As an ethical school – David
Berry and Charles Ess are study if an open-source method can teach ethics or
not. The Research Guidelines of AoIR were defined by Ess just similar to
open-source ethics. These ethics consist of professional rules and this is
based on the school of computer ethics, focusing on the questions of rules and
professionalism in the industry of computer, especially software development (Ellis,
Hislop, & Burdge, 2017).
There are several diverse aspects
when it comes the using an open-source software. It is actually important to
discuss the libertarian perspective. The question regarding if this software is
more ethical compared to using a proprietary software or not is not relevant. In
a society where innovation is crucial, there is a need to protect and unleash
the advantages of an open-source model; make it useful and usable as a basic
rule for innovation while keeping responsibility, pragmatic, and compliancy in
check. Three important roles can describe the open-source ethics (Midrack,
2018):
• Redistributor and Commercial
Consumer
• Provider of Open Source
• Contributor of Open Source
Commercial software and OSS can
coexist while delivering the required goods. Both the critics and advocates of
OSS seem to have an ethically obliged to respect the other while avoiding
meanspirited and inaccurate accusations. Every software developer has an
ethical obligation for openness and quality (Software engineering code of
ethics, 1999). It can be said that OSS is a competent advancement of
traditional ideas concerned with sharing intellectual academic property,
however, OSS actually exists when commercial expertise is ruling. Therefore,
the challenges of OSS are concerned with the status quo which constructively
checks the excess of general systems of an enterprise. When various for-profit
companies have let the public down, OSS has the capability of being positive in
the computing world. Hackers getting involved in the development of OSS can
play an important role in the sustainability while ethically securing their
reputation among others. This is the way which can help in publicly excelling
in the field of hacking without doing any harm to others (Opensource.com, 2013).
Proprietary and open source
developers seem to share the same ethical and professional responsibility for
developing a well-tested and solid code. In the open-source community, the
social pressure for avoiding the forking delivers incentives to the project
leaders for ensuring the competence of the code. Meanwhile, when a developer of
open-source believes that a lot of risks are involved in a certain code, it can
be released and rewritten. Even though there is a risk of reputation in such a
tasks, there is an opportunity for demonstrating the superiority of the forked
product. However, in a proprietary model, the main avenue of a developer is all
about blowing a whistle on his employer or manager. Doing so poses a great risk
to the livelihood of the person, family, professional standing, and lifestyle.
Moreover, the developer might not gain an opportunity again for demonstrating
his competency (Smith, 2018).
By offering free-access to developers for using reliable
components that complete significant tasks, development times are increased by
the model of open source for a commercial software by making it very
unnecessary to create applications from the beginning.
But when research shows that almost seventy-eight percent of
the audited codebases which are include a single vulnerability while fifty-four
percent of them could easily be exploited by hackers, it shows clearly that
there are security risks associated with the code of open source. Often, such
risks do not emerge because of the caliber of an open-source code but because
of the mix of elements which are involved in the nature of a model of open
source and just how software is managed by a company. Following are some risks
which are associated with the security:
Publicity of Exploits of Open Source
Software
An open-source model’s nature is that such projects have
universal codes. An advantage is concerned with it as the community of
open-source can flag important exploits which they find in codes while giving
time to open-source managers for fixing the issues before the information is
revealed publicly regarding vulnerabilities. Gradually, these exploits are made
available on the NVD or National Vulnerability Database and anyone can view
them. This publicity can be used by hackers by targeting the companies that
might depend on projects of open-source.
In 2017, confidential information about almost 143 million
individuals was exposed by a credit reporting company and this incident is a
major example of this approach. Handling this risk from an organizational point
of view actually means determining that exploits of open-source are quite
sensitive and hackers can easily achieve a lot by attacking the sensitive
components. In order to avoid such consequences, it is important to update
quickly (Opensource.com, 2013).
