Nonprofit Organization to Hold Copyrights for Open Source
Code
BRISBANE, CALIF – February 4, 2002 – CollabNet, the leading
provider of collaborative software development solutions, today
announced the formation of a new non-profit organization to support
open source and free software – The Software Conservancy. The
Software Conservancy has also received a donation of open source
code from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, (DrKW) the investment
bank of Dresdner Bank AG, a member of the Allianz Group. DrKW has
donated to the Conservancy the copyrights and related intellectual
property (IP) rights for openadaptorTM, an enterprise-proven open
source software toolkit that allows the rapid and simple
integration of e-business systems.
This new nonprofit organization is built upon CollabNet’s
extensive experience in working with and establishing the most
vital open source projects on the Internet today. The Software
Conservancy holds the copyrights for the donated openadaptor code,
and works to ensure that the code is, and remains, available to the
general public under a single standard license. It will also accept
future donations of copyrights to code, contributed to the
openadaptor project, by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, as well as
by other organizations and individuals. The donated source code and
the open source development project for the worldwide openadaptor
community are hosted at www.openadaptor.org/.
The Software Conservancy will consider accepting and holding
similar donations of source code rights from other corporations and
individuals interested in making open source code (as defined by
the Open Source Initiative) and free software (as defined by the
Free Software Foundation) available to the public. The Software
Conservancy may also provide other services, related to
intellectual property and governance issues, relevant to public
software development projects creating open source and free
software.
“I’m pleased that Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has chosen to
make the openadaptor source code publicly available through The
Software Conservancy, and thank DrKW and CollabNet for their
support in creating this new organization,” said Frank Hecker,
president of The Software Conservancy and open source business
consultant for CollabNet. “I look forward to The Software
Conservancy receiving future donations of code from DrKW and
others, and hope that it can be of service to other projects
creating software for the benefit of everyone.”
“Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein believes that the openadaptor
software should be of benefit to anyone interested in the problems
that it addresses,” said Russ Goring, Deputy CIO, Dresdner
Kleinwort Wasserstein. “By donating the openadaptor copyrights to
The Software Conservancy we have sought to ensure that the
openadaptor source code will always be publicly available for
anyone to use freely, and that the openadaptor development project
will be a cooperative effort among everyone interested in enhancing
the capabilities of openadaptor.”
The Software Conservancy is a nonprofit organization
incorporated under the laws of the State of California. Its primary
role is to serve as an independent, neutral organization to hold
copyright to open source or free software source code and to
fulfill related functions with respect to public software
development projects creating such code. An individual or
corporation might donate open source code to the Conservancy if
they are not interested in acting as the copyright holder for that
code. Similarly, an open source project might look to the
Conservancy as a neutral third party that can provide a legal
framework for developers to participate in the project.
About CollabNet
CollabNet provides companies with solutions for collaborative
software development by combining a comprehensive Web-based
environment and suite of consulting services. CollabNet develops
collaborative networks that enable companies to share code within
an enterprise, to give select customers and business partners
access to code, or to open the code to the wider open source
community. These solutions are designed for facilitating software
development across globally disparate communities and enabling
corporations to reduce costs and increase revenues. CollabNet is
currently working with customers ranging from hardware and software
providers to companies from industries such as finance, wireless,
and pharmaceuticals. Brian Behlendorf, co-founder of the Apache
Software Foundation, established CollabNet in July 1999. For more
information, see http://www.collab.net.
About Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) is the marketing name for
the investment bank of Dresdner Bank AG, a member of the Allianz
Group. Headquartered in London, Frankfurt and New York, DrKW
provides a wide range of investment bank products and services to
European and international clients through its Global Investment
Banking, Global Equities and Global Debt business lines.