Although the use of open source software is common, licensing obligations are often overlooked.
Common Licenses
- MIT: The most flexible, commercial use permission, attribution is sufficient
- Apache 2.0: MIT-like + patent protection
- GPL v3: "Copyleft" - derivative work is also open source mandatory
- LGPL: Softened version of GPL (for library)
- BSD: MIT-like
- AGPL: SaaS version of GPL
GPL Copyleft
- Any code combined with GPL code becomes GPL
- Using GPL in commercial software → obligation to make all software open source
- Administrators must be conscious
Consequences of Violation
- Copyright infringement (FSEK)
- Compensation (major lawsuits in the USA)
- Closure request
- Image damage
Turkish Law Applicability
- License is a kind of contract (TBK)
- Criminal liability for FSEK violation
- The Supreme Court does not yet have extensive open source jurisprudence
What Companies Should Do
- Follow all dependencies
- Prepare SBOM (Software Bill of Materials)
- License scanning tools (FOSSology, Snyk)
- See GPL separately from commercial software hold
- Set licensing policy
AI and Open Source
- If the AI model is open source, license is applied
- Models such as Llama, Mistral are subject to special license
- Training data copyright issue (separate discussion)
Software and intellectual property law lawyer recommended.