A start-up marketing open source license management services has joined a non-profit entity devoted to governmental use of open source software. Black Duck Software says it hopes to help the Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) and its members deal with increasing governmental and academic license requirements.

The OSSI aims to promote open source software use to municipal, state, and federal governments, as well as academic agencies. Black Duck says it will serve as a technical contributor to a three-year cooperative R&D initiative between the OSSI and the US Navy to explore the use of open source software in the Naval Oceanographic Offices.

Black Duck offers several open source software license management services, including source code scanning, license conflict identification, and open source code registration. It launched its Protex/IP services in May of 2004, acquired funding a month later, and joined the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) in January of this year.

Black Duck CEO Douglas A. Levin said, “We are very pleased to help support the heightened sensitivity to licensing and controls required by governments.”

John Weatherby, OSSI executive director, said, “By enabling IT and policy decision makers to qualify and quantify the scale and scope of their commitment to open source software, Black Duck is helping to prove that open source is a viable, mainstream offering.”

 
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