Growing up, mothers train their children to resist mindlessly following their peers by asking the glib question: "if your friend jumped off a bridge, would you?" This simple question is packed with insight. Independent thought that questions others’ habits, beliefs and actions is a hallmark of maturity. However, today’s business culture sometimes fails this childhood test.
Take source code escrow. Without truly considering it, many organizations have a standing policy to require software developers to escrow source code of products the organization is licensing. If organizations would carefully analyze the risk / return investment, the business case for source code escrow arrangements would almost always come up negative. Dealmakers and lawyers spend countless hours negotiating escrow terms and conditions and pay escrow agents like Iron Mountain thousand of dollars to maintain the escrow account....
Article by: Shawn C. Helms
Due Diligence In Use Of Open Source Software — Benefits And Pitfalls
25 February 2008
Article by Jeremy Logsdon
Do you know what open source software is? Does your company run open source software on its servers? Do your proprietary software products incorporate open source code? Are you distributing open source code in accordance with open source licensing agreements? Do you know what the terms and obligations of those agreements are? These questions and more must be answered before prudent companies can feel secure in their technology infrastructures or software development, distribution, and licensing strategies.
In recent years, open source software has become a force in the software industry. Once considered to be fringe software with little use except in academia, open source software programs are now being implemented in a multitude of institutions ranging from startup companies to the Fortune 500 firms. Open source software manages the smallest file servers and the largest, most complex databases....
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