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Linux Foundation’s invitation-only event unites business and technical experts to collaborate on technical issues, the business of open source, best practices in collaborative development, and how to grow open source communities.

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Thursday, February 19 • 11:20am - 12:10pm
Open Standards - Larry Rosen

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I contend that software standards specifications are source code. They are intended so that human beings and computers can compile them into workable implementations. They have no other purpose. The notion that software specifications deserve some special protection is an antiquated ANSI orthodoxy inherited from the time when railroad trains and the railroad barons of the day required standard gauge tracks in order to enable commerce. Now what is required for commerce is very different: We require the freedom to create derivative works. This is a fundamental principle of the Open Source Definition and part of the philosophy of the Free Software Foundation. It is the basis for Linux. I personally recommend either the Creative Commons CC0 or CC-BY licenses for software specifications and will spend part of my talk explaining why.
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avatar for Lawrence Rosen

Lawrence Rosen

Partner, Rosenlaw & Einschlag
I will be speaking on "Open Standards" at the Linux Collaboration Summit 2015 on 2/19. I'm mostly avoiding patents in my talk because important software standards organizations in the US already have strong royalty-free patent policies. Instead, I've been focused recently on the gymnastics... Read More →

Thursday February 19, 2015 11:20am - 12:10pm PST
Sonoma Mountain
  Legal

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