Operational Risks of Open
Source Software
When it comes to utilizing open-source components,
enterprise is the main risk that comes from operational ineffectiveness. Failure
to keep the note of open source components is very important from an
operational point of view and update them quickly. Often, these updates seem to
address security vulnerabilities of high-risk while a disaster can be caused by
delays similar to the Equifax breach case (Pratt, 2018).
That is why, it is significant to keep open-source inventory
usage over various teams of development not just to ensure transparency and
visibility but also to evade different teams while using different models of
the components. Handling an inventory has to be a part of a reliable policy on
the usage of open-source, and analysis tools of software composition offer a
source for enforcing this practice in a manageable and automated way without
updating spreadsheets manually. Abandoned projects is actually another issue
that starts with a strong involvement from the community of open-source but
peters out until there is no one to update.
Developer Malpractices of Open
Source Software
Several risks of security emerge because of the malpractice
of developers like pasting and copying codes from universal libraries. First,
this is a problem as vulnerabilities in the code might also be copied, and the
second one is that there is no possible way a code snippet can be updated and
tracked once it exists in the codebase which makes applications susceptible to
the future vulnerabilities. It can be avoided with the development of a policy
of open-source that forbids pasting and copying snippets from different
projects to codebases of applications (Rubens, 2014).
Various available software provide the protection of
privacy. Some of such software are as:
VPN of
Open Source Software
This approach is actually
commendable when privacy is required at its utmost. Data is re-routed by it
through a remote server of proxy and is available as an ad-supported and free
application along with a premium version with more features and better
performance. For the daily use, it is more than enough as it can easily be
activated with only a single click. It can also be used for determining the
traffic that has been transferred via a handy graph and through CyberGhost but
there are bound spaces on servers and access is gained with patience (Pratt, 2018).
DuckDuckGo of Open
Source Software
It is actually a search engine which
is offered as a privacy software that doesn’t seem to store data and also
doesn’t transfer the items to other websites. Moreover, every user is treated
equally by it. At present, it is the first search engine that is conscious of
privacy.
Tor
It is also referred as onion
router and is considered as one of the most widely utilized ways of searching
and browsing without leaving any tracks of the online activity. It has a
network which makes it very difficult to identify or track and is capable of
browsing on every site anonymously. For protecting the anonymity, it tasks
every communication while including applications and messages, transferring
them to a very large system or connection of routers which are then transferred
to servers. Ultimately, it becomes very hard for websites to get even a gist of
the confidential data. It also utilizes a proxy program for maintaining the
privacy of users.
SpiderOak of Open Source Software
It can be said that Dropbox,
iCloud, and OneDrive are quite similar and all of them provide safe cloud
storage but don’t keep the personal information safe as they can give access to
the government anytime they want.
However, when it comes to SpiderOak,
it cannot because the users have various keys of encryption. This provider of
cloud storage is actually the best software for privacy for cloud storage it is
quite conscious about the privacy and delivers functionality similar to the
service providers of mainstream cloud storage (Opensource.com, 2013).
The civil liberty rights of the
user are maintained by a free software. Some other benefits of utilizing such a
software include high stability, security, and decreases of software. It also
involves more control, education, and strong protection. Open-source and free
operation systems like Linux are used at the moment which powers millions of
devices other than just servers. Various software packages use open-source and
free licenses. The open-source and free application movement are virtual social
movements behind the adoption and broad production of an open-source software.
Cybercrime or computer crime is at
its peak. This crime seems to cause serious issues like costing governments,
individual users, and businesses millions of dollars on annual basis and same
crimes are facilitated by it in realspace like trafficking of vulgar videos and
identity theft on a very large scale. But the present plans which are
deployed by the law enforcement for combating this crime have proven to be
inefficient and ineffective. One such plan is through the increasing use of a
universal software in which underlying source code can be accessed by users and
might be capable of making modifications it for ameliorating the
vulnerabilities that might allow this crime.
