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May 21, 2007
IPR Issues Who GNU?
I am advising a friend about some software development he is working on.
The first issue, his developers left a company about six months ago and they claim to have most of what he wants already. I have warned him he could end up containment and face infringement from these developers former employer. Mind you I am not sure of the health of the former employing company, so who knows whether the IPR will be considered dead or bought by a larger more empowered company.
So I send them off to the Open Source world and now I need a lawyer to tell me which open source is valid for the task. If all they want to do is prototype everything works. If they want to monitize only a few do, but worse. If on the way from prototype to rewrite the code is not totally rewritten and encumberance has been created.
I have a few friend who have privately told me they are verifying their source through third parties.
This is becoming a huge business all to itself. But in the end should we all just find a license that moves us past this problem?
Posted by carl at May 21, 2007 08:06 AM