Editing Open-source software (section)

=== Legal issues ===
Several gray areas exist within software regulation that have great impact on open-source software, such as if software is a good or service, what can be considered a modification, governance through contract vs license, ownership and right of use.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Brock |first=Amanda |title=Open Source Law, Policy and Practice |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-0-19-886234-5 |edition=2nd |location=UK}}</ref> While there have been developments on these issues, they often lead to even more questions.<ref name=":7" /> The existence of these uncertainties in regulation has a negative impact on industries involved in technologies as a whole.<ref name=":7" />

Within the legal history of software as a whole, there was much debate on whether to protect it as [[intellectual property]] under [[patent law]], [[copyright law]] or establishing a unique regulation.<ref name=":7" /> Ultimately, [[Copyright|copyright law]] became the standard with computer programs being considered a form of literary work, with some tweaks of unique regulation.<ref name=":7" />

Software is generally considered [[source code]] and [[object code]], with both being protectable, though there is legal variety in this definition.<ref name=":7" /> Some jurisdictions attempt to expand or reduce this conceptualization for their own purposes.<ref name=":7" /> For example, The European Court of Justice defines a computer program as not including the functionality of a program, the [[Programming language|programing language]], or the format of data files.<ref name=":7" /> By limiting protections of the different aspects of software, the law favors an open-source approach to software use.<ref name=":7" /> The US especially has an open approach to software, with most [[Open source license|open-source licenses]] originating there.<ref name=":7" /> However, this has increased the focus on [[Patent|patent rights]] within these licenses, which has seen backlash from the OSS community, who prefer other forms of [[Intellectual property|IP]] protection.<ref name=":7" />

Another issue includes [[technological protection measures]] (TPM) and [[digital rights management]] (DRM) techniques which were internationally legally recognized and protected in the [[World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty|1996 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Treaty]].<ref name=":7" /> Open source software proponents disliked these technologies as they constrained end-users potentially beyond copyright law.<ref name=":7" /> Europe responded to such complaints by putting TPM under legal controls, representing a victory for OSS supporters.<ref name=":7" />