Open source software policy drafted for NZ teams

The issue is usually not just whether your team uses open source, but whether there are clear internal rules around when it can be used, who approves it, and how licence obligations are checked before release. Without that structure, businesses can run into problems with attribution, disclosure obligations, inconsistent developer practices, or confusion about what can be mixed with proprietary code. A policy gives your team a practical framework for approvals, contributions and escalation when a licensing or IP issue comes up.

A well-drafted policy often covers approved sources of code, internal approval steps, contribution rules, record-keeping, licence review, attribution requirements, and restrictions on using certain code in commercial products. It may also deal with how developers should document third-party components, who signs off on releases, and what happens if the business wants to publish code or contribute to an external project. Where relevant, the policy can also address ownership boundaries, brand-risk concerns and how open source use interacts with customer or investor expectations.

The drafting usually turns on your software model, team structure and release process. A SaaS business with frequent deployments may need different approval and record-keeping rules from a consultancy delivering custom code to clients. The same applies if your developers contribute to public repositories, use third-party libraries heavily, or work across multiple products. Your data collection points, internal use and third-party sharing arrangements all affect the way this should be drafted, so the policy should match how code is sourced, reviewed, stored and shipped in the real world.

Often, no. A generic template may list broad principles, but it may not deal with the specific licensing decisions, approval bottlenecks or product-release risks that matter to your business. For example, it may not reflect whether you distribute software, host it, embed third-party components, or allow engineers to contribute publicly. A more tailored document can line up with your engineering workflow and commercial model. It helps clarify the legal risks in scope, with broader compliance depending on your systems, documents and day-to-day conduct.

Timing depends on how complex your software environment is and how much detail is needed about your current development and release practices. Once we have the relevant instructions, we prepare the policy and work through any document-specific questions with you. The fixed-fee covers the policy drafting work and the inclusions listed on this page. It does not include code audits, technical implementation, security remediation, regulator engagement or ongoing representation after the document is completed.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Open Source Software Policy service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.