Portrait: FOSS Legal Leader Andrew Updegrove

“”Eventually the X Consortium was merged into what became The
Open Group, and I pretty much forgot about that license. It wasn’t
until a few years ago that I realized that the license Bob and I
had created had been picked up and used by lots of other people as
well, and came to be known as the MIT License.”

“Since his work with Scheifler, Updegrove has come to appreciate
the importance of open source and open standards, and especially
their use together. “Standards have been around for thousands of
years, in the form of weights, measures, and coinage,” he says.
“Agreeing on standards makes networks possible, from railways to
the Internet, and we reap enormous benefits as a result.” Even
standards like the size and shape of light and electrical sockets,
battery sizes, and all sorts of other commodities make it possible
to have price and quality competition in the marketplace, Updegrove
says.”

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