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The Law collection is an archive of articles covering open source and legal topics.

Writing Hand

Why CLAs aren't good for open source

Few legal topics in open source are as controversial as contributor license agreements.
Richard Fontana (Red Hat) 28 Feb 2019 2 comments
a magnifying glass looking at a brain illustration

Standards and open source: Why are patents treated differently?

The difference has consequences for how we structure the development process.
Scott K Peterson (Red Hat) 26 Feb 2019 1 comment
Top reads and favorite books metal

Top 10 FOSS legal developments of 2018

Legal issues from the past year will influence free and open source software in 2019 and beyond.
Victoria Lee Mark Radcliffe Chris Stevenson 05 Feb 2019 1 comment
forks

Governance without rules: How the potential for forking helps projects

Although forking is undesirable, the potential for forking provides a discipline that drives people to find a way forward that works for everyone.
Scott K Peterson (Red Hat) 18 Jan 2019
sticky notes making a palm tree on an island

CLA proliferation and the Island of Dr. Moreau

Non-standard open source contributor license agreements are creating monstrosities akin to the ones created by Dr. Moreau.
Jeffrey Robert Kaufman (Red Hat) 13 Jan 2019
A gavel.

Most-read coverage in 2018: Legal issues and the open source community

Get up to date with these 5 articles, from GDPR to licensing.
David Perry (Red Hat) 28 Dec 2018
Legal scales in open source

What you need to know about the GPL Cooperation Commitment

The GPL Cooperation Commitment fosters innovation by freeing developers from fear of license termination.
Brooke Driver (Red Hat) 13 Nov 2018
A diagram of a branching process

What's in a container image: Meeting the legal challenges

The implications of distributing software through container images are quite different from those of the package managers many people are familiar with.
Scott K Peterson (Red Hat) 31 Jul 2018

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