Sources¶

This page collects sources for claims made throughout the guide. Entries are organized alphabetically.

A¶

AT&T Broadcom VMware Lawsuit¶

The Register. "AT&T claims 1,050% VMware price hike in Broadcom lawsuit filings." October 2024. https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/01/att_broadcom_filings_update/

Apache Software Foundation Legal FAQ¶

Apache Software Foundation. "ASF Legal Previously Asked Questions." Accessed 2026. https://www.apache.org/legal/resolved.html

Apache License 2.0 Text¶

Apache Software Foundation. "Apache License, Version 2.0." January 2004. https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

B¶

Broadcom VMware Acquisition¶

Broadcom, Inc. "Broadcom and VMware Intend to Close Transaction on November 22, 2023." November 2023. https://investors.broadcom.com/news-releases/news-release-details/broadcom-and-vmware-intend-close-transaction-november-22-2023

Broadcom Ends VMware Perpetual Licenses¶

Born, Günter. "Broadcom ends perpetual licenses for VMware products." Born's Tech and Windows World. January 2024. https://borncity.com/win/2024/01/17/broadcom-ends-perpetual-licenses-for-vmware-products-end-of-the-free-esxi-server/

BSD Advertising Clause Removal¶

Hoskins, William. "Withdrawal of BSD Advertising Clause." University of California, Berkeley. July 1999. https://www.freebsd.org/copyright/license/

Busybox GPL Lawsuit Announcement¶

Software Freedom Law Center. "BusyBox Developers and SFLC Announce First Ever GPL Violation Lawsuit." September 2007. https://softwarefreedom.org/news/2007/sep/20/busybox/

Busybox GPL Enforcement History¶

Software Freedom Conservancy. "BusyBox GPL Enforcement." 2007-2015. https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/

C¶

California AB 2013 Training Data Transparency¶

California Legislature. "AB-2013 Generative artificial intelligence: training data transparency." Signed September 2024, effective January 1, 2026. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2013

CISPE Broadcom Acquisition Challenge¶

CISPE. "CISPE Takes European Commission to Court to Annul Approval of Broadcom's Acquisition of VMware." July 2025. https://www.cispe.cloud/cispe-takes-european-commission-to-court-to-annul-approval-of-broadcoms-acquisition-of-vmware/

Creative Commons License Versions¶

Creative Commons. "License Versions." Accessed 2026. https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/

Crockford's JSON License¶

Crockford, Douglas. "JSON License." Accessed 2026. https://www.json.org/license.html

D¶

Doe v. GitHub Copilot Lawsuit¶

Joseph Saveri Law Firm. "GitHub Copilot Intellectual Property Litigation." Filed November 3, 2022. N.D. Cal. https://www.saverilawfirm.com/our-cases/github-copilot-intellectual-property-litigation

Doe v. GitHub DMCA Claims Dismissed¶

Legal.io. "Judge Throws Out Majority of Claims in GitHub Copilot Lawsuit." July 2024. https://www.legal.io/articles/5516216/Judge-Throws-Out-Majority-of-Claims-in-GitHub-Copilot-Lawsuit

Doe v. GitHub Remaining Claims¶

Finnegan. "Insights from the Pending Copilot Class Action Lawsuit." 2024. https://www.finnegan.com/en/insights/articles/insights-from-the-pending-copilot-class-action-lawsuit.html

Doe v. GitHub Ninth Circuit Appeal¶

Patent AI Lab. "GitHub Copilot Lawsuit Update (Feb 2026): Is Your Code Safe?" February 2026. https://patentailab.com/doe-v-github-lawsuit-explained-ai-copyright-rules/

Debian JSON License Discussion¶

Debian Project. "JSON License Discussion." Debian Legal Mailing List. 2005. https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/11/msg00154.html

E¶

ECCO Broadcom Licensing Report¶

ECCO (European Cloud Competition Observatory). "Reports on Broadcom VMware Licensing Practices." February–October 2025. https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/22/euro_cloud_body_ecco_says_broadcom_licensing_unfair/

Eclipse Public License 2.0¶

Eclipse Foundation. "Eclipse Public License - v 2.0." August 2017. https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0/

Entr'ouvert v. Orange GPL Damages¶

Meeker, Heather. "French Court Issues Damages Award for Violation of GPL." February 2024. https://heathermeeker.com/2024/02/17/french-court-issues-damages-award-for-violation-of-gpl/

Elastic License Change Announcement¶

Banon, Shay. "Doubling Down on Open." Elastic Blog. January 2021. https://www.elastic.co/blog/licensing-change

Elastic AGPL Relicensing Announcement¶

Banon, Shay. "Elasticsearch is Open Source. Again!" Elastic Blog. August 2024. https://www.elastic.co/blog/elasticsearch-is-open-source-again

Elastic Community Trust After Relicensing¶

IT Pro. "Elastic returns to open source, but can it regain the community's trust?" September 2024. https://www.itpro.com/software/open-source/elastic-returns-to-open-source-but-can-it-regain-the-communitys-trust-some-industry-players-arent-holding-their-breath

