Open Source Software: Compliance and Risk Mitigation

Shilpi Sneha, , , India

The proprietorship of software was not a familiar concept in the 50’s and 60’s. The hardware and software were seen as an inseparable “system” and the cost for the operating system or any associated software used to be included in the price of the hardware. The human readable form of software i.e. source code were distributed along with the hardware to ensure that the user can make their own changes or modification for smooth running of the hardware. Users generally distributed the software, bug-fixes and any modification with each other freely as there were no strict licensing terms and even if there were few organisations who included license terms, enforcement of such terms was not usual.

Shilpi Sneha is an in-house counsel with an experience of more than 6 years. She has graduated from New Law College, BVP, Pune, India in the year 2010 and joined an India based software MNC right after. She has a thorough experience of working on different commercial contracts. While working with her first employer, Shilpi got the chance to be part of OSS compliance team and has been interested in the subject since then. In her current role, Shilpi looks into alliance agreements globally.

Shilpi is currently working for a US based MNC that provides IT and consulting services.