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So, instead of trying to guess at your build system’s behavior, FOSSA runs locally using your build tools to determine a list of exact dependencies used by your binary.
There’s a real need for this. Despite the commercial tools that are already available, Wang said, most people still use a spreadsheet to track licensing requirements manually.
So, why open source FOSSA’s approach? Wang explained, “At the end of the day everyone uses open source differently. Even though in many languages there’s some conventions and structure towards dependencies, you will always have plenty of edge cases due to the breadth of ways people share code. That’s why it’s critical that this is an open and collaborative project.”
FOSSA itself is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0. To make money from this plan, Wang explained that while the command-line interface (CLI) version is free and open source, the web-based dashboard and support will provide the revenue needed to keep FOSSA’s doors open.
I think Wang’s on to something here. Managing open-source licenses is a necessary evil, and FOSSA addressing it head on with an open-source approach may be just what’s needed to bring it to heel.
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