Solutions which are
community-based seem to sidestep this by integrating the private players into
the controlling crime process. Therefore, a signal is transferred that the
prevention of crime depends both on community and government. Stewardship is
emphasized by community strategies for the betterment of a larger community which
calls on the citizens to see them as the accountable for the betterment of
large community. Secondly, such solutions perform better in promoting values
related to safety and order than the model of public. A backlash can be
produced among residents when only law enforcement is accountable for policies (Pratt, 2018).
The necessity for the policing of
community against cybercrime emerges not due to the negative relation among
computer users and law enforcement but from the recognition that a model can be
implemented for taking the advantage of power of the external actors for
preventing this crime. Considering the basic differences among real-space
crimes and cybercrimes, prevention is very important in decreasing computer
crime. It is actually borne due to the understanding the law enforcement’s
reactive model is just ill-equipped and cannot tackle cybercrime.
Actually, open source licenses can
be considered as a source of confusion and not every universal software is
disrupted under the same agreement of licensing.
Open source licences’common types.
Free access is given by open source licenses to the application’s source code
along with the capability of sharing, modifying, and editing without seeking
some special permission. At the moment, there are several licenses. In terms of
legal requirements, they can be quite different (Ellis,
Hislop, & Burdge, 2017).
Most of them are (Hurley, 2014):
1. GNU General Public Licence
(GPL) –
It guarantees and grants various rights to the
developers while allowing the users to copy, modify, and distribute the
software in the way the user wishes under some specific circumstances.
2. Lesser GPL Licence (LGPL) –
LGPL
offers very low number of liberties to work with, as compared to other
companies to same standards.
3. Berkeley Standard Distribution Licence (BSD) –
Berkeley
Standard Distribution give very friendly and easy access to the license
holders. So we can say BSD licenses are very user friendly as compared to other
companies
4. Dual licenses -
Double
licenses are more attractive and user friendly for the customers. And
facilitate the users with easy access and very less limitations.
Open Source vs. Open Data
If we compare both open source
and open data, we will find a lot of common things as well as many differences.
The first and one of the most important difference among open source and open
data, is the age of both terms. Term open source was established way back in
1998 so this term is almost 21 years old. If we discuss about the term “open
data”, this term was established almost more than a decade after the
establishment of “open source” in 2009. So we can say that the term was
established 11 before the start of “open data.” But open data is being
spreading very rapidly all around the world, and have start using Open data
more frequently. This is the reason for which open source items are mostly
present in open data now days. But it does not mean that all the open source
products have lost their importance. Open source is still being followed by a
very big number of users. We can still find lots of products based on open
source system. But if we discuss about the open access for the users and
security as the same time, we can say it is a big challenge for open source and
open data as well, both need to give open access with high levels of cyber
security.
Copy rights of Open Source
Software
It is always a challenging thing
for anyone of us to include others in our work and give them the authority to
transform and change things according to their will and after giving all the
authorities to others keeps the transparency and security. To maintain all
this, we need state to give us some legal security in these matters. State
gives us this security by copy rights acts.
Copy rights act give the security
to the administrator that nobody can make any changes without the permission of
administrative authority. This makes the business more secure and reliable.
Trade secret of Open Source
Software
There are always some secret
strategies and tools behind every successful business. It is very important for
the businessman to keep these secrets very secure. It is difficult to maintain
these secrets in any ordinary business. But it makes it more challenges to keep
those secrets when u are dealing in an open access business. For this issue we
do have some software to maintain the security and privacy of the business.
SW patents
Software patent has never been
found satisfactory to maintain the security. Software are being made to make
cyber security more and more reliable.
Trademarks of Open Source
Software
Here we have enlisted some of the
software, which are registered trademarks. In most countries laws have been
made to give security for the registered trademarks but there are few states
who give some security to unregistered trademarks as well. Trademark
registration give rights of the security to the business.
