Open source development and copyright law
Open source development rests on the assumption that program code can be distributed, studied and developed collectively through modification. In Georgia this practice fits within the framework of the Georgian Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights — and it is precisely that law's free-use norms that form the legal foundation of the open-source ecosystem. This page examines what rights lawful owners of code have and how joint, open project development is arranged under the rules of copyright.
The starting position is simple: a computer program is an object of copyright, and its use generally requires the author's consent. The open-source model, however, is built precisely on the fact that the law itself establishes cases where the lawful owner uses the program without separate permission from the author — and open licences stand on this foundation.
The rights of the lawful owner regarding the program
Under the first paragraph of Article 28 of the law, a person who lawfully owns a copy of a computer program or database has the right, without the consent of the author or other copyright holder and without payment of an author's royalty, to introduce changes necessary for the functioning of the user's technical means; to carry out any action connected with the functioning of the program, including writing and storage in computer memory; and to correct obvious errors, unless the copyright contract provides otherwise.
The same paragraph also permits the making of a backup copy — on condition that it is intended solely for archiving and for replacing a lost, destroyed or unusable copy. The backup copy may not be used for a purpose different from the established rules and must be destroyed as soon as the right of ownership ceases. In open-source projects this norm means that the lawful user of code naturally acquires the right to adapt and back it up.
Decompilation for interoperability
Article 29 regulates decompilation — the transformation of object code into source text. The lawful owner is entitled, without the author's consent and without a royalty, to carry out decompilation and to entrust it to other persons where this is necessary for achieving interoperability between an independently created program and other programs.
This right is limited by four conditions: the actions must be carried out by a person who had the right to use the program; the information necessary for interoperability must not previously have been available from other sources; the actions must concern only those parts of the decompiled program that are necessary for achieving interoperability; and the information obtained may be used only for achieving interoperability — it may not be transferred to others or used to develop a new program substantially similar to the decompiled one. In the open-source context this norm is the legal boundary of compatibility engineering.