The Linux Foundation reported on its website an initiative to help companies make available source code of the programs they deliver, especially those who use equipment with free licenses such as GPL. The intent is to prevent the erosion of free licenses for lack of knowledge of legal and operational aspects of disclosing the code.

One aspect of the “Open Compliance Program” is software that facilitate the release of a code. There are, for example, a tool to check for comments in the codes that reveal sensitive information such as data from future versions or views on the competition. Towards the end of the year is provided for software to identify the software updates from one system to another and generate a report that can be used to guide customers. There are still applications already known to the community, as the OSS Discovery, which scans computers to identify open source programs.

Other aspects of the program involve manual and orientation courses, and even document templates that facilitate verification and administration of issues related to open source. The director of the Linux Foundation Jim Zemlin tells Ars Technica that the aim of the project is to reduce costs for the company that wants to use free software legally. He said the project has support from companies, institutions such as the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) and the developer community.

Via: Ars Technica.