The General Public License version 3 continues its march towards final release. Schmidt describes how changes in GPL v3 patent retaliation provisions will allow greater harmony between the GPL and some other open source licenses. After dwelling on the GPLv3's anti-DRM provisions, Schmidt speaks about the Open Source Initiative (OSI)'s attempts to solve the proliferation of different open source licenses, including a report and a software wizard to help developers choose an open source license. Schmidt also talks about changes to Apache's own licensing.
Schmidt also comments on Google's new open source project hosting site at Google Code, which forces developers to choose between a limited subset of open source licenses, but Schmidt explains why the OSI itself will never retire any of its licenses.
Finally, Schmidt explains how a non-lawyer/open source champion such as himself wins a Legal Eagle award in the first place.
Cliff Schmidt contributes to the Apache Software Foundation as its Vice President for Legal Affairs and as a member of several Project Management Committees, including the Apache Incubator PMC. He also assists several other open source organizations and many independent software vendors with licensing topics and other open source issues through his firm, Symbioss Strategy, which primarily helps companies evaluate and execute profitable business strategies based on symbiotic relationships with open source software organizations. Prior to founding Symbioss Strategy, Schmidt was responsible for pioneering BEA's open source strategy and relationship with open source communities, such as the Apache Software Foundation and the Eclipse Foundation.
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