Shane Coughlan (Opendawn) and Andrew Katz (Moorcrofts) have published an article entitled ‘Introducing the Risk Grid‘ in the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review.  The risk grid is a tool to assist lawyers allocate risk in commercial transactions involving Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), and is an outcome of the European Legal Network’s special interest group on the commercial procurement of FOSS.  This article and the accompanying version of the risk grid mark the public release of the tool, the first of its kind in the FOSS market.

Obtaining the article and the risk grid:

The article can be viewed as a webpage or downloaded as a PDF.  The risk grid itself is available as a PDF or OpenOffice.org spreadsheet.

Licensing information:

The article is Copyright © 2009 Andrew Katz and Shane Coughlan. This paper is licensed under a Creative Commons UK (England and Wales) 2.0 licence, no derivative works, attribution, CC-BY-ND. As a special exception, the authors expressly permit faithful translations of the entirety of this paper  into any language, provided that the resulting translation (which may include an attribution to the translator) is shared alike. This paragraph is part of the paper and must be included when copying or translating the paper.

The risk grid is Copyright © 2009 Andrew Katz, Amanda Brock, Malcolm Bain. It is licensed under a Creative Commons UK (England and Wales) 2.0 licence, no derivative works, attribution, CC-BY-ND. As a special exception, the authors expressly permit faithful translations of the entire document into any language, provided that the resulting translation (which may include an attribution to the translator) is shared alike. The wording in column E of the Risk Grid (“Sample Wording”) may be used for any purpose, without restriction, and without attribution. This paragraph is part of the Risk Grid, and must be included when copying or translating the Risk Grid.