“For Columbia Law School Professor Eben Moglen, the last few
months have offered an ideal corollary to Georges Clemenceau’s
oft-repeated observation: those who know the past may be doomed to
repeat it, as well.”
“As a legal historian, Moglen’s stock in trade is knowing the
past and recognizing the historical eddies circulating below the
surface. As a free software advocate and general counsel to the
Cambridge, Mass.-based Free Software Foundation, however, Moglen
has been paddling just as hard as the next person to stay out of
the vortex….”
“If 1998 was the year free software, or open-source
development, entered the corporate boardroom, and 1999 was the year
it seeped into mainstream consumer and investor consciousness, 2000
is already shaping up to be the year free software finally enters
the most conservative institution of all: the U.S. legal
system.“