On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 2:29 PM, "C. Bergstr?m" <cbergstrom at netsyncro.com> wrote: >> The SCA is in my view best-of-breed,
> You're too important to really argue, but this is anecdotal evidence to Another person who says so rather loudly is Van Lindberg, in his book "Intellectual Property and Open Source". I highly recommend that you read it - or at least whet your appetite with the Ars Technica Book review at http://arstechnica.com/reviews/other/book-review-intellectual-property-open-source.ars An excerpt from that review, by Timothy B. Lee : There are plenty of books that make policy arguments about how copyright or patent law ought to be changed. But there are few books that help the reader understand the current state of the law. Too often, a programmer who wants to understand the "rules of the road" with regard to copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets has to either wade through hundreds of pages of dense legalese, or pay a lawyer hundreds of dollars an hour to explain it to him. Into this void steps Van Lindberg, a former software engineer and now a lawyer who specializes in the legal issues surrounding the free software community. Lindberg starts with the basics, explaining how copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets work. He then dives into the details that are most likely to be of interest to software developers: employment agreements, software licenses, copyleft, reverse engineering, and formalizing a project by creating a non-profit organization. No book could replace the advice of competent legal counsel, but reading Intellectual Property and Open Source from cover to cover will give the average free software developer a clear understanding of the legal terrain she will have to navigate as she creates, improves, or uses free software. ... There's an extensive discussion of proprietary information agreements, invention declarations, patent assignment, and other annoying paperwork you have to deal with when you're writing software for an employer. The basic concepts are common sense?read what you sign and talk to your employer early and often?but understanding the details will help you avoid costly mistakes. -John
