Mark Radcliffe's “Top Ten” List of FOSS Legal Developments in 2007

According to Mark Radcliffe, senior partner at DLA Piper and 25-year veteran of practicing law in Silicon Valley, the year 2007 was “the most active year for legal developments in the history of free and open source (‘FOSS’).” It was also a year of many “firsts”, including many important legal and industry developments.

Mark’s “top ten” list of FOSS legal developments in 2007 is as follows:

1. Publication of GPLv3

2. SCO’s Attack on Linux Collapses

3. First Legal Opinion on Enforcing a FOSS License

4. First US Lawsuit to Enforce GPLv2

5. First Patent Infringement Lawsuit by Patent Trolls against FOSS Vendors

6. First Patent Lawsuit by a Commercial Competitor against a FOSS Vendor

7. Microsoft Obtains Approval of Two Licenses by OSI

8. German Court Finds that Skype Violates GPLv2

9. New License Options

10. Creation of Linux Foundation

I would strongly recommend reading the details in Mark’s list at the link above.