[109173] in Cypherpunks
CDR: Linux alters IP landscape [Law News Network]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Choate)
Fri Mar 12 18:18:46 1999
From: Jim Choate <ravage@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>
To: cypherpunks@EINSTEIN.ssz.com
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 17:07:37 -0600 (CST)
Reply-To: Jim Choate <ravage@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>
X-URL: http://www.lawnewsnetwork.com/stories/mar/e030899q.html
[INLINE] Linux May Alter IP Legal Landscape
Some predict more contract work if alternative to Windows catches on.
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By Victoria Slind-Flor
The National Law Journal
Monday, March 8, 1999
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Linus Torvalds is not yet a household name at most law firms. But when
Mr. Torvalds was a 21-year-old undergraduate at the University of
Helsinki, in Finland, he invented something that may eventually lower
the demand for intellectual property lawyers while increasing the
demand for dealmakers and contract attorneys.
Mr. Torvalds' invention is Linux, an open-source computer operating
system that is now 9 years old. What is different about Linux--unlike
Microsoft's dominant Windows system--is that it is available free of
charge. So is Linux's source code, which gives any programmer the key
to changing the underlying program. Users can modify the Linux system
and send their changes back to Linux, which can implement it and make
it available to everyone.
"Linux developers have created a model that will tend to reduce legal
involvement on the intellectual property level," says Stephen M.
Goodman, a partner at New York's Pryor, Cashman, Sherman & Flynn
L.L.P.
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