In 2019, the Black Duck® Audit Services team audited 1,253 codebases to identify open source components, their associated licenses, security vulnerabilities, and overall community activity. Our Audit Services team has extensive experience in not only identifying open source licenses, but also researching the more than 2,700 license permutations that exist in the open source world. But what happens when an open source component has no license at all?

Your open source usage is out of control. Sure, it’s helping you develop your product faster and getting new releases out the door in days instead of months, but now your code base is made up of 60% or more open source components. And that percentage is only growing. The application layer continues to be the most attacked, so you know you need to stay on top of vulnerabilities.

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Free and open source software (FOSS) components have become the basic building blocks of our software products, helping today’s developers build and ship innovative products faster than ever before. Many developers tend to forget that while open source licenses are free, they still come with a set of terms and conditions that users must abide by.

You work hard to produce quality applications on tight deadlines, and like every other development team out there, that often means relying on open source code to keep projects on track. Having access to plug-and-go code is invaluable when you’re racing the clock, but the accessibility of open source libraries comes with a caveat: increased risk.

Open source components are a major part of the software products we create and use. Along with the many advantages that using open source projects brings to software development organizations, it also comes with obligations and added responsibilities. One of these requirements is open source licensing compliance.

Have you ever wondered whether it’s ok to copy and paste code from an open source project? If you have, you’re not alone. A quick look around several developer websites shows a number of variations on this age-old question. It is never ok to copy and paste code from an open source project directly into your proprietary code. Don’t do it. Just don’t. Even if you’re on a tight deadline. Even if it’s only one loop.