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Corporate COunsel Forum

SaaS, FLOSS, SOA and GPL - cheaper software and alphabet soup: securing the benefits and avoiding the pitfalls

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Open source software (OSS) is now plumb in the corporate mainstream. Deploying OSS is the CIO’s boon – still with a ‘coolness’ factor, it frees up expensive development resource – and the GC’s burden - it’s normally the legal department’s resources that are called upon to manage OSS risks. Delivery of increasingly powerful software functionality remotely through the internet is enabling a generational shift away from using software ‘as a licence’ towards software ‘as a service’ - reducing costs and supplier dependence into the downturn.

At this forum, Mark Henley and Richard Kemp explored open source risk management techniques – licences, appointing an open source compliance officer, adopting the right open source policies and processes and code auditing on software transactions; and identifies what to look out for in SaaS, cloud computing and SOA (service oriented architecture) deals to make sure you maximise your organisation’s opportunity.

Materials from the event

Slides:

Free/Libre Open Source Software (“FLOSS”) - by Mark Henley (pdf)
Service-Based Computing: What it is… & What it Means For the Legal Department - by Richard Kemp (pdf)

Related materials:

Cloud Computing: the Rise of Service-Based Computing (pdf)
PLC Precedent Draft SaaS Agreement and Drafting Note (pdfs)