Library

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Welcome to the library.  Some of these resources are from Opendawn and some are links to external sites.  The focus is on answering common questions and providing links to respected providers.  If you have suggestions for additions, corrections or improvements please contact us.

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Publications by Opendawn

FOSS license compliance for companies
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) allows all stakeholders to use, study, share and improve code for commercial or non-commercial reasons. However, engagement can still appear daunting to companies. They are monetizing other people’s creations, and, with the high economic value of FOSS, making a mistake is less easily forgiven than it might be in non-commercial circumstances. [Read more...]
First published October 21, 2009 on LWN.net
FOSS compliance engineering
Compliance engineering was pioneered by technical experts who wanted to address misuses of software, and was made famous by gpl-violations.org, FSF, and similar organizations correcting Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) license violations. The field has grown into a commercial segment with companies like Blackduck Software and consultancy firms like Loohuis Consulting offering formal services to third parties. [Read more...]
First published September 28, 2009 on LWN.net
FOSS licensing and consumer electronics
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) license compliance is a contentious topic. There are different perspectives about when and how license terms apply, about which licenses can be used together, and about how potential issues should be resolved. The consumer electronics market is an area where FOSS license compliance is particularly problematic. This is primarily attributable to economic reasons rather than dishonesty, but in a market worth more than $335 Billion in 2008, it is an issue worth exploring. [Read more...]
First published September 14, 2009 on LWN.net
Introducing the Risk Grid (allocating risk in FOSS transactions)
A Special Interest Group of the European Legal Network discussed issues around the commercial procurement of Free/Open Source Software, and methods to reduce or contain risk in transactions related to the supply chain. The outcome was the Risk Grid, a table designed to describe the different ways in which publicly available code could be infringed, with rows to separate out each instance, and with example wording to help in drafting procurement contracts for software projects which make use of Free/Open Source Software components. [Read more...] [Download the Risk Grid]
First published July 13, 2009 on IFOSSLR.org

Other useful documents

Introductions to the field
Economic analysis
Business case studies
Code governance
Mixing code
Releasing code
Issue prevention and resolution
Community interaction
Software patents
Standardization
Marketing
Philosophy and politics

Knowledge providers

Websites
Individuals

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