OpenSearch Fork Announcement¶

Amazon Web Services. "Introducing OpenSearch." April 2021. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/introducing-opensearch/

Free ESXi Hypervisor Discontinued¶

The Register. "Broadcom terminates VMware's free ESXi hypervisor." February 2024. https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/broadcom_ends_free_esxi_vsphere/

F¶

FSF Four Freedoms Definition¶

Free Software Foundation. "What is Free Software?" Accessed 2026. https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

FSF License Commentary List¶

Free Software Foundation. "Various Licenses and Comments About Them." Accessed 2026. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

G¶

GEMA v. OpenAI Munich Ruling¶

Bird & Bird. "Landmark ruling of the Munich Regional Court (GEMA v OpenAI) on copyright and AI training." November 2025. https://www.twobirds.com/en/insights/2025/landmark-ruling-of-the-munich-regional-court-(gema-v-openai)-on-copyright-and-ai-training

GPL License History¶

Free Software Foundation. "A Brief History of the GPL." Accessed 2026. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-history.html

The GNU Manifesto¶

Stallman, Richard. "The GNU Manifesto." March 1985. https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html

H¶

HashiCorp BSL License Change¶

HashiCorp. "HashiCorp Adopts Business Source License." August 2023. https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/hashicorp-adopts-business-source-license

I¶

IBM HashiCorp Acquisition¶

IBM. "IBM to Acquire HashiCorp, Inc. Creating a Comprehensive End-to-End Hybrid Cloud Platform." April 2024. https://newsroom.ibm.com/2024-04-24-IBM-to-Acquire-HashiCorp-Inc-Creating-a-Comprehensive-End-to-End-Hybrid-Cloud-Platform

IBM JSON License Exception¶

Various. "IBM Obtains JSON License Exception." Referenced in multiple sources. 2011.

L¶

Linux Foundation OpenTofu Announcement¶

Linux Foundation. "OpenTofu." September 2023. https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/announcing-opentofu

Linux Foundation Valkey Launch¶

Linux Foundation. "Linux Foundation Launches Valkey." March 2024. https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-foundation-launches-open-source-valkey-community

M¶

MariaDB Fork Announcement¶

Widenius, Michael. "Help saving MySQL." Monty Says Blog. December 2009. https://monty-says.blogspot.com/2009/12/help-saving-mysql.html

MongoDB SSPL License Change¶

MongoDB, Inc. "MongoDB Licensing Changes." October 2018. https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/mongodb-now-released-under-the-server-side-public-license

Mozilla MPL 2.0 FAQ¶

Mozilla Foundation. "MPL 2.0 FAQ." January 2012. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/MPL/2.0/FAQ/

Nutanix VMware Migration Growth¶

SiliconANGLE. "VMware defections propel Nutanix to another strong earnings beat." February 2025. https://siliconangle.com/2025/02/26/vmware-defections-propel-nutanix-another-strong-earnings-revenue-beat/

O¶

OSI Open Source AI Definition¶

Open Source Initiative. "The Open Source AI Definition 1.0." October 2024. https://opensource.org/ai/open-source-ai-definition

Open Source Definition¶

Open Source Initiative. "The Open Source Definition." Accessed 2026. https://opensource.org/osd

Open Source Initiative History¶

Open Source Initiative. "History of the OSI." Accessed 2026. https://opensource.org/history

OpenTofu Manifesto¶

OpenTofu. "The OpenTofu Manifesto." August 2023. https://opentofu.org/manifesto

Oracle JDK Licensing Changes¶

Oracle Corporation. "Oracle Java SE Licensing FAQ." Updated 2019. https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/jdk-faqs.html

Oracle v. Google Supreme Court Decision¶

Supreme Court of the United States. "Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc." April 2021. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/18-956_d18f.pdf

P¶

Proxmox Virtual Environment¶

Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH. "About Proxmox." Accessed 2026. https://www.proxmox.com/en/about/about-us/company

Proxmox VE 8.2 VMware Import Wizard¶

Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH. "Proxmox Virtual Environment 8.2." April 2024. https://www.proxmox.com/en/about/press-releases/proxmox-virtual-environment-8-2

Proxmox VE 9.0 Release¶

Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH. "Proxmox VE 9.0." August 2025. https://www.proxmox.com/en/about/press-releases/proxmox-virtual-environment-9-0

R¶

React MIT Relicensing Announcement¶

Facebook Engineering. "Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js." September 2017. https://engineering.fb.com/2017/09/22/web/relicensing-react-jest-flow-and-immutable-js/

Red Hat IPO¶

Various. "Red Hat IPO." August 1999. Referenced in financial news archives.

