Posts Tagged ‘ Open Source ’

Year in Review

Wow!  That was fast. I”ve been running my own law firm for over a year.  It’s been a blast and I’ve been very fortunate — quite a bit of exciting and interesting work came to my door last year. Some of the highlights include: Managing a dispute from initial demand letter to arbitration award — [ READ MORE ]

The Sneaky Sleepycat License

Generally, commercial entities are fairly comfortable using open source software in the products they distribute if the license is a the BSD license. Entities other than UC Berkeley often deploy the BSD license in their own name, so it is common to hear people refer to a BSD-style license, or a license that is BSD-esque [ READ MORE ]

Oracle is *not* going to play nice

I spend quite a bit of time talking through *theoretical* risks associated with using third party software in products, particularly with respect to software that’s been developed in connection with some type of promise of openness. I try to explain to my clients that just because things have gone smoothly thus far with respect to [ READ MORE ]

Open Source Hardware

One of the main differences between GPL v 2.0 and GPL v 3.0 is the modifications made to address some folks’ concerns that to truly embrace the idea of “Free” or “Open” software, the license must also prohibit restrictions at the hardware level that would prohibit folks from modifying the software. The natural extension of [ READ MORE ]

The Real Risks of Open Source Software

Every software start-up company I’ve ever worked with uses (or did use) some form of open source software. And yet, high level executives and board members at many of these companies, when asked whether their company uses any open source software, would regularly answer, “No” without hesitation. Where is this disconnect coming from? Open Source [ READ MORE ]

Code as Speech

The most recent newsletter from Daniel Munitillo discusses U.S. export law as it applies to code, and determines that, for the most part, U.S. export restrictions do not apply to open source software. Why? The First Amendment. Specifically, he states: . . . [a]ny and all computer code not considered classified by, or, not for [ READ MORE ]