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首页 > 过刊浏览>2022年第33卷第1期 >1-25. DOI:10.13328/j.cnki.jos.006279
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开源许可证的选择: 挑战和影响因素
作者:
作者简介:

吴欣(1990－)，女，硕士生，CCF学生会员, 主要研究领域为开源生态模式与机制.
武健宇（1997－），男，博士生，CCF学生会员，主要研究领域为软件仓库挖掘, 开源软件生态系统.
周明辉（1974－），女，博士，教授，博士生导师，CCF高级会员，主要研究领域为软件仓库挖掘, 开源软件生态系统.
王志强（1995－），男，硕士，CCF学生会员，主要研究领域为开源软件, 计算机视觉.
杨丽蕴（1981－），女，高级工程师，CCF高级会员, 主要研究领域为云计算, 开源, 应用软件, 标准化.

通讯作者:

周明辉，zhmh@pku.edu.cn

中图分类号:

TP311

基金项目:

国家重点研发计划(2018YFB1004201); 国家自然科学基金(61825201)


Selection of Open Source License: Challenges and Influencing Factors
Author:
Fund Project:

National Key Research and Development Plan of China (2018YFB1004201); National Natural Science Foundation of China (61825201); Acknowledgement to Peng Cheng Laboratory for providing computing infrastructure.

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    摘要:

    开发者通常会为其开源代码选择不同的开源许可证来约束其使用条件, 以期能有效地保护知识产权和维持软件的长远发展. 然而, 现有的开源许可证种类繁杂, 开发者难以了解不同开源许可证间的差异, 并且难以通过现有的开源许可证选择工具做出合适的选择——其使用要求开发者了解开源许可证相关条款并明确自己的业务需求. 学术界虽然对开源许可证已有研究, 但是对开发者选择开源许可证的实际困难并无系统的分析进而缺乏清晰的认知. 有鉴于此, 旨在从开源开发者角度出发, 理解其选择开源许可证的困难, 并通过分析开源许可证的组成要素和影响开源许可证选择的因素, 为开源许可证的选择提供借鉴. 设计问卷并随机调研了参与GitHub开源项目的200名开发者. 通过对53个反馈结果采用主题分析, 发现开发者选择开源许可证通常面临条款内容太复杂和考虑因素不确定这两方面的困难. 通过分析GitHub上3 346 168个代码仓库中使用最广泛的10种开源许可证, 建立了包含10个维度的开源许可证框架. 通过借鉴计划行为理论, 从行为态度、主观规范和知觉行为控制3方面提出了影响许可证选择的9大要素, 通过开发者调研验证了它们的相关性, 并进一步通过拟合次序回归模型验证了项目特征与许可证选择的关系. 研究结果能加深开发者对开源许可证内容的理解, 为开发者结合自身需求选择合适的许可证提供决策支持, 并为实现基于用户需求的开源许可证选择工具提供借鉴.

    Abstract:

    Developers usually select different open source licenses to restrain the conditions of using open source software, in order to protect intellectual property rights effectively and maintain the long-term development of the software. However, since the open source community has a wide variety of licenses available, developers generally find it difficult to understand the differences between different open source licenses. And existing selection tools of open source license require developers to understand the terms of the open source license and identify their business needs, which makes it harder for developers to make the right choice. Although there has been extensive research on open source license, there is still no systematic analysis on the actual difficulties of the developers to choose the open source license, thus lacking a clear understanding. For this reason, this study attempts to understand the difficulties faced by open source developers in choosing open source licenses, analyzes the components of open source license and the factors influencing open source license selection, and provides references for developers to choose open source licenses. This study conducts a random survey of 200 developers that participated in the open source projects on GitHub through questionnaires. With a Thematic Synthesis on the 53 feedbacks, it is found that developers often face difficulties in the selection of open source licenses in terms of complexity of terms and unknown considerations. By analyzing the ten open source licenses most widely used in 3 346 168 repositories on GitHub, this study establishes a framework of open source licenses that contains 10 dimensions. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior, nine factors that affect license selection from three aspects are put forward: behavior attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavior control. The relevance of those factors is verified by developer survey. Furthermore, the relationship between project characteristics and license selection is verified by fitting the order regression model. The results of research can deepen developers’ understanding of the contents of open source licenses, provide decision support for developers to select appropriate licenses based on their own needs, and provide a reference for implementing open source license selection tools based on developers’ needs.

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吴欣,武健宇,周明辉,王志强,杨丽蕴.开源许可证的选择: 挑战和影响因素.软件学报,2022,33(1):1-25

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  • 收稿日期:2020-05-09
  • 最后修改日期:2020-07-13
  • 在线发布日期: 2021-01-15
  • 出版日期: 2022-01-06
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