A new legal journal covering analysis and commentary of free and open source software (FOSS) issues has launched today.

The second issue of the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review has just been published online. It contains new articles from FOSS legal experts like Karen F. Copenhaver (Linux Foundation), Tiki Dare (Sun) and Harvey Anderson (Mozilla). The press release contains endorsements by William Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel, Google and Eben Moglen, Software Freedom Law Centre.

The Editorial Committee is delighted to announce issue three of the 'International Free and Open Source Software Law Review' (IFOSS L. Rev.) is now available.

The International Free and Open Source Software Law Review (IFOSS L. Rev.) is a collaborative legal publication aiming to increase knowledge and understanding among lawyers about Free and Open Source Software issues. Topics covered include copyright, licence implementation, licence interpretation, software patents, open standards, case law and statutory changes.

A peer-to-peer (P2P) computer network utilizes varied connectivity linking participants in a set of connections and the collective bandwidth of network members rather than the usual centralized resources where a fairly low number of servers provide the core value to a service or application.

"...When we launched Squish Software, we had goals of “open software.” We realized that openly supporting free and open source software, while not contributing back with our own software, was sort of hypocritical. So today we’re very excited to announce that we’re beginning to phase out ‘open software,’ and phase in true free software.

"As the founder of the free software movement and author of the GNU General Public License, I am writing to correct a misleading characterisation of free software presented in William Venema's article about open source. National Law Journal, Oct. 20. I do not wish to defend open source, which I have never supported.

“Open Source” advocate: «...I associate much more with the "Open Source" (also as Richard defines it) camp, and am open to the existence and use of proprietary software...» --

In our earlier article, "Facts and Friction on Open Source and Free Software" we have explained where "Open Source" is coming from and what is its relation to Free Software and the Free Software Foundation that represents it.