“A Licensing Approach to Regulation of Open Robotics”

On April 8th, I had the opportunity to present my paper, A Licensing Approach to Regulation of Open Robotics at the We Robot Conference at Stanford Law School.  The paper was commented on by cyberlaw expert, Professor Michael Froomkin.  The following is a brief introduction to my proposal.

My paper argues that openness is normally associated with increased innovation.  However, in the case of robotics, open architecture can have an inverse effect by creating a disincentive for manufacturers to develop open systems. The singular preoccupation of open source – as we currently understand it – with software freedom, presents a barrier for manufacturers seeking to restrict or foresee harmful or unethical applications by downstream channels.

What I propose is the development of a new licensing model that promotes “sufficient and selective openness” as a means to regulate open robotics.  The Ethical Robot License (a work in progress that I designed as part of the paper) seeks to temper the inconsistent goals of attaining total software freedom, and promotion of ethical and non-harmful use of robots, by imposing selective obligations and restrictions on downstream applications.  Violation of license terms renders downstream parties liable to upstream channels for breach of contract and intellectual property infringement.