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Archived updates for Thursday, February 03, 2005

OSDL Endows Software Freedom Law Center

According to a February 1, 2005 report via Ziff Davis Media, "Open Source Development Labs has raised $4 million to seed a non-profit, independent legal center that will provide free services to eligible open source developers and projects." Based in New York and run by Eben Moglen, counsel to the Free Software Foundation and a Professor at Columbia Law School, the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) will offer asset stewardship, licensing, license defense and litigation support, legal support, and lawyer training. According to the Center's website,
Free and Open Source Software (“FOSS�) is maturing at a rapid pace. The FOSS production ecosystem, once dominated by a few small not-for-profit entities and individual contributors, now includes a global array of individuals, not-for-profit entities, and commercial developers and redistributors. In this mixed-model organizational environment, all FOSS developers must have an environment where liability and other legal issues do not impede their important public service work. The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) provides legal representation and other law related services to protect and advance FOSS.

"Providing necessary legal services to open source developers is becoming increasingly important to prevent liability and other legal issues from interfering with [open source's] success," Moglen said in a press release. "The Law Center is being established to provide legal services to protect the legitimate rights and interests of free and open source software projects and developers, who often do not have the means to secure the legal services they need."
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