Fulfilling Source Code Distribution Requirements
By Alexios Zavras, Stefano Zacchiroli

A well-known obligation in the copyleft licenses is the requirement to provide "Complete Corresponding Source code" (CCS). The fulfillment of this obligation can be broken down to the distinct steps of collecting, packaging and provisioning the CCS.

In this talk we will first be presenting the relevant legal obligations in popular copyleft licenses and describing the ways these are typically fulfilled. However, the continuous provision of the CCS imposes a burden that may persist for a very long time. Ensuring that the CCS is always available is not a simple matter, especially considering that teams might change structure, people might be replaced or change roles, legal entities may disappear, etc.

We will then expand on a novel way of fulfilling the source code distribution requirements, making use of a publicly accessible online repository of source code and present specific workflows that can be used in order to achieve legal compliance.

We will finally propose future possible modifications that copyleft license authors may consider in order to facilitate compliance in the contemporary state of interconnected networks.