In this talk, I will provide insights into how developers and community members in the open-source community navigate legal and licensing policies. Over the past decade, I have reviewed over 1000 open-source releases for compliance with various licensing and distribution policies. I will discuss common misconceptions that open-source community members have about licensing, highlight frequent issues encountered during releases, and share how our policies and processes have evolved over time to help catch these issues. I will also outline areas that need improvement to align with emerging legislation and industry standards. This talk aims to equip developers and organisations with practical knowledge to navigate the legal landscape of open-source software more effectively, ensuring smoother project releases and fostering a more collaborative and legally compliant community.

Speakers:

Justin Mclean is a highly experienced professional with over 30 years in web application development, education, and community work, and is an active contributor to open source software. Justin is a renowned speaker at conferences worldwide and currently serves as the Community Manager at Datastrato. He mentors projects in the Apache Software Foundation and holds positions as VP of the ASF Incubator, and is an ASF board member.