What do we want from laws

Question

Law in IT

Dear Habrahabr.

Dream, please, what would you like to see in the laws of the Russian Federation relating to IT, namely, software licensing.

My fellow programmers give vague answers like "well ... to protect." Perhaps here the people want changes in a more detailed way.

No need to immediately formulate the norm, just say what you would like in the end, what is needed for a happy life of a programmer in the legislative jungle of the Motherland.

I ask because the law school formulated the topic of my diploma as "The process of licensing computer programs." And since the wording is striking to death with globality, let me, I think, turn around and dream about a really working and convenient system of licenses. And for this, it seemed to me useful and priority to ask the programmers themselves and those involved.

So. What do you need from licensing? Does anyone need it in Russia at all? Or is it easier to learn from the US experience? Or is it not easier?

Please take a moment if you can. There is a lot of information in the public domain on the status quo and nowhere on how to do it really well.

Answer 1

My six kopecks (
1. Bring Article 1235 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation Part IV into line with internationally recognized free licenses (GPL, etc.) - in particular, recognize the optional explicit indication of gratuitousness in the license agreement, clause 5 of Article 1235;
2 Explicitly allow the acceptance of the terms of the license agreement in the form of a “I have read” checkbox and an “Agree” button on the Web or in applications for mobile devices, including Android Market (aka Google Play), as well as in the form of reading a notification inscription on packages of media or on the media itself with the software distribution (began to use - therefore, I agree), including the indication of the file with the license agreement on the media, both in the form of a file name and in the form of an address on the Web where the file is located.
3. abandon the practice of putting on the balance of actually free software (due to the senselessness of this)
4. guarantee the presumption of innocence of the user of the software, i.e. law enforcement agencies, if they suspect that someone is using the software illegally, must prove this (for example, obtain official confirmation from the software manufacturer that the software with such and such a serial number is registered to another company, and the assignment of rights was not legally made) TO how to report to a suspect's office. And to appear strictly with a court decision on a search. However, this is most likely already the case in the law - it is simply not observed in practice.
5. put the terminology in order: “software licensing” in Russia can be called both the sale of rights under a license agreement, and the process of checking software by government agencies for compliance with something (although in the latter case the term “certification” is more often used)
6. this is not really about licensing - but it is also about it: prohibit law enforcement agencies from seizing equipment to examine whether counterfeit software is installed on it - checking for counterfeiting should be carried out on the spot, and the check should be carried out by a law enforcement officer who has the appropriate technical education and presenting a document about it, updated annually in an independent certification center with an automated exam, like exams in VUE - all this in order to avoid blackmail "give us 10,000 USD, or we will take all your computers for a month for testing."

Answer 2

I would like that at least in our country these idiotic patents for intellectual property, as well as all licenses, except for free ones, which guarantee that no one will pass off your idea as their own, will be canceled.

Answer 3

God forbid any paperwork ala “to confirm the development of the program, contact the seventeenth window of the Federal Bureau of Licensing of Information Technology” =)
In fact, we are far from licensing. It is necessary to change it in other places and explain to people that it is like bread in a store - you just can’t come and take it
. Since then, when they wrote, “for citizens of the former USSR - free of charge” - little has changed. If we don't find a crack, we'll crack it. It’s better to give away like that than it will be free for everyone later.