Open Source for Open Source License Compliance

Abstract

Today, many software systems are of a level of complexity that no single company can implement modern solutions alone. Thus many companies engage in the open source software (OSS) ecosystem to keep the development costs manageable. But the usage of third-party components (both OSS and commercial) also mandates the need of a license compliance process supported by suitable tools. This paper is focused on using open source tools and relevant processes for open source license compliance. OSS license compliance is a very important topic, and requires appropriate processes, culture, and tools. This work is based on extensive practical industrial experience and broad use at Siemens AG. We first describe the process and culture, then a set of tools. We complement this with related work in the community and future directions.