Spacebug open source initiative

IP v IP. (Intellectual Property versus Innovation Protection) Part 1: Courts and Coders - Pete Morgan attempts to raise Java programmers awareness of legal issues facing open source projects. Particularly the "small guy"

"...It's a reasonable guess that many programmers find legal stuff boring as hell and as far as possible ignore it. Unfortunately in this world of patents and copyrights it could be only too easy for an ordinary open source coder to fall foul of alleged intellectual property infringement. Ignoring the legalities is not an option, in the eye of the law "Ignorance is no defense". Also complacency is anti-innovative and therefore unacceptable.

If you program in a purely commercial environment you may feel legal issues don't affect you, but if you use any open source software at all then you should at least consider how legalities could affect that software and its future availability..." [java.net bloggers]