Episode 62: Richard Fontana on the Legal Side of Open Source

Panelists Alyssa Wright | Richard Littauer Guest Richard Fontana
Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! Our special guest is
Richard Fontana, who is a lawyer for Red Hat, where he focuses on
legal matters relating to open source software, though his work has
also involved a broader range of intellectual property and
transactional issues arising out of all phases of the software
development lifecycle. He has specialized in open source law for
over 15 years, with over 10 of those years having been at Red Hat,
and previously worked at Hewlett-Packard and the Software Freedom
Law Center as well as several law firms. For several years he was a
board director for the Open Source initiative and chaired its
license review committee. We will discuss a blog post Richard
recently wrote, Kyle Mitchell’s License Zero, API licenses, and if
someone wants to become fluent in open source licenses where can
they get information. Also, today, we have Alyssa Wright joining us
as a new panelist! [00:01:34] Richard tells us how he became a
lawyer at Red Hat and what he does. [00:05:53] Richard mentioned
it’s quite uncommon that there are open source specific or lawyers
with expertise in open source and he tells us why that is the case.
Also, Alyssa asks him if he would advocate for more lawyers in the
open source ecosystem, and what can we do as open source
practitioners to make legal experts part of the conversation.
[00:11:16] Richard recently wrote in a blog post
(https://opensource.com/article/20/9/open-source-definition) about
looking to get the open source definitions improved or revamped.
[00:15:56] Richard tells his thoughts on Kyle Mitchell’s License
Zero. [00:19:42] We learn more about API licenses from Richard.
[00:23:40] Alyssa returns back to the article Richard wrote and she
wants to know what inspired him to write it, to suggest a revision
of the definition now and why is it relevant for what’s happening
now in open source. [00:29:04] Alyssa asks how someone can become
fluent in open source licenses and Richard Littauer mentions
choosealicense.com (https://choosealicense.com). [00:31:49] Alyssa
asks Richard if there’s anything reminiscent of open source
software development that exists in the legal field. [00:35:05]
Richard tells us where we can find him and about his stuff on the
internet. Also, what he is most excited about going on in the
licensing world and the open source legal world. Spotlight
[00:38:52] Alyssa’s spotlights are working on the Digital
Infrastructure Grant and Quadratic Funding Expirations with
Gitcoin. [00:40:17] Richard Littauer’s spotlight is Kevin
Mitchell’s website. [00:40:42] Richard Fontana’s spotlight is
Youtube-dl. Links Richard Fontana -Twitter
(https://twitter.com/richardfontana?lang=en) rfontana@redhat.com
(mailto:rfontana@redhat.com) Red Hat (https://www.redhat.com/en)
“The GPL cooperation commitment and Red Hat projects”- Red Hat Blog
by Richard Fontana
(https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/gpl-cooperation-commitment-and-red-hat-projects?source=bloglisting&search=richard+fontana)
The License Zero Manifesto- Kyle Mitchell
(https://writing.kemitchell.com/2017/09/12/The-License-Zero-Manifesto.html)
“Is it time to revise the Open Source Definition?”-by Richard
Fontana
(https://opensource.com/article/20/9/open-source-definition)
“Should API-restricting licenses qualify as open source?”-by
Richard Fontana (https://opensource.com/article/20/6/api-copyright)
“Why CLAs aren’t good for open source”-by Richard Fontana
(https://opensource.com/article/19/2/cla-problems) Choose an open
source license (https://choosealicense.com/) Digital Infrastructure
Grant
(https://www.fordfoundation.org/campaigns/critical-digital-infrastructure-research/)
Gitcoin Quadratic Funding
(https://github.com/gitcoinco/quadratic-funding) Kevin Mitchell’s
website (Projects) (https://projects.kemitchell.com/) Youtube-dl
(https://yt-dl.org/about.html) Credits Produced by Richard Littauer
(https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree
Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guest:
Richard Fontana.