Economic issues w.r.t
Programmers of Open Source Software
In open source software business
normally there are no proper documentations done. Engineers who design the open
access software give more importance to the features in place of other security
matters. Normally software developers targets specific group of people instead
of the whole society. To improve our work, we have to learn from of mistakes
and failures. But open source developers have failed to learn from the
mistakes. Open source software will get fame and popularity only if the
engineers and developers targets to focus the whole society and gives more n
more security to the users.
Business of Open Source Software
There are lots of hurdles and
challenges for the open source business, and one of the most common issues is
the, open source has no proper support system. Software developers have now
realize that open source business needs support to get fame n popularity. Now
developers are making efforts to gain proper from the ecosystem.
Other most important issue
regarding the open source business is the threat to the existence of this
business in the future. The question in everyone’s mind is, weather this
business will exist in future or will disappear. The answer of this question is
very simple. If this business will fulfill the requirement of modern life then
it will keep its existence.
Consumer and society of Open
Source Software
Open source software has gain a
lot of popularity in past few years. Previously these software were being used
on experimental basis but in modern era many business tycoons have started to
convert their business on the open source software. Though this open source
software is comparatively expensive and small industrialist and businessmen
cannot afford to use this, but people have great attraction towards this. Open
source helps businessmen to do lots stuff very easily and quickly, which helps
businessmen to reduce the number of employees.
Most the rapidly growing
industries any business have started to adopt this open source software system.
Use
value, Market value and monopoly value of
Open Source Software
Open Source Service Market is
expected to grow by the two major driving factors that are, Increase in the
return of investment and the decrease in the total Ownership cost. The adoption
of Open Sources in organizations is expected to grow in all the IT segments in
order to achieve flexibility and effective for performing and ensure benefits
for instance, accelerated time-to-market, reduced cost and simplified
interoperability. In 2017, the North America is expected to secure the largest
market size. Following this the entire region is also estimated to dominate the
market throughout the forecasted period. Therefore, the organizations are
rapidly adopting the open market services. The open market services are used to
fulfill the specific requirements of the respective organizations (Pratt, 2018).
Open
source software vs free software movement
The term Free software is not a new term by any mean. The
phrase was first used in 1980s when Richard Stallman coined it in his GNU
project for creating a free operating system. Richard Stallman established the
Free Software Foundation for the support of free software. Likewise, the phrase
free software is used for the software that can be adapted and safely run and
redistributed by users without legal restraint. In order to considered a free
software, it is necessary to respect the four essential freedoms provided by
the Free Software Foundation. These four essential freedoms are as following:
Freedom 0 is to run the program with freedom for any
purpose.
The freedom 1 is to study that how the program works so it
does computing.
Freedom 2 is redistribution of copies with freedom to help
neighbor.
Freedom 3 is the freedom of distribution of copies of the
modified version among others
The Open source software is any software that is publically
available with the source code under a license. That license gives the right to
the users for the study, change and distribution of that particular software as
per their wish. In 1998 the term was
coined by a group of individuals who pushed for less ambiguous title than the
free software. The groups changed the focus from the freedom to transparency,
cost saving, security and other pragmatic benefits. Although the Open Source
Software is largely refer to the same software but it is more adaptable for the
corporate world. Moreover, there are many supported licenses but the GPL is the
most prominent license for the Open Source Software.
Some
of the alternatives of the open source sound files are as follow
Sound
files of Open Source Software
Audacity of Open Source Software
The Audacity is a free open
source that is used for the sound editing and recording. Moreover, it can also
be used for the recording of live audio, records and covert tapes, editing
sound files.
WaveShop of Open Source Software
It is also a free, open source
that is used for the audio editing for Window 7/Vista/ XP. The wave shop is
light weight, fast and bit perfect. Moreover, the meaning samples are not altered unless it is needed.
Radium
of Open Source Software
It is a free open source that is
used for eth edition of music with a new interface type. Radium is quicker in
comparison of normal sequencer interface edition. Moreover, more music data can
be fit on the Screen of Radium.
rezound of Open Source Software
It is also a free open source
that is aimed to be stable. Primarily it is a graphical audio file editor but
it is not limited to Linux operating sytem.
