Most open source Android and Iphone apps violate licences

NEARLY THREE QUARTERS of Android, Iphone and Ipad apps using open source software fail to comply with the most basic licence requirements, research shows.

Enterprise open source firm OpenLogic found that 66 out of 635 mobile apps it scanned contained Apache or GPL/LGPL licensed code. Of those, 71 per cent failed to comply with the key obligations of the licences.

There are different obligations for developers depending on the type of open source code they are using. For example they will often need to provide a copy of the licence and the source code to the users, or at least notices and attributions.

Mobile apps are a big business now, and the results show that companies bringing out new mobile and tablet software often don't know much about the licencing issues if they are using open source code. Often executives and the legal team might not even know that an app was using open source.

This could have implications. "The Free Software Foundation has stated that the GPL and iTunes licence are not compatible, and Apple has already pulled several apps from the store that were determined to be under the GPL," said Kim Weins, SVP of products and marketing at OpenLogic.

"Google has also received takedown requests for Android market apps that violated the GPL. App developers need to pay attention to open source licence compliance to ensure their apps are not impacted by legal actions." µ