems the drivers created using their DDK can be used on. These restrictions apply only to those drivers that directly include Microsoft or provided header or library files in the form of object or source code. However, this kind of restriction is not valid in relation to the documentation that comes with these SDKs, and source codes (in particular, header files) can be accessed for the purpose of studying them and ensuring compatibility,

The ReactOS project holds that some components of these SDKs are not copyrighted. The project considers that the names of symbolic constants, types of data structures, etc., are not material legally protected by copyright, as they are functional elements and do not include creative expression. Therefore, the project advocates that developers can name their own corresponding data structures, declared constants, enumerated types, etc. similar to those found in copyrighted works.
In addition, the names of data structures and components must be identical to ensure compatibility with extraneous object code, and, therefore, are similar to those found in the Microsoft SDK.

In order to achieve full ReactOS compatibility with Windows, the data structures in ReactOS must exactly match those expected by third-party software. Although there is a prohibition on the direct copying of any data from a file protected by copyright, ReactOS allows the reproduction (reconstruction) of data structures compatible with those found in non-free SDKs.

3. PATENT ISSUES

Some countries allow the protection of software (software) through patent law mechanisms. Software patents, like any patents, are given for a shorter period (usually about 20 years) compared with the terms of copyright protection, but at the same time protect the ideas embodied in the implementation of this technology.
Despite the fact that such patents have long been called “software patents” (a literal translation is somewhat less specific, but still capable of misleading the phrase “software patent”), we are not talking about patents for individual programs on their own. “Software patents” protect algorithms and operations that can be performed using programs on a general-purpose computer, so Richard Stallman suggested calling them “computational idea patents”.
Computing idea patents apply at least to the United States, some European countries, and South Korea.
In most countries of Europe and in Russia, patents in the literal sense “for software” are formally invalid. Article 52 of the European Patent Convention expressly prohibits the patenting of computer algorithms, methods and programs. In Russia, patenting of computer programs is prohibited.

Thus, software patents can have a significant impact on ReactOS, as the project has international status. Currently, project software patents do not violate the United States legal framework. It is also worth noting that third-party patents are fundamentally incompatible with free software and should be carefully avoided in such projects.

Infringement of patent rights occurs at the moment when someone begins to “produce, sell, use or put up for sale” a patented invention without a license for it from the patent owner, but the liability can vary greatly depending on the current legislation and ratified state agreements, in which will be the right application. Obviously, patent issues are relevant to all project developers. This is a rather complicated issue, but the project’s policy regarding patents is as follows:

Administrators, coordinators, and other ReactOS project participants are not required to actively search for relevant patents. To make a full patent search covering all aspects of such a complex system as ReactOS is practically impossible, or at least excessively expensive and time-consuming.

The project participants conscientiously make every effort to identify any known patents related to the development of ReactOS and inform the project administrators about them. This does not mean that the project encourages others to engage in a full patent search; however, this means that developers are required to report any patents that they are aware of, and which, in their opinion, may be relevant to the project.

Project administrators will maintain a list of patents that may relate to the project and make efforts to avoid infringement. As a rule, legal advice on each patent cannot be obtained. Instead, the project coordinators, from their point of view, will draw conclusions about the technical relevance of patents, and, if necessary, decide on the removal and / or change of the system code that violates patent law.

Project participants agree that they will not patent any new developments implemented jointly with ReactOS, or, alternatively, agree to transfer ownership of these patents to the ReactOS Foundation, or grant a permanent, irrevocable, royalty-free license to anyone who wants to use the patented invention in conjunction with the ReactOS system or any derivative works of the system (in other words, something like “patent-left”).

Developers who had access to third-party proprietary source code, which was originally a trade secret (including, for example, leaked Microsoft Windows source code), are a special case. Copyright issues, as well as patent issues, are unchanged, however, any developer who receives the code after signing a non-disclosure agreement or otherwise does not have a license to own this code. Otherwise, there is a clear violation by the developer of trade secrets. Thus, this code is not even suitable for study. Refusal to accept assistance from developers who have or use any such third-party proprietary code in their ReactOS development activities is a project policy

The project coordinators undertake to immediately remove any code containing the implementation of the patented inventions from the code base after reporting such a violation, subject to the provision of relevant documentary evidence and the confirmation by the project administrator. The project website provides a special form for accepting applications for such violations.

4. ISSUES OF COMMERCIAL SECRET, NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS.

There may be a situation where ReactOS project participants may receive information that is not permitted for further distribution. This is the case when a participant owns a trade secret.
It is recommended that people who gain access to information constituting a trade secret be kept confidential. Public projects such as ReactOS are generally incompatible with trade secrets. Project participants should not disclose trade secrets of the project. The project does not store any trade secrets, however, although it does everything possible to preserve other people's trade secrets, the project does not give any guarantees regarding each of its participants.
The lack of trade secrets is a project policy. This means that project participants should not gain access to trade secrets in the context of their work on ReactOS.

