Understanding Legal Issues in Open Source

9:00am Wednesday, 07/22/2009

Legal issues are very important to the use and success of open source software. These presentations are designed to educate both licensors and licensees about how to deal with the legal issues relating to open source software.

These panels have been organized by Mark Radcliffe of DLA Piper and Allison Randal. The presentations will take place on Wednesday, July 22 at the San Jose Marriott in room Willow Glen 1.

The San Jose Marriott is connected to the San Jose Convention Center and is located at 301 South Market Street:

9:00am Understanding Venture Capital Investments in Open Source Projects. This presentation will discuss the issues venture capitalists consider when investing in open source projects.

• Vicky Lee, DLA Piper
• Josh Stein, Draper Fisher & Jurvetson
• Mark Gorenberg, Hummer Winblad
• Vivek Mehra, August Capital

10:00am Choosing a License: Ensuring that Your Intellectual Property Strategy Matches Your Goals. This presentation will discuss how companies make decisions about which licenses to use for an open source project or an open source company.

• Vicky Lee, DLA Piper
• Larry Augustin, CEO, SugarCRM

1:00pm Demystifying GPL Enforcement: Using the Law To Uphold Copyleft. This presentation will discuss the the obligations and enforcement of the General Public License (the most common license used for open source software).

• Bradley Kuhn, President, Software Freedom Conservancy
• Aaron Williamson, Software Freedom Law Center

2:00pm Basic Legal Issues for Open Source Projects. This presentation will discuss the basic legal issues which are essential for open source projects. It will address the principles of copyright, trademark, patent, trade secrets and licenses which are important for open source projects.

• Larry Rosen, Rosenlaw & Einschlag (author of Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law)