Prentice Hall has published a book about open source licenses by well-known intellectual property lawyer Larry Rosen. Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law is a plain-English guide to open source law for developers, managers, users, and… lawyers.

(Click for larger view of book jacket art)

Larry Rosen is well-known for his role as general counsel and secretary for the Open Source Initiative (OSI), the body that reviews and approves major open source licenses (several of which Rosen authored).

Rosen's book covers:

• Explanation of why the SCO litigation and other attacks won't derail open source
  
• Dispelling the myths of open source licensing
  
• Intellectual property law for nonlawyers: ownership and licensing of copyrights, patents, and trademarks
  
• "Academic licenses": BSD, MIT, Apache, and beyond
  
• The "reciprocal bargain" at the heart of the GPL
  
• Alternative licenses: Mozilla, CPL, OSL and AFL
  
• Benefits of open source, and the obligations and risks facing businesses that deploy open source software
  
• Choosing the right license: considering business models, product architecture, IP ownership,
  
• license compatibility issues, relicensing, and more Enforcing the terms and conditions of open source licenses
  
• Shared source, eventual source, and other alternative models to open source
  
• Protecting yourself against lawsuits

Samba Project co-founder John Terpstra said, “I have studied Rosen's book in detail and am impressed with its scope and content. I strongly recommend it to anybody interested in the current controversies surrounding open source licensing."

Stuart Cohen, CEO of the OSDL, said, “Rosen's book is must reading for anyone using or providing open source solutions."

The 432-page book is available now at bookstores or direct from Prentice Hall for $35.99.

 
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