Software Freedom Law Center Publishes Legal Guide on Free Software
Nonprofit Law Firm Continues to Provide Resources for Open Source Developers and Community
February 14, 2008
The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), provider of pro-bono legal services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), today published a legal guide which acts as an in-depth introduction to the legal issues surrounding FOSS.
The guide, written by members of SFLC’s staff, covers a variety of legal topics and their practical application to free software development. These topics include copyrights and licensing, organizational structure, patents, and trademarks.
“By publishing this guide, we hope to share our knowledge, just as free software developers do when they share their creations with the world,” said James Vasile, Counsel at SFLC. “I take great pride in this work put together by my colleagues, and I expect that it will be especially useful to developers of free software.”
The guide, titled “A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects,” is available at
SFLC distributed an earlier version of the guide to attendees of its Legal Summit for Software Freedom, held in October. Since then, the guide has been significantly revised and improved, resulting in the version published online today.