US 8,572,093 B2Granted

System and method for providing a license description syntax in a software due diligence system

AssigneeEMC Corporation

InventorsJuergen Weigert, Christopher De Nicolo

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Abstract

Described herein is a system and method for providing a condensed license description syntax for use in a software due diligence system. In particular, the license description syntax may employ a limited number of verifiable attributes to provide precision and lack of redundancy in describing various software licenses relevant to software due diligence. For example, the software due diligence system may identify licenses in software under review and invoke a compiler configured to perform various operations on the license description syntax to check for permissions and obligations associated with the identified licenses (e.g., name translation, operator translation, logical expression evaluation, etc.). Thus, the license description syntax may enable the license database to be established as a global public or private license database, in addition to providing licenses attributes useful in software due diligence review.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method for providing due diligence of software using a license description syntax, wherein the license description syntax includes a plurality of attributes for describing software licenses, the method comprising:

creating a license database that includes a plurality of entries, wherein each of the plurality of entries in the license database uniquely describes permissions and obligations associated with one version of an authoritative text for a respective software license;
associating each of the plurality of entries in the license database with one or more of the plurality of attributes of the license description syntax, wherein the one or more attributes associated with at least one of the plurality of entries is arranged to uniquely describe said permissions and obligations of said version of authoritative text;
combining the one or more of the plurality of entries by Boolean operators to form a complex entry for describing an applicable software license, wherein the complex entry comprises the one or more attributes of one or more of the plurality of entries and the relationships among the entries indicated b the Boolean operators;
analyzing the software under due diligence to identify one or more software licenses as being applicable to said software, said analyzing comprising comparing a fingerprint of the software under due diligence with other fingerprints of other known software having known applicable software licenses to determine a match between the software under due diligence and the other known software;
and
identifying, upon determining a match, one or more entries in said license database that describe said known applicable software licenses.

3 more elements

A system for due diligence of software using a license description syntax, wherein the license description syntax includes a plurality of attributes for describing software licenses, comprising:

a license database configured to store a plurality of entries, wherein each of the plurality of entries in the license database uniquely describes permissions and obligations associated with one version of an authoritative text for a respective software license, and each of the plurality of the entries is associated with one or more of the plurality of attributes of the license description syntax, wherein the one or more attributes associated with at least one of the plurality of entries is arranged to uniquely describe said permissions and obligations of said version of authoritative text, and said one or more of the plurality of entries being combined by Boolean operators to form a complex entry that describes an applicable software license, the complex entry comprising the one or more attributes of one or more of the plurality of entries and the relationships among the entries indicated by the Boolean operators;
and
a software due diligence engine comprising a processor coupled to the license database, wherein the software due diligence engine is configured to:
analyze the software under due diligence review to identify one or more licenses as being applicable to said software by comparing a fingerprint of the software under due diligence with other fingerprints of other known software having known applicable licenses to determine a match between the software under due diligence and the known software to identify an applicable license;
identify, upon determining a match, one or more of the entries in the license database that respectively describe the known applicable licenses in said known applicable software, wherein the attributes associated with each of the identified entries respectively define permissions and obligations associated with the applicable licenses;
and
creating a compliance report for the software under due diligence review based on the permissions and obligations associated with the known applicable licenses.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.