OSBC 2008 Presentations Online

Last week marked the completion of another very successful Open Source Buinsess Conference (OSBC) in San Francsico.  Presentations from OSBC 2008 are now online.

Included among those presentations is my presentation on Putting Open Source Compliance to Work (On Your Own Terms).  The presentation covers a lot of ground, but is focused on providing companies that use open source software with tools to deal with the increasing level scrutiny of open source that has arisen with the ever-widening variety of roles in which open source software is being put to work by those companies.  Among the examples of this increased scrutiny, the presentation covers:

— The BusyBox lawsuits brought by the developers of the BusyBox open source utility against Monsoon Media, Xterasys, High-Gain and Verizon based on alleged violations of version 2 of the GNU General Public License (GPL);

— Renewed open source license enforcement by GPL-violations.org Project in Europe against Skype and others;

— Enforcement of software patents against open source software in cases involving RedHat and Novell; and

— The increasing trend of disclosures around open source usage and liability made by public companies in their filings with the SEC.

The presentation makes the point that companies that are not taking steps to implement open source compliance measures on their own terms are increasingly finding themselves being required to comply on terms set by one of these other groups.  The presentation discusses tools companies can use to put open source compliance to work on their own terms to address this changing source enforcement landscape, including:

— Strategies to address increased diligence and scrutiny from customers, investors, shareholders and others;

— Tools to evaluate the changing risks posed by open source;

— Current best practices for implementing compliance measures to address open source compliance risks; and

— Techniques for taking open source compliance efforts beyond merely risk mitigation to help add value to your business.

I encourage you to download a copy of the materials.