ReactOS project participants may sometimes be faced with the need to enact any non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Due to the fundamental incompatibility of the project and the concept of non-disclosure, the project does not approve the adoption of any non-disclosure agreements for any reason.

Project participants must inform the project coordinators of any agreements that may be relevant to their participation in the project. Project administrators require the disclosure of information on any non-disclosure agreements obtained by project participants during work on proprietary code, not only before submitting any code to the project, but even before any non-trivial participation begins, including sending messages to mailing lists, presence on IRC channel, etc. The project conscientiously makes every effort to prevent violation of the non-disclosure agreement by the project participants, but this does not give any guarantees regarding the behavior of the participants.

Participants who have accepted the non-disclosure agreement are prohibited from sending code, documentation, implementation tips, architecture information, etc., to which the non-disclosure agreement applies. Developers who have entered into such agreements must abide by their terms. They “discredited” their reputation clearly intentionally and there is documentary evidence in the form of signed non-disclosure agreements with third parties. Any code that was sent in violation of the non-disclosure agreement will be deleted from the code base.

CONCLUSION

Thus, in this work, various legal aspects of the development of an open ReactOS operating system were considered - issues of protecting individualization tools, copyright and related rights, trade secrets and patent laws. The features of the process of developing “free” software from a legal point of view were also investigated. It is established that the open operating system ReactOS is a complex subject of law, because It contains the results of various types and forms of intellectual creativity, and the legal regulation of the processes of its development and dissemination directly depends on the current legislation within the jurisdiction of each state separately. In view of these features and its international status, the ReactOS open-source project in its work strictly adheres to the strategy of avoiding violation by the project participants of copyrights, patents, trade secrets, means of individualization of third parties in most jurisdictions. Only the results of intellectual creativity with a known, legal source and method of origin, unprotected by patents and licensed by their direct authors under one of the free licenses compatible with the project license - GPL are accepted into the project code base. The project defends its intellectual property rights on the basis of established international practices on the legal protection of open source software. means of individualization of third parties in most jurisdictions. Only the results of intellectual creativity with a known, legal source and method of origin, unprotected by patents and licensed by their direct authors under one of the free licenses compatible with the project license - GPL are accepted into the project code base. The project defends its intellectual property rights on the basis of established international practices on the legal protection of open source software. means of individualization of third parties in most jurisdictions. Only the results of intellectual creativity with a known, legal source and method of origin, unprotected by patents and licensed by their direct authors under one of the free licenses compatible with the project license - GPL are accepted into the project code base. The project defends its intellectual property rights on the basis of established international practices on the legal protection of open source software. compatible with the project license - GPL. The project defends its intellectual property rights on the basis of established international practices on the legal protection of open source software. compatible with the project license - GPL. The project defends its intellectual property rights on the basis of established international practices on the legal protection of open source software.

ATTACHMENT

A. Some terms of the

Application Programming Interface (API): A set of functions, data structures, constants, objects, etc., that provide a programming interface for applications. For example, the computer operating system has an API whose functions should be used to interact with this system when writing applications. The name “API” may refer to a particular function provided by the operating system.

Software Development Kit (SDK): Software and documentation used to create computer programs that interact with the vendors of these SDKs. Typically, these bundles include C header files, object code libraries, and various forms of documentation for using the bundle, as well as detailed information about the programs that the bundle is intended to support.

Copyright: A form of government-defined monopoly that protects creative expression, such as, for example, written works, audio and video recordings, songs, visual art, computer source code, etc. Copyright protects the literal expressions contained in the work, not the ideas and concepts that the work embodies. Copyright arises automatically in any work that is protected by copyright at the time when it is fixed in tangible form, including the writing of computer source code and, sometimes, object code.

Library: An object code file containing commonly used software components. In the operating system, system libraries must be used by third-party software to “link” functions with the operating system so that the software can work properly on the operating system.

Disassembler: Software used by developers to convert object code into human-readable assembly language code. It is used by developers to facilitate the search and correction of deficiencies in their software; In addition, a disassembler can be used to help developers better understand the system for which their product is intended. The disassembler can also be used to restore the source code in case of loss of its original.

Device Driver (“Driver”): Software designed to directly or indirectly control hardware on behalf of the operating system. It is also sometimes used to refer to any software designed to run as a plug-in directly in the kernel of the operating system. Drivers, as a rule, are at a very low level, and, after loading, become part of the kernel of the operating system. Basically, they are very closely related to the architecture of the operating system.

Source code: Representation of computer programs in a programming language (e.g. C or C ++). This term refers to a special form of software that is easily readable by humans and used to write and maintain software. The source code usually contains comments that help the reader understand the software. Also, the source code includes header files.

