Getting Some Respect: OSS Out Of The Shadows

In the not-so-distant licensing past, most technology vendors stringently denied using any open-source software in their proprietary software programs. Almost every standard software licence agreement was completely silent on this point.

To the extent it came up at all, the use of OSS might make it into an asset purchase or financing deal and at the 11th hour, the target vendor's executive would steadfastly sign a very stringent representation/warranty drafted by opposing counsel stating the target company did not use any open-source software in their own proprietary technology at all without any further follow-up discussion with target company's engineers or developers to verify the accuracy of this statement.