Open Source License Compliance Heats Up

For many enterprises using open source, one important hurdle is keeping track of the licenses governing each bit of code. And that’s no small danger: Failing to do and running afoul of the rules so land you in hot legal water. On the plus side, the need for monitoring and compliance tools has spawned a number of rivals eager to help. Developer.com takes a look.

With the current economic recession, open source software is a route that some enterprise developers are increasingly considering as a lower-cost alternative to proprietary solutions. However, one of the potential issues with open source software adoption is license compliance — ensuring that developers and enterprises are not in violation with a particular license.

There are a few companies in the market today with solutions to help serve the need for open source license identification, including Black Duck, Palamida and now OpenLogic. The business itself is also evolving from just being about detecting licenses to becoming part of an entire open source software adoption lifecycle process.

“Open source has made its way into enterprises of all sorts, and because open source software is so pervasive now, it’s critical for companies to look at how they comply with open source licenses,” Kim Weins, senior vice president of products and marketing at OpenLogic, told InternetNews.com.”Before they can comply with open source licenses, they need to know which open source licenses they are using. As much as you might think that’s easy to track, it’s not.”

Read the full story at Developer.com