Open Source License and IP Management

One of my favorite slides regarding open source license and IP management comes from my colleague Mike Dolan of the Linux Foundation:

Figure 3.1 – Comparing good and poor IP management using illustrations in garage organization

I like this slide not only because of the stark contrast but also the focus it places on the importance of the details. The floor colors carry over to the stripe on the wall. The gas pump hose has space to bend around in a nearly perfect circle. The toolboxes all match. Even someone who might not notice that level of detail would certainly recognize the garage on the right as more appealing than the chaos on the left.

A good software developer will obsess about similar details in their code, such as indentations, spacing inside of statements, positioning of brackets, comments, and variable naming. Here, it’s not a case of obsession, but it’s because they view putting...