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.

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee urging the committee to reconsider the current state of S.1145, a bill which would eliminate the public’s ability to request an ex parte request for re-examination of a patent.

“Ex parte re-examination is the sole effective means whereby the public interest can be protected against long-standing erroneous determinations by the PTO that can have far-reaching deleterious social effects,” says the letter written by Eben Moglen, Founding Director of SFLC.

Click here to download the full text of the letter (PDF)