Trend #1 that took root in 2018 and will continue in 2019 is the clean-up of the open source supply chain. According to some lawyers, there is little legally valid software left, mostly because of unclear copyright and licenses of open source code in products and components. To clean up this mess, all open source code that makes it into products needs to be labeled and tracked correctly along the supply chain, so that the final product has a chance of being license-compliant. The OpenChain and related projects of the Linux Foundation are trying to do this. This mess is less plastic (pardon the pun) than the garbage pile in the pacific and on our beaches, but probably equally big.
Prior writings of mine on the topic of open source license compliance:
- Open Source License Compliance in Software Supply Chains
- Reasons for Why Companies are Getting Serious About Open Source Licenses
- Open Source License Compliance in Free Mobile Apps
Also see my #2 open source trend for 2019.
Leave a Reply