Open Source Software as Critical Digital Infrastructures: Legal Technologies & Institutional Design
This workshop brought together scholars, practitioners, and developers interested in exploring the increasing role played by open source software in digital societies around the globe. The workshop employed the concept of “thinking infrastructurally” about open source software to identify the relevant technical, social, and organizational aspects of open source software development and maintenance. We paid particular attention to the ways in which “legal technologies” such as licensing and liability regimes facilitate the open source ecosystem and how they might contribute and/or alleviate the under-maintenance of certain forms of open source software. Governments and international organizations increasingly use, procure, and fund open source software and face distinct challenges in an ecosystem that has traditionally viewed governmental intervention with considerable suspicion–a concern that might materialize if export restrictions increasingly encompass open source software. At the same time, the global dimension of open source software development, use, and maintenance calls for transnational governance solutions that takes the interests of all affected stakeholders into account. The workshop explored the ways in which different commons frameworks, foundations, standard-setting organizations, and “non-jurisdictional maintenance hubs” might be part of the solution to address the under-maintenance of open source software.
Dates: Tuesday and Wednesday, 14-15 January 2020
Location: NYU Law, Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Square South, New York
Organizers: Angelina Fisher, Benedict Kingsbury, Thomas Streinz
Contact: guariniglobal@nyu.edu
Twitter: @GuariniGlobal #oss #digitalinfrastructures
Tuesday, January 14
Vanderbilt Hall, Room 208
2:00-2:15pm Welcome & Introduction
Benedict Kingsbury, NYU Law
Angelina Fisher, NYU Law
Thomas Streinz, NYU Law
2:15-3:45pm Thinking Infrastructurally about OSS and the Maintenance of Critical Digital Infrastructures
This session explored the analytical and conceptual payoff of thinking about open source software in terms of “digital infrastructure” to assess its respective “criticality” and to identify “maintenance” needs.
Initial interventions by:
Benedict Kingsbury, NYU Law (on “thinking infrastructurally”)
Andrew L. Russell, SUNY Polytechnic Institute (on maintenance)
Sebastian Benthall, NYU Law (on OSS supply chains, their vulnerabilities and dependencies)
Anushah Hossain, UC Berkeley (on international maintenance communities)
3:45-4:15pm Coffee Break
4:15-5:45pm Legal Technologies of OSS Maintenance: Contracting, Licensing, and Liability
Open source software constitutes “free” and “public” code due to the licensing choices made by its creators. Maintenance considerations play no role in the established open source software licensing regimes and software developers have largely avoided the scrutiny that comes with liability (and related insurance) regimes. This session explored whether “licensing” and “liability” are legal technologies that need to be readjusted to account for the ever increasing role of open source software in contemporary society, drawing on comparisons with open source hardware.
Initial interventions by:
Jorge Contreras, University of Utah (on open source software licensing)
Ira Rubinstein, NYU Law (on the role of open source software in big tech companies)
Michael Weinberg, NYU Law (on lessons from open source hardware)
Wednesday, January 15
Vanderbilt Hall, Room 202
9:00-10:30 Legal Technologies of OSS: Opportunities and Challenges for Governments and International Organizations
Governments and international organizations face distinct challenges as they increasingly not only use and procure, but also produce open source software. Which (potential) roles do these actors play in shaping the technical, social and organizational aspects of open source software development and maintenance in the public interest?
Initial interventions by:
Jason Schultz, NYU Law (on governmental procurement of OSS)
Stav Zeitouni, NYU Law (on regulation of OSS by export control regimes)
Mila Romanoff, UN Global Pulse (on open source licenses as a public digital good: challenges and opportunities in the context of IOs?)
10:30-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:30 OSS Commons as Infrastructure Governance
What is the role of different governance models in fostering the development and supporting maintenance of open source software as digital infrastructure?
Initial interventions by:
Katherine J. Strandburg, NYU Law (on governance of knowledge commons)
Jake Goldenfein, Cornell Tech (on Google scholar as knowledge commons)
Jorge Contreras, University of Utah (on governance of standard-setting organizations)
Andrew Russell, SUNY Polytechnic Institute (on governance of standard-setting organizations)
We gratefully acknowledge the support by the Ford and Sloan Foundation’s shared fund for critical digital infrastructure research.
