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Denise Howell Denise Howell
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Dennis M. Kennedy Dennis M. Kennedy
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Tom Mighell Tom Mighell
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Marty Schwimmer Marty Schwimmer
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Ernest Svenson Ernest Svenson
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Denise Howell is a seasoned appellate and intellectual property litigator based in Los Angeles. Denise writes one of the first and most popular law-related blogs, Bag and Baggage, coined the term "blawg" and helped pioneer podcasting for lawyers. Microcontent obsessed since 2001, she is frequently quoted in the media on legal issues involving intellectual property and technology law. "Sound Policy" is Denise's show at IT Conversations, and it's also what she hopes results from the briefs she submits to court. Email Denise at dhowell@gmail.com.

Dennis Kennedy is a computer lawyer and legal technology expert based in St. Louis, Missouri. An award-winning author, a frequent speaker and a widely-read blogger, he has more than 300 publications on legal, technology and Internet topics, many of which are collected in his e-books. Dennis has been described as someone who knows almost every rock song in existence and, more importantly, how they apply to technology and law. Email Dennis at his gmail address.

Tom Mighell is Senior Counsel and Litigation Technology Support Coordinator at Cowles & Thompson in Dallas. He has published the Internet Legal Research Weekly newsletter since 2000 and blogged about the Internet and legal technology at Inter Alia since August of 2002. With Tom's singing, Ernie on guitar and Dennis' encylopedic knowledge of rock music, we may have the beginnings of a good band, if this whole blog thing doesn't work out. Email Tom at tmighell@swbell.net.

Marty Schwimmer left a partnership in the largest trademark practice in the world and founded Schwimmer Mitchell, a full-service IP micro-boutique in Westchester County, New York, where he represents owners of famous and not yet famous trademarks. He founded The Trademark Blog, the first IP law blog and the one with the most pictures. He is the first to come in and the last to leave in his firm. Email Marty at marty@schwimmerlegal.com.

Ernest Svenson practices law with a mid-sized law firm in New Orleans, specializing in business-related lawsuits. Most of his practice takes place in federal court, especially the Eastern District. He is best known for his weblog Ernie the Attorney, which he started as an experiment. Like many experiments it got out of control. Nevertheless, he continues to practice law and, occasionally, to seek enlightenment. Email Ernest at esvenson@gmail.com.
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November 28, 2005

Tips For Managing Legal Risks for Businesses Using Open Source Software

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Posted by Dennis M. Kennedy

My article called "Best Legal Practices for Open Source Software: Ten Tips For Managing Legal Risks for Businesses Using Open Source Software" has just been published on the excellent LLRX.com website, along with several other articles that will make a trip to the site well worth your effort.

In the article, I take a very practical approach to dealing with the legal risk management issues that arise when a business uses or wants to use Open Source software. I take the somewhat unusual point of view for lawyers that people might actually want to use Open Source software in many situations and that the standard lawyer approach of saying "no" to everything really is not useful. Check it out if Open Source software or that approach to it interests you.

I'll also note that the article grew out of a presentation of mine that helped me put together some of my initial ideas about "open source law." If you read the article, you may see some of the basis for some of my thinking about what we talk about on this blog from time to time under the topic of "open source lawyering."

If my writing on the Open Source licenses piques your interest to delve deeper into the topic, I recommend my article called "A Primer on Open Source Licensing Legal Issues: Copyright, Copyleft and Copyfuture" (PDF), which was one of the earlier law review articles on the Open Source licenses. It's much more academic, but I still think it's very accessible - it still gets downloaded a lot.

Comments (1) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Intellectual Property and Technology Law | Open Source Lawyering


COMMENTS

1. Dennis on December 2, 2005 6:09 PM writes...

Computerworld has a good article called "Law and Order on the Open-Source Range" at http://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/development/story/0,10801,106679,00.html that addresses some of the practical issues and approaches businesses are taking when they use Open Source software.

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