Graphics files of Open
Source Software
Affinity Photo of Open
Source Software
This free open source is
compatible with the other file formats including Photoshop. Moreover, affinity
photo is squarely at the designers and professional photographers. However, it
is way cheaper than the Photoshop. Therefore, the creators argue that Affinity
photo is actually better than Photoshop.
Sketch
This is a highly professional
vector graphic app that is used for the Creatives. The Creatives has got
considerable attention in the design community particularly in the web
designers.
GIMP
The term is an abbreviation for
GUN Image Manipulation Program. This free, open source is used as an
alternative of Photoshop. The Photoshop has been there from the years of
donkey.
HFOSS of Open Source
Software
HFOSS
Stand for the Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software. It is also known as
Humanitarian FOSS. It is an open source that is used for the benefits of human
conditions in different areas for instance healthcare, education, ecology,
disaster management, economic development and may more. ‘
Following
are some of the most considerable project of HFOSS (Ellis,
Hislop, & Burdge, 2017):
GNOME
- Accessibility project
It Develops and fosters the free
open source accessibility for the solution of graphical user interface. (Hurley, 2014)
Water
Project –
It is Free and Open Source,
software, hardware and reference designs for the monitoring application of
water.
Blockly
It is a visual program editor that
is primarily used to teach the concepts of programming in the K-12
Environments.
OpenEHR
The GitHub Organization a not for
profit foundation working on international level.
cBioPortal
For the Cancer Genomics the cBioPortal provides
visualization, download and analysis of large-scale data sets of cancer
genomics.
openCBS
The Open CBS is a loan tracking software that is used by the
microfinance institutions. It is also open-source software.
Endangered-languages
This resource is used for the development, documentation and
conversation of endangered, low, under-resources, or minor languages of humans.
PhoenixForge
It is space for the community
members of University of Chicago. It is used to organized and host the open
source software projects.
For the microfinance institution it
is important to give more focus on open source loan tracking software that is
open CBS. Moreover, the new applications of HFOSS will be a healthcare
application focusing on the disables.
The initiative of Open Source is a non-profit initiative
that is intended to promote the open source software. It has approved more than
80 open source licenses having individual requirements. In order to
understating the mean of these rules and requirement for them, the originations
are using OSS. However, despite being free, many strings are attached with the
open source.
The requirements of licenses can be complex technically as
some licenses required developers to make any changes to the source while some
don’t. Likewise, some have restricted patent relationship. However, there are
risks associated with the language of the licenses. (Leson, 2015)."
References of Open Source
Software
Ellis,
H., Hislop, G. W., & Burdge, D. (2017). Courseware: HFOSS Project
Evaluation.
Hurley,
D. (2014, June 24). 12 challenges for open source projects . Retrieved
from https://opensource.com/life/14/6/12-challenges-open-source-projects
Leson,
H. (2015, February 18). 11 ways to get involved with Humanitarian FOSS.
Retrieved from https://opensource.com/life/15/2/getting-involved-hfoss
Midrack,
R. L. (2018, December 12). What is Open Source Software? Retrieved from
https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-open-source-software-4147547
Opensource.com.
(2013, December 10). What's keeping you from using open source software?
Retrieved from https://opensource.com/business/13/12/using-open-source-software
Pratt,
M. K. (2018, September 13). 5 open source software problems -- and how to
manage them. Retrieved from
https://searchcio.techtarget.com/tip/5-open-source-software-problems-and-how-to-manage-them
Rubens,
P. (2014, FEBRUARY 11). 7 Reasons Not to Use Open Source Software.
Retrieved from
https://www.cio.com/article/2378859/7-reasons-not-to-use-open-source-software.html
Smith,
T. (2018, May 30). Common Problems With Open Source. Retrieved from
https://dzone.com/articles/common-problems-with-open-source