TY - JOUR T1 - Editorial: Licensing (October 2007) JF - Open Source Business Resource Y1 - 2007 A1 - Dru Lavigne AB - In his book Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law, Lawrence Rosen defines licensing as "the legal way a copyright and patent owner grants permission to others to use his intellectual property". When you consider that the bread and butter of a company usually revolves around its intellectual property, it's not suprising that open source licenses are often regarded with suspicion. How is it possible for a company's interests to be protected by a license written by another party? And how can a company provide "open" access to its intellectual property without "giving away the store"? Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer for Sun Microsystems, once stated in an interview: "While open source licensing lets people have access...this doesn't have to mean that chaos ensues." This issue of the OSBR provides insights to help navigate the chaos that is often associated with open source licenses. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa UR - http://timreview.ca/article/62 IS - October 2007 U1 - Talent First Network Dru Lavigne is a technical writer and IT consultant who has been active with open source communities since the mid-1990s. She writes regularly for O'Reilly and DNSStuff.com and is author of the books BSD Hacks and The Best of FreeBSD Basics. ER -