Large enterprises often have a love hate relationship with open source. Some shun open source because they feel it jeopardizes their intellectual property (IP). Those that love open source know how to embrace it to drive further business.
Many enterprise companies would benefit far more from open source if they would take the time to get to know the BSD License (sometimes called the BSD Copyright). This license is much more permissive and allows any business anywhere to use the software free of charge in any way they see fit.There are other licenses that are equally as permissive and easy to understand, such as the MIT License.
You are probably using software with this license right now. Do you have any Apple computers? When Apple needed to use existing open source code for its OS X operating system while at the same time protecting its IP, it turned to BSD because of the enterprise friendly and permissive license. Apple is able to use any of the BSD Licensed open source code they want. So if you are reading this on a Mac, you are using BSD Licensed software.
The BSD License is also friendly to any non-lawyer type. That is right, you don't need to be a lawyer to understand the license. It is a very short and simple license and anyone who reads it will be able to understand it without help from, or paying the cost of, a lawyer.
If you are an enterprise and are looking to advance your software product using open source, but you are afraid of risking your IP, you need to look at the BSD license.
Almost every common piece of software has a BSD Licensed equivalent.
Operating system: The most popular operating system that uses the BSD License is FreeBSD, which has a desktop version called PC-BSD. There are also other BSD operating systems, such as OpenBSD, which has a focus on security, and NetBSD which has a focus on supporting a large number of platforms.
Database Software: If your business or enterprise is worried about the MySQL license, then take a look at Postgresql. Postgresql is a BSD Licensed database software that is every bit as feature rich.
Web Server: If you need a greate web server but you want to mae sure your intellectual property is not infringed upon, use a BSD Licensed web server such as Lighttpd or NGinx.
Content Management System (CMS): Do you need a content management system. Well, for an inhouse tool you can use any open source license your want. But if you want to sell a product that is bundled with a CMS then you can skip developing it altogether and embed a CMS that is BSD Licensed into your product. There is a wonderful PHP content management system called SilverStripe that is BSD Licensed and the great thing about SilverStripe is that it supports the Postgresql. There is also a C# CMS called Orchard that with this license.
If you are a CTO to a Software Developer (or any type of technology driver for your company) you should be more aware of the true freedom and permissiveness of the BSD and other such permissive licenses.
The author is a Senior Software Developer and open source expert. Follow the author at http://www.rhyous.com/, a blog that that covers a wide range of technology posts from FreeBSD to C# development.
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