Community Impacts of Legal Decisions

Legal Policy as a Barrier to EntryDave Neary
SDN/NFV Community Strategy
30 January 2016

The role of lawyers

Legal decisions have (unintended) consequences

(Most) Developers don't care about the Law

Any time a developerhas to care about the law...

It's a bug

License choice

Friendly for business vs Friendly to proprietary forks

Viral vs reciprocal

Fitting with your ecosystem (interoperability, identity)

Factoring in the cost of enforcement

Copyright licensing agreements

First contact with project is paperwork

Many developers will not sign them

Creates an uneven playing field

Alternatives: DCO, Mozilla Committers Agreement, organisational agreements

Patent threats

Chilling effects: G729, GIF, Bitcoin

Ignorance is bliss

The role of patent promises/patent licenses in copyright license

Trademark

Communities feel like they share ownership of the brand

Identity is a delicate and complex thing

Alternative approaches: Abandonment, CM, incremental approach

http://fossmarks.org

Join us at http://www.opnfv.org

Thank you!

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