As the market for open source products expands beyond enthusiasts, it’s increasingly being adopted by companies and organizations unfamiliar or even uncomfortable with the GPL and other free and open source (FOSS) licenses. Part of the challenge we all face in “selling open source” is helping prospective clients understand the advantages of contributing back and becoming part of a free and open source software ecosystem.

Another challenge is dealing with legacy intellectual property clauses in software development agreements that don't adequately reflect the realities of working with free and open source software.

In this session, I will discuss various approaches for discussing open source with your clients and negotiating GPL-friendly language into your agreements. While IANAL, I have sold projects and negotiated free and open source software contracts with clients of all sizes, including Fortune 100 corporations.