Intellectual Property and Open Source

Posted by tripwire45 on Aug 20, 2008 9:07 PM EDT
Tech-Unity.com; By James Pyles
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A book on (gulp) law? Why would I want to read this? Well, if you're a developer (open source or not) and you are at all interested in protecting the fruits of your labors, you will want to know this the same way you want to know about locking your house when you leave for work each morning. The next question is, "Will I understand anything the author is saying?". Depends. If you're an attorney, the answer is "yes". If you're a software engineer, the answer is..."yes". What? How can that be? Turns out the author is both a software engineer and a practicing attorney (at least, according to the blurb on the back cover of the book). Is it possible he can speak to both audiences? Let's find out.

Actually, having no background at all in law, I can't say that Lindberg is specifically speaking to attorneys in any portion of this book, but it seems that with chapters called "The Patent System", "Copyright", and "Trademarks", there'd be something for a lawyer in these pages. How about the software developer? What's in it for the coders in the audience? Plenty. In the Preface, the author says that, "Part of my job each day is to work as a translator---translating from 'lawyer' to 'engineer' and back". The goal of this book then, could be to act like a language book for people who know "lawyer-speak" and "developer-speak" so they can understand each other. To continue, "This book is meant to be a developer's documentation for the legal system". That seems to indicate that what Lindberg writes about is biased towards the programmer audience. If that's you and you have an interest in the concept of Intellectual Property (IP), read on.

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