CSEP590TU talk:Microsoft

I posted in the public discussion, but for the MSFT open source team here are my comments if you missed them:

I am interested in open source issues. In addition to the price/quality pros/cons of Open Source versus standard commercial development - I would like to understand better what real legal risks there are for contributing to open source projects if you work for a commercial software company - or what restrictions there are for using/looking at open source if you work on commercial software. Can you jeopradize the open source or your commercial company if you work on both? Right now at MSFT I don't know for sure but I believe our policy for employees is don't look at open source so you don't get contaminated, don't contribute to open source. I'd like to understand legally what the copyright risks are if a person looks at open source and then works on a commercial software project, and what risks open source has if people who work at software companies contribute to the open source. I think this is an interesting part of the open source issue - as right now open source has a legal cloud over it for IP infrignement - and commercial software developers have a cloud over them (me included) in knowing what we can look at in the open source world. I'd like to explore the MSFT policy for employees on open source (reading and writing), and see if it is rational given the legal facts surrounding the open source licenses. I think this could be a section of a brief on open source.