A blog about open source licensing
Project Lightwell aims to become the security backbone of enterprise infrastructure Open source software runs the world. It powers cloud platforms, AI frameworks, data pipelines, and enterprise applications that Fortune 500 companies depend on every day. For years, its security has been cobbled together largely by volunteer maintainers, community goodwill, and corporate donors via not-for-profit…
Over the last two decades of advising commercial open source (COSS) companies, I ve seen the ecosystem mature from a handful of pioneers into a foundational pillar of the modern software industry. When I wrote From Project to Profit, my goal was to provide founders with a handbook for navigating that journey. But as the COSS Continue reading "Announcing COSSmology – the definitive source for COSS…
In April 2026, Aldi Inc., the no-frills German discount grocer beloved by bargain hunters across America, filed a preemptive declaratory judgment lawsuit against Intellectual Ventures (IV). (That link may be paywalled, so here is the docket information: Case 1:26-cv-00461-UNA, filed 4/21/26 in the District Court for Delaware.) This is not the first man bites shark Continue reading "Patent Trolls…
In early March 2026, a dispute broke out over a Python library that most developers use every day. Chardet, a character encoding detection tool that powers a large portion of the Python ecosystem, became the unlikely center of a licensing debate. At its core, the controversy asks: can an AI rewrite of copyleft-licensed software be Continue reading "The Chardet Controversy: Open Source and the AI…
A governance crisis at LibreOffice and a licensing war over OnlyOffice have resulted in the biggest threat to open source office software since Oracle nearly killed the whole Open Office project back in the early 2010s. The open source office software world rarely makes headlines. Spreadsheets and word processors are the workhorses of desk work–useful Continue reading "The Schisms of…
I can t tell you how many times I have heard people predict the death of open source software over the years. Each time some new tech trend arrives–crypto, source available licensing, SaaS–people predict the death of open source. Lately, people have been predicting the death of open source because of AI code generation, and while Continue reading " Malus : Is Copyleft Dead?"
Every new year is an opportunity to reassess our priorities. This January, I took a hard look at my monthly software subscriptions. They say that the defining characteristic of Baby Boomers is a dozen paid-for but unused app subscriptions. I always like to play against type, and so I’m pretty good at cancelling them, but Continue reading "The Great Subscription Pivot of January 2026"
An article (sorry for the paywall) appeared recently in the Wall Street Journal under the title Matthew McConaughey Trademarks Himself to Fight AI Misuse–Actor plans to use trademarks of himself saying ‘Alright, alright, alright’ and staring at a camera to combat AI fakes in court. The WSJ article said, McConaughey’s lawyers believe that the threat Continue reading "Actors Trademarking Themselves"
This week, a new lawsuit cropped up relating to corporate open source releases. X Corp. v. Yao Yue and IOP Systems, ND Cal, filed 12/4/2025 X, the-micro-blogging-service-formerly-known-as-Twitter, sued Yao Yue, a former engineer at X, alleging theft of proprietary source code. The facts sprung from the fraught events surrounding Elon Musk’s purchase of the company Continue reading "X Sues Over…
Note: This is an article from 2020 whose original link has broken. I ve posted it here for continuity. When business is on an upward trajectory, investing is not so hard. After all, the stock market always goes up over the long term. But it takes more work to identify good investments during down markets. Fortunately, Continue reading "Investing in the Red Zone: Commercial Open Source and the Bear…