 
  See your link here
|
For more info on a specific newsletter, click the title. Details will be displayed in a new window.
Subscribe to
Computerworld 40 years of the most authoritative source of news and information for IT leaders.
Law and Order on the Open-Source Range
or
Other Development Stories
|
|
|
|
December 5, 2005 (Computerworld) -- Years ago, when Charlie Brenner encountered open-source technology, he saw a great opportunity, but he also saw some danger. Free, effective source code was great, but Brenner recognized that there would be added complexity in managing what he calls "the Wild West environment" of open-source licensing, primarily licenses that force you to turn your own private code into open-source if you violate their provisions.
"We don't want to have our proprietary code dragged into the public domain," says the vice president of the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology at Boston-based Fidelity Investments.
Still, Brenner and others argue that the value of open-source tools greatly outweighs the extra hoops the licensing structures force you to jump through. They've learned that you should start jumping through the hoops before coding begins by establishing a written development process when open-source is involved. Next, you should design, code and test applications in ways that let you use open-source tools while complying with the extra layer of licensing complexity.
"People move to the complexity issue too fast," insists Eben Moglen, chairman of the Software Freedom Law Center in New York and a key contributor to the update in progress to the GNU General Public License (GPL), which is said to cover at least 70% of the 100,000-plus open-source projects listed on SourceForce.net. He argues that the primary objective of open-source licensing is "to protect users' rights."
True, but that protection comes at a price for IT because, like it or not, open-source licensing does add complexity to any application development effort. So much so that some CIOs raise barriers against open-source software. It's one of the major reasons why Robert Urwiler, CIO at Macromedia Inc. in San Francisco, says, "It's an uphill battle for open-source to get in through my door."
Before letting open-source inside your company, there are a few simple things to know. There are two general types of open-source licenses: permissive and coercive. The first, exemplified by the BSD or MIT licenses, puts no restrictions on whether you distribute the open-source software outside your organization, modify the code or combine it with your code -- the three cardinal sins covered by coercive licenses, says Mike Olson, CEO of Sleepycat Software Inc. in Lincoln, Mass. He acknowledges that his own Sleepycat license as well as the GPL on which it was based are good examples of coercive licenses.
To foster and control open-source inside Fidelity, Brenner says he helped put together the Open-Source Support Center (OSSC), an internal team of technologists and attorneys who evaluate open-source projects to ensure that they meet the company's technical and legal standards. The OSSC writes the rules governing Fidelity's use of open-source and publishes a list of acceptable licenses so developers know before they download code whether the license is acceptable.
|
Print this Story |
|
Send Us Feedback |
|
E-mail this Story |
|
Digg this Story |
|
Slashdot this Story |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| All Zones Application Performance Zone Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone Windows Protection Zone The Enterprise Search Zone Software as a Service Zone The Security Zone |
|
See your link here
|
 |
||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
|
Download this white paper compliments of Novell!
From Laggard to Leader: Transforming the Data Center
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. 
- Feds considering changes to H-1B application process in wake of report
- The Grill: Privacy is a thing of the past, says private investigator
- Exploit code loose for six-month-old Windows bug
- More top stories
Intercept Spam & Viruses With MessageLabs MessageLabs is offering a complimentary 30 day trial of its managed Anti-virus and Anti-spam security solutions. MessageLabs guarantees complete protection against all know and unknown email threats. By providing 24 hour support, your business can increase productivity and decrease risk. Register for a complimentary trial and receive a free datasheet.Download this white paper now!
|
