Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns new intellectual property created for LAMS?
Core LAMS development by MELCOE or LAMS International automatically vests in the LAMS Foundation, ensuring that ownership of all core intellectual property for LAMS is held by a single, not-for-profit entity dedicated to this purpose. LAMS Foundation then releases the software as open source software under the GPL. Where MELCOE or LAMS International create new intellectual property for LAMS as part of projects (eg, government funded R&D projects), any outcomes of this development vest in LAMS Foundation to be released as open source software.
Once LAMS is released as open source software, any developer is free to add to the LAMS source code, provided that they abide by the conditions of the GPL. Ownership of any new additions to the software remains with the developer. However, any developer (or organisation) may choose to assign the additions back to the LAMS Foundation if they would rather it be managed as part of the central LAMS codebase.
Any "Learning Activity Sequences" created using the LAMS software (using the authoring environment) are owned by the author. Where authors create good examples of Learning Activity Sequences that they may choose to share with others, LAMS will encourage the use of Creative Commons licensing for these sequences (further details to come).