Copyright versus Patents: the Open Source Software Legal Battle

Open Source Software is often viewed as an anti-intellectual property regime. By contrast, we argue how IP law is at the heart of open source model since licenses that organize the innovation and business relationships between developers, distributors and end-users are based on copyright law. The proliferation of software patents can, however be seen as a threat for the development and deployment of open source software. We present the nature of the threat and review a series of initiatives undertaken by the open source community to address them effectively. These initiatives, such as the redesign of licenses and the creation of patent commons, are a testiment to a genuinely creative use of IP law by the open source community, not its undermining.Open Source Software; Patent; Hold-Up; Copyright; Copyleft; Intellectual Property

Copyright versus Patents: the Open Source Software Legal Battle

International audienceOpen Source Software is often viewed as an anti-intellectual property regime. By contrast, we argue how IP law is at the heart of open source model since licenses that organize the innovation and business relationships between developers, distributors and end-users are based on copyright law. The proliferation of software patents can, however be seen as a threat for the development and deployment of open source software. We present the nature of the threat and review a series of initiatives undertaken by the open source community to address them effectively. These initiatives, such as the redesign of licenses and the creation of patent commons, are a testiment to a genuinely creative use of IP law by the open source community, not its undermining

Open-source software for generating electrocardiogram signals

ECGSYN, a dynamical model that faithfully reproduces the main features of the human electrocardiogram (ECG), including heart rate variability, RR intervals and QT intervals is presented. Details of the underlying algorithm and an open-source software implementation in Matlab, C and Java are described. An example of how this model will facilitate comparisons of signal processing techniques is provided.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

RapidHRV: an open-source toolbox for extracting heart rate and heart rate variability

Heart rate and heart rate variability have enabled insight into a myriad of psychophysiological phenomena. There is now an influx of research attempting using these metrics within both laboratory settings (typically derived through electrocardiography or pulse oximetry) and ecologically-rich contexts (via wearable photoplethysmography, i.e., smartwatches). However, these signals can be prone to artifacts and a low signal to noise ratio, which traditionally are detected and removed through visual inspection. Here, we developed an open-source Python package, RapidHRV, dedicated to the preprocessing, analysis, and visualization of heart rate and heart rate variability. Each of these modules can be executed with one line of code and includes automated cleaning. In simulated data, RapidHRV demonstrated excellent recovery of heart rate across most levels of noise (>=10 dB) and moderate-to-excellent recovery of heart rate variability even at relatively low signal to noise ratios (>=20 dB) and sampling rates (>=20 Hz). Validation in real datasets shows good-to-excellent recovery of heart rate and heart rate variability in electrocardiography and finger photoplethysmography recordings. Validation in wrist photoplethysmography demonstrated RapidHRV estimations were sensitive to heart rate and its variability under low motion conditions, but estimates were less stable under higher movement settings

Experimental open air quantum key distribution with a single photon source

We present a full implementation of a quantum key distribution (QKD) system with a single photon source, operating at night in open air. The single photon source at the heart of the functional and reliable setup relies on the pulsed excitation of a single nitrogen-vacancy color center in diamond nanocrystal. We tested the effect of attenuation on the polarized encoded photons for inferring longer distance performance of our system. For strong attenuation, the use of pure single photon states gives measurable advantage over systems relying on weak attenuated laser pulses. The results are in good agreement with theoretical models developed to assess QKD security

A Free Community Approach to Classifying Disease

Defining and classifying disease is at the heart of medical practice, but the process is slow and laborious. A new "open source" approach could be faster and more democrati

How Copyleft Uses License Rights to Succeed in the Open Source Software Revolution and the Implications for Article 2B

The computer industry moves from one “next great thing” to the next “next great thing” with amazing speed. Graphical user interface, object-oriented programming, client-server computing, multimedia software, Java applets, the network computer, and the Internet have all been hailed as technological breakthroughs at one time or another. Some of these promising developments fizzle, some evolve and succeed slowly, and some revolutionize the industry overnight. Led by a group of software developers known as “hackers,” the latest “next great thing” is “open source” software. The word “source” refers to software in source code form. Source code is the collection of instructions a computer programmer writes to tell a computer what to do. A programmer writes source code in a certain programming language, such as Basic, Pascal, C++, or Java. The source code is understandable to anyone proficient in that language. Using a software tool, source code is converted into a form called binary or executable code that a computer can execute. The word “open” in the context of open source software refers to source code that is freely available and modifiable. Most software publishers distribute their software to the mass market in binary form only. They treat source code as a trade secret and license it selectively on a confidential basis. The open source software movement claims at least two major advantages over traditional commercially developed software. First, hackers claim that by making source code widely available and freely modifiable, programmers can develop higher quality software and fix bugs faster than commercial software developers. Second, they believe that products based on open source software will be relatively inexpensive compared to traditional commercial software. Hackers think they have started a revolution that will overtake the leading commercial software publishers of today. The fact that another revolution has begun in the computer industry is not a surprise. The surprise is that licensing, known as “copyleft,” is at the heart of the revolution. This Article examines the origins and continuing momentum of the open source revolution. It then discusses the principles of open source licensing and why licensing is central to the open source revolution. The Article concludes by discussing the implications that copyleft licensing principles have for proposed Article 2B of the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”), a provision that would govern software licenses. The Article points out that in order to foster innovative developments such as the open source revolution, Article 2B needs to, among other things, validate the enforceability of standard-form mass-market licenses, preserve the ability of software developers to freely allocate risk, and provide sensible contract default rules

An open access database for the evaluation of heart sound algorithms

This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article published in Physiological Measurement. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at https://doi.org/10.1088/0967-3334/37/12/2181In the past few decades, analysis of heart sound signals (i.e. the phonocardiogram or PCG), especially for automated heart sound segmentation and classification, has been widely studied and has been reported to have the potential value to detect pathology accurately in clinical applications. However, comparative analyses of algorithms in the literature have been hindered by the lack of high-quality, rigorously validated, and standardized open databases of heart sound recordings. This paper describes a public heart sound database, assembled for an international competition, the PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology (CinC) Challenge 2016. The archive comprises nine different heart sound databases sourced from multiple research groups around the world. It includes 2435 heart sound recordings in total collected from 1297 healthy subjects and patients with a variety of conditions, including heart valve disease and coronary artery disease. The recordings were collected from a variety of clinical or nonclinical (such as in-home visits) environments and equipment. The length of recording varied from several seconds to several minutes. This article reports detailed information about the subjects/patients including demographics (number, age, gender), recordings (number, location, state and time length), associated synchronously recorded signals, sampling frequency and sensor type used. We also provide a brief summary of the commonly used heart sound segmentation and classification methods, including open source code provided concurrently for the Challenge. A description of the PhysioNet/CinC Challenge 2016, including the main aims, the training and test sets, the hand corrected annotations for different heart sound states, the scoring mechanism, and associated open source code are provided. In addition, several potential benefits from the public heart sound database are discussed.This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant R01-EB001659 from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and R01GM104987 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.Liu, C.; Springer, DC.; Li, Q.; Moody, B.; Abad Juan, RC.; Li, Q.; Moody, B.... (2016). An open access database for the evaluation of heart sound algorithms. Physiological Measurement. 37(12):2181-2213. doi:10.1088/0967-3334/37/12/2181S21812213371