Trade secrets: Information that is valuable to its owner (usually a company), and may harm the market competitiveness of the company in its disclosure, for the protection of which its owner takes decisive measures.
Compiler: A software development tool that translates human-readable source code into object code for execution in a target environment.

Logotype (from other Greek: λόγος - word + τύπος - imprint): graphic designation of the company name in the form of stylized letters and / or ideograms. Logos are widely used for the image of trademarks and as emblems of legal entities.

Non-free (proprietary) software: Software that is privately owned by authors or copyright holders and does not meet the criteria for free software (having open source code is not enough).

The copyright holder of proprietary software reserves the monopoly on its use, copying and modification, in full or in essential aspects. Most commercial products still fall into this category.

Public domain: Work eligible for copyright protection may be transferred to the public domain with the express consent of the creator of the work. Once a work has been assigned to the public domain, it is not protected by any copyright and has no protection of any kind.

Object code: The result of a compiler or other similar program designed to translate human-readable source code into a format suitable for execution in a target environment. Usually, this term refers to machine language instructions that can be executed directly on the microprocessor. Object code is the opposite of the source code, which is converted to object code (usually using a compiler).

Operating system (OS): A special class of computer software designed to organize an environment that allows you to run basic programs. The operating system interacts directly with the computer hardware, and provides a standardized set of services that programs can interact with. OS include, for example, Microsoft Windows XP, GNU / Linux, and Apple Macintosh.

Debugger: Software used by developers to facilitate the correction of deficiencies in their software; In addition, the debugger can be used to help developers better understand the system for which their product is intended. Examples of debuggers are SoftICE from Compuware and WinDbg from Microsoft.

Patent: Legal monopoly granted by the government to the inventor of a new and useful invention. Patents are granted for tangible and intangible concepts, methods, procedures, technologies, devices, etc.

Service mark: A trademark used to identify someone else’s services.

Free Software (Free Software): Software licensed in accordance with the definition of free software published by the Free Software Foundation (http://www.gnu.org). The GNU General Public License (GPL) is a popular free software license.

Trademark (trademark): A mark that distinguishes a product from a particular manufacturer from others. Trademarks are typically used to uniquely identify a product within a specific industry.

Header file: A source code file, usually written in C or C ++, that is included by reference in other source code files.

The header file provides information that describes the API, data structures, operational constants, and other characteristics of the software system. For example, to write a program that will run on a specific operating system, you must use the header files that are provided by the developers of this system and are designed to interact with it.

SOURCES

1. The WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the Agreed Statements regarding the WIPO Copyright Treaty were adopted by the Diplomatic Conference on December 20, 1996 [Electronic resource]. - URL: www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/wct/wct.html
2. Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) or TRIP [Electronic Resource] Agreement. - URL: www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/norm_doc/mejd_doc/trips.html
3. “Civil Code of the Russian Federation” (Civil Code of the Russian Federation) dated 12/18/2006 N 230-ФЗ, Part 4 in the current version of 01.09. 2013 [Electronic resource]. - URL: www.consultant.ru/popular/gkrf4 ConsultantPlus, 1992-2013
4. The state standard of January 1, 2012 No. GOST R 54593-2011 “Information technology. Free software. General Provisions. "
5. Letter of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation of 05.05.2009 N D05-2235 [Electronic resource]. - the URL: www.subschet.ru/subschet.nsf/docs/0C3E2997FDF34C30C32576220019BE2D.html
6. The text of the license GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE in the non-Russian translation [electronic resource] jxself.org/translations/gpl-2.ru.shtml
7. Richard Stallman. Giving the Software Field Protection from Patents. Free Software Foundation (February 2, 2013) [Electronic resource]. - URL: gnu.org/philosophy/limit-patent-effect.html
8. “The fight against computer piracy: liability for copyright infringement of software and the legislation of the Russian Federation on their protection”, legal review of the company Adobe Systems [Electronic resource]. - URL: www.adobereal.ru/legal/russian_legislation_on_copyright_protection_for_software.php#adobe_01
9. GNU General Public License. / “Analysis of“ free ”licenses for their applicability in the Russian legal system.” Legal review from Altlinux. [Electronic resource]. - URL: www.altlinux.ru/media/otchet_dlia_publikacii/part4.html#mozTocId391958
10. Legal review of the ReactOS operating system [Electronic resource]. - URL: old.reactos.org/en/dev_legalreview.html
11. Elena Tyapkina “The legal status of the GPL in Russia”, Computerra magazine No. 13 dated April 09, 2002 [Electronic resource]. - URL: old.computerra.ru/2002/438/17257
12. “Why register a computer program?”, Habrahabr.ru/post/176101