Arts & Sciences Events
[PAST EVENT] Nathan Wintersgill, Computer Science - Thesis Defense
Abstract
Most modern software products incorporate open source components, which requires compliance with each component’s licenses. As noncompliance can lead to significant repercussions, organizations often seek advice from legal practitioners to maintain license compliance, address licensing issues, and manage the risks of noncompliance. While legal practitioners play a critical role in the process, little is known in the software engineering community about their experiences within the open source license compliance ecosystem. To fill this knowledge gap, a joint team of software engineering and legal researchers designed and conducted a survey with 30 legal practitioners and related occupations and then held 16 follow-up interviews. We identified different aspects of OSS license compliance from the perspective of legal practitioners, resulting in key findings in three main areas of interest: the general ecosystem of compliance, the specific compliance practices of legal practitioners, and the challenges that legal practitioners face. We discuss the implications of our findings.
Bio:
Nathan Wintersgill is an MS/PhD student in Computer Science at William & Mary advised by Dr. Denys Poshyvanyk and Dr. Oscar Chaparro. His research interests include software supply chains, software licensing, and human-computer interaction. Previously, he received his Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from Bucknell University in 2020.