The state of Open Source licensing and how to improve it

Love it or hate it, correct licensing is an important component of every free software and Open Source project. This is especially true as an increasing number of corporations are adopting and distributing Open Source applications and code. This talk will therefore give an overview of the current state of Open Source licensing, discussing topics such as common ways of adding licensing information to a project, as well as copyright agreements such as Joint Copyright Assignments (JCA). The talk will also look at ways of identifying licensing information in code, using tools like FOSSology. Finally, ideas for improving the current state of Open Source licensing will be proposed, such as joint efforts to improve unclear licensing information and the development of standardized ways of conveying licensing information.

Session time: Friday, June 25, 2010 - 12:20pm - 1:00pm

Register now

About the Speaker

Martin Michlmayr

Open Source Community Expert, HP
mmichlmayr's picture

Martin Michlmayr has been involved in various free and open source software projects for well over 15 years. He acted as the leader of the Debian project for two years and currently serves on the board of the Open Source Initiative (OSI). Martin works for HP as an Open Source Community Expert and acts as the community manager of FOSSBazaar. Martin holds Master degrees in Philosophy, Psychology and Software Engineering, and earned a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

LinkedIn Profile