The ''International Free and Open Source Software Law Review'' (also known as 'IFOSS L. Rev.', 'IFOSSLR', or 'IFOSS L. R.') was an English language

law review A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also provide ...

focusing on

free and open source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

Overview

IFOSS L. Rev. was intended to provide a neutral forum for debate and analysis of legal issues connected with Free and Open Source Software. Articles were subject to

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...

where appropriate and the editors exercise a policy of independence from sponsors and facilitators. The review was initially published twice yearly and subsequently moved to a rolling release. All editions were available to download in PDF and HTML formats from the journal's website, and are now available from the JOLTS website. Readers were encouraged to copy and share their copies of IFOSS L. Rev. The publication qualified as a gold

Open Access journal Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

under the

open access publishing Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

scheme. The journal permitted a variety of licences to be used for individual articles including

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

, and where

derivative work In copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major copyrightable elements of a first, previously created original work (the underlying work). The derivative work becomes a second, separate work independent from ...

s are prohibited special exceptions permitting translations into other languages are encouraged. A policy against non-commercial only restrictions exists. The copyright policy was subsequently amended to require more permissive licensing, with CC-BY being the most restrictive permitted. IFOSS L. Rev. merged into successor title ''Journal of Open Law, Technology and Society'' (JOLTS) in 2019. JOLTS has adopted much of the same ethos, and approach of IFOSS L. Rev. All content published by IFOSS L. Rev. is available on the JOLTS website.

History

IFOSS L. Rev. was launched with the release of Volume 1, Issue 1 on the 13 July 2009, and published its second issue in January 2010. In 2019, it announced that it was rebranding as ''Journal of Open Law, Technology and Society'' and extending the publication's scope, while retaining the same ethos and open access approach.

Editorial Committee

The Editorial Committee of the Review was initially made up from delegates of the European Legal Network, a non-partisan professional network of Free Software legal experts. Many members of the network actually come from outside Europe.FTF: European Legal Network
/ref> This network is facilitated by

Free Software Foundation Europe The Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. (FSFE) is an organization that supports free software and all aspects of the free software movement in Europe, with registered chapters in several European countries. It is a registered voluntary associat ...

(FSFE), though membership extends across a broad spectrum of interests engaging in Free and Open Source Software. FSFE exerted no editorial control over the Editorial Committee.

References

{{Reflist

External links

IFOSS L. Rev. homepage
British law journals Works about computer law Copyright law literature Open access journals