Black Duck Software Announces Support for Open Source Industry Initiatives

Participation in FOSSBazaar SPDX™ Working Group, Support for Linux Foundation Open Compliance Program Signal Support for OSS Community

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Black Duck Software

Aug 10, 2010, 09:30 ET

WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Black Duck Software (www.blackducksoftware.com), the leading global provider of products and services for accelerating software development through the managed use of open source software, today announced its support for two compliance initiatives being spearheaded by the Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux.

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Through participation in the Linux Foundation's FOSSBazaar SPDX working group, Black Duck is contributing resources to develop a specification for exchanging software license information. Phil Odence, Vice President of Business Development for Black Duck, co-chairs the SPDX committee. "The SPDX group's objective is to create a set of data exchange standards that will enable companies and organizations to share license and component information for software packages," says Odence. "This industry-wide initiative has support from more than 20 companies and organizations which are committing time and effort to create an open source specification that will simplify license and policy compliance." Black Duck is committed to supporting the SPDX standard and technical specification to ensure its products accept and produce SPDX format information.

Black Duck also announced its support for the Linux Foundation's Open Compliance Program, a six-pronged initiative which includes the SPDX effort as well as tools, training, consulting and a self-assessment checklist to help companies comply with open source licenses. In addition to supporting SPDX, the company provided content for the Program's training curriculum. More information about the Open Compliance Program can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.

"Our work with the Linux Foundation and participation in the SPDX working group demonstrates our commitment to the open source community," said Odence. "Complying with the requirements of the more than 1,900 open source licenses Black Duck has identified can be challenging, but these initiatives make license compliance a simpler effort for all."

In a related effort, Black Duck in July announced a certification program for legal professionals advising clients on open source licensing in the context of software M&A engagements. The Legal Certification program, open to IP and M&A attorneys with open source experience, introduces participants to Black Duck code assessment services and tools and provides guidelines for developing code assessment reports.

For more information on the SPDX working group, visit https://fossbazaar.org/wiki/spdx. For more information on the Black Duck Legal Certification Program visit http://blackducksoftware.com/certification/directory.

About Black Duck Software

Black Duck Software is the leading provider of products and services for automating the management, governance and secure use of open source software, at enterprise scale, in a multi-source development process. Black Duck™ enables companies to shorten time-to-market and reduce development costs while mitigating the management, security and compliance challenges associated with open source software. Black Duck Software powers Koders.com, the industry's leading code search engine for open source, and is among the 500 largest software companies in the world, according to Softwaremag.com. The company is headquartered near Boston and has offices in San Mateo, California, London, Paris, Frankfurt, and Tokyo. For more information, visit www.blackducksoftware.com.

Black Duck, Know Your Code and the Black Duck logo are registered trademarks of Black Duck Software, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. Koders is a trademark of Black Duck Software, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

About FOSSBazaar

FOSSBazaar, an open community of technology and industry leaders collaborating to accelerate adoption of free and open source software in the enterprise, is a workgroup of the Linux Foundation.

SOURCE Black Duck Software