The Open Source Alternative: Understanding Risks and Leveraging Opportunities Hardcover - 2008

From the rear cover

A practical guide to leveraging open source in business

The law of open source is complex and constantly changing. Some legal issues related to it are thorny and undecided. Those called upon to make decisions about open source have found little information to guide them in traditional legal materials . . . until now. Author Heather Meeker--voted one of the top thirty intellectual property lawyers in California--brings her ten years of extensive involvement in open source legal issues to bear in The Open Source Alternative--a practical resource to help you implement open source intelligently, without compromising the value of your intellectual property or stepping into a potential lawsuit.

Written in plain English for both lawyers and professionals, The Open Source Alternative provides an accessible discussion of the different licensing strategies to consider with open source. This invaluable reference tool for CIOs, CFOs, IT managers, auditors, and attorneys, as well as all interested professionals, provides you with the background and tools you need to understand this area of law and develop your own conclusions and best practices. Divided into two parts--leveraging opportunities and understanding risks--the book explores: the rules of the road for use of open source in proprietary products, assessing legal risk of using open source, how to understand and leverage patents and trademarks in the open source landscape, and developing policies for use of open source in your business.

Formulating best practices in open source development requires familiarity with a complex set of facts and industry practices, as well as the political, business, and legal principles behind them. The Open Source Alternative is a must-read for any professional who needs to stay on top of this rapidly changing field.

From the jacket flap

Almost every engineer developing technical products wants to use open source software. It's free, reliable, and can cut product development cycles. But convincing management to jump on board may be a challenge. Open source can have legal strings attached. How does a company use open source intelligently, without stepping on a lawsuit land mine? Based on the author's ten years of broad experience in the trenches of intellectual property licensing, The Open Source Alternative is a practical guide for anyone who needs to find out more about the legal intricacies, risks, and rewards of open source.

Written in plain English for both lawyers and professionals, The Open Source Alternative shows you how to implement open source intelligently, without compromising the value of your intellectual property. Coverage includes:

• What is open source?

• Philosophy of free software

• The vocabulary of free software and open source

• Common open source licenses and their structure

• Due diligence and license housekeeping

• Audits and compliance initiatives

• Patents and open source

• Trademarks and open source

• GPL version 2 compliance and the "derivative works" controversy

• Developing a corporate open source policy

• Enforcement of open source licenses

• Open source in acquisition and licensing transactions

• GPL version 3.0 update

The Open Source Alternative fills the need for a practical, objective book on the implications of open source in business. Author Heather Meeker provides background on both legal and technical principles, complemented by a wealth of references for follow-up. The book also includes a glossary, index, and a collection of documents and forms to help you in your business.

Open source and proprietary software are likely to coexist for decades to come. The Open Source Alternative will help you better understand the legal principles at work in the heterogeneous software landscape of today.

Media reviews

Citations

• Reference and Research Bk News, 05/01/2008, Page 227