The Influence of the Generator's License on Generated Artifacts

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different open source licenses of code generators influence the intellectual property rights of the generated artifacts and discusses how these effects can be aligned with the needs of licensors and licensees.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of the impact of common open source licenses on the IP of generated artifacts and offers guidance on shaping these effects to meet stakeholder needs.

Findings

Restrictive licenses affect the IP and usability of generated artifacts.

License choice influences the legal and practical aspects of artifact reuse.

Guidelines are proposed for aligning license effects with stakeholder needs.

Abstract

Open sourcing modelling tools and generators becomes more and more important as open source software as a whole becomes more important. We evaluate the impact open source licenses of code generators have on the intellectual property (IP) of generated artifacts comparing the most common open source licenses by categories found in literature. Restrictively licensed generators do have effects on the IP and therefore on the usability of the artifacts they produce. We then how how this effects can be shaped to the needs of the licensor and the licensee.