Open Source: Licensing Pitfalls May Outweigh Benefits

Rich Quinnell, EETimes
4/18/2016 09:20 AM EDT

BOSTON—The use of open-source software in product development can produce substantial savings, an intellectual property attorney told attendees at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston last week, but beware of pitfalls. Using such software typically involves agreeing to a pre-defined license that not be ignored. Without careful consideration of the licenses involved, using OSS (open-source software) can yield legal conflict and cost developers their project's intellectual property.

In his presentation Legal and Practical Concerns with Software Development, attorney Richard A. Leach of Brooks Kushman P.C., told attendees that use of open-source software saves up to $60 billion a year in development costs. Further, he noted, there is a massive amount of such software available. Leach indicated that billions of open-source software files are located in more than 7500 repositories worldwide.

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