Open Source Compliance: Getting Started Guide
Posted by Arjun ThomasA very interesting article I came across written by Ibrahim Haddad for the Web 2.0 Journal
This article discusses Open Source compliance and the challenges faced when establishing a compliance program, provides an overview of best practices, and offers recommendations on how to deal with compliance inquiries.
Introduction
Traditionally, platforms and software stacks were built using proprietary software and consisted of various software building blocks that came from different companies with negotiated licensing terms. The business environment was predictable and potential risks were mitigated through license and contract negotiations with the software vendors. In time, companies started to incorporate Open Source software in their platforms for the different advantages it offers (technical merit, time-to-market, access to source code, customization, etc).
With the introduction of Open Source software to what once were pure proprietary software stacks, the business environment diverged familiar territory and corporate comfort zones (Figure 1). The licenses of Open Source software licenses are not negotiated agreements. There are no contracts signed with the software providers (i.e., Open Source developers). Companies must now deal with dozens of different licenses, and hundreds or even thousands of licensors and contributors. As a result, the risks that used to be managed through license negotiations must now be managed now through compliance and engineering practices.
Read the entire article here..
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