Redis 8 GA Announcement¶

Redis Ltd. "Redis 8 is now GA, loaded with new features and more than 30 performance improvements." 2025. https://redis.io/blog/redis-8-ga/

Redis Dual License Change¶

Redis Ltd. "Redis Adopts Dual Source-Available Licensing." March 2024. https://redis.io/blog/redis-adopts-dual-source-available-licensing/

Redis Software 7.2 End of Life¶

Percona. "It's End of Life for Redis Enterprise 7.2 in Six Months — What Are Your Options?" 2025. https://www.percona.com/blog/its-end-of-life-for-redis-enterprise-7-2-in-six-months-what-are-your-options/

S¶

SFC v. Vizio Case Page¶

Software Freedom Conservancy. "Software Freedom Conservancy v. Vizio Inc." Accessed 2026. https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/vizio.html

SFC v. Vizio: Who Can Enforce the GPL?¶

Corbet, Jonathan. "SFC v. VIZIO: who can enforce the GPL?" LWN.net. January 2026. https://lwn.net/Articles/1052734/

SFC v. Vizio Survives Summary Judgment¶

DLA Piper. "SFC v. Vizio survives motion for summary judgment on third-party beneficiary issue." January 2024. https://www.dlapiper.com/en/insights/publications/2024/01/sfc-v-vizio-survives-motion-for-summary-judgment-on-third-party-beneficiary-issue

SFC v. Vizio Tentative Ruling¶

Software Freedom Conservancy. "Judge Issues Tentative Ruling in Favor of SFC." December 2025. https://sfconservancy.org/news/2025/dec/04/tentative-vizio-ruling-in-favor-of-sfc/

SFC v. Vizio Trial Delay¶

Software Freedom Conservancy. "Some Unfortunate Delays in our Struggle for Copyleft Justice." January 2026. https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2026/jan/26/delay-in-start-of-vizio-trial/

SFC v. Vizio FOSDEM 2026 Talk¶

FOSDEM. "The story of the Vizio lawsuit — a historic case for user rights, nearly complete!" FOSDEM 2026. https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/GSERGW-the_story_of_the_vizio_lawsuit_-_a_historic_case_for_user_rights_nearly_complete/

Steck v. AVM LGPL Enforcement¶

Software Freedom Conservancy. "SFC-funded lawsuit gets software repair and reinstall for users of AVM routers." January 2025. https://sfconservancy.org/news/2025/jan/09/avm-copyleft-lawsuit-resolved-with-install/

SCO v. IBM Litigation Timeline¶

Groklaw. "SCO v. IBM Timeline." 2003-2011. https://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=20031016162215566 (archived)

SCO Group Bankruptcy¶

SCO Group. "Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing." September 2007. Court records, District of Delaware.

SPDX License List¶

SPDX Workgroup. "SPDX License List." Accessed 2026. https://spdx.org/licenses/

SSPL Open Source Initiative Rejection¶

Open Source Initiative. "The SSPL Is Not an Open Source License." January 2019. https://opensource.org/node/1099

Stack Overflow Content License¶

Stack Overflow. "Licensing." Accessed 2026. https://stackoverflow.com/help/licensing

U¶

US Copyright Office AI Report Part 2¶

U.S. Copyright Office. "Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability." January 2025. https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-2-Copyrightability-Report.pdf

V¶

Valkey 9.0 Release¶

Valkey Project. "Valkey 9.0: innovation, features, and improvements." September 2025. https://valkey.io/blog/introducing-valkey-9/

Valkey Investment in Open Source¶

Valkey Project. "Valkey: An Investment in Open Source." 2025. https://valkey.io/blog/valkey-investment-in-open-source/

Veeam Proxmox VE Support¶

Veeam Software. "Veeam Extends Data Freedom for Customers with Support for Proxmox VE." August 2024. https://www.veeam.com/company/press-release/veeam-extends-data-freedom-for-customers-with-support-for-proxmox-ve.html

VirtualBox Extension Pack License¶

Oracle Corporation. "VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License." https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox_PUEL

Z¶

ZFS Linux Licensing Issues¶

Various. "ZFS on Linux Legal Issues." Multiple discussions, 2010-present. Referenced in Canonical, Debian, and Fedora project documentation.

Court Cases¶

Oracle v. Google Litigation Timeline¶

2010: Oracle files suit against Google
2012: District court rules APIs not copyrightable (Judge Alsup)
2014: Federal Circuit reverses, rules APIs copyrightable
2016: Jury finds Google's use is fair use
2018: Federal Circuit reverses fair use finding
2021: Supreme Court rules for Google on fair use grounds (6-2)

Source: Court records and reporting from Ars Technica, The Verge, and legal commentary.

SFC v. Vizio Litigation Timeline¶

2021: SFC files suit in California state court (Orange County) as a consumer/third-party beneficiary
2022: Case survives removal to federal court, remanded back to state court
2024: Survives Vizio's motion for summary judgment on third-party beneficiary issue
2025 (Jul): SFC files updated motion for summary adjudication
2025 (Dec): Judge Leal issues tentative ruling: Vizio must provide source code (direct contract theory)
2026 (Jan): Trial delayed from January due to docket congestion
2026 (Aug): Trial rescheduled for August 10–19, 2026

Source: SFC case page, LWN.net, DLA Piper, court records (Orange County Superior Court, Case No. 2021-01209526).

For books, other guides, and additional resources, see Further Reading.