Bonum Certa Men Certa

A Black Duck Loses Its Head

T

he last time we wrote about Microsoft insiders, we also mentioned Black Duck as a possibility. Some insiders don't perceive themselves as such, yet they naturally function in this way.

Here you have a Microsoft employee founding and heading a company that sells services around Free software FUD. The company has developed proprietary software only. It has nothing to do with Free software, yet its CEO moderates panels that discuss the subject. In a way, the CEO sought some authority over GPL matters, which is astounding. It's a case of "do as I say but not as I do".

Anyway, here's what just happened at a very interesting moment. We won't draw conclusions; rather, we simply present the case as-is.

Black Duck Software — a pioneer in the open source legal consulting business — has lost its CEO.

On Thursday, Douglas Levin, the company founder and a director at the Waltham, Mass.-based company, announced his resignation, effective Sept. 1.

The announcement came the same day that a federal appeals court issued a decision maintaining that open source licenses are valid under copyright law. Black Duck Software is a software and services company that advises developers and corporations about open source licensing requirements and compliance.

Are the two related?

No, Levin said in a broadcast email and blog posted yesterday.


Sheer hypocrisy of the company aside, recall this story. They also pretty much stole GPLv3 data from Palamida, which recently lost its GPLv3-tracking person. Black Duck is based in Waltham, Massachusetts where Novell's headquarters are located too. Black Duck commented extensively on the GPLv3. It still does so in press release that it issues. According to this, "He [Doug Levin] moderated an OSBC panel with Microsoft just as Novell was preparing to release details of its deal with the company." Remember that OSBC is funded and was at least partly founded by Microsoft to serve Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

There are some more details about this surprise departure in the blog of the 451 Group.

For his part, Levin sees proprietary software not being displaced by open source, but vendors being forced to evolve and, in the process, accept and embrace open source more themselves. As for open source companies, they are increasingly opting for dual-license and subscription strategies that rely on commercial licensing. Levin says open source is still very significant and now represents a checkbox item not only for companies interested in supporting or developing software, but deeply and broadly in enterprise IT beyond the LAMP stack to a host of open source components. Along those lines, Levin says he is not sure what his next move will be, but whatever it is, it will have something to do with open source.


Taking this paragraph apart, there's room for sensing a lot of what we find in Microsoft's 'open source' endeavours.

"...proprietary software not being displaced by open source, but vendors being forced to evolve..."

"...increasingly opting for dual-license..."

"...beyond the LAMP stack..."

This has shades of Stephen Walli, but maybe we are being overly picky. By allowing certain individuals to gain influence, their former colleagues (who tend to be clannish) can use them to steer developers in particular directions. It's part of a very broad affinity charade [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

An "EU OS" Would Need European Components
There are many European (or Europe-led) distros of GNU/Linux. EU OS developers ought to look at those.
 
Mauritania: Windows Falls to All-Time Low of 6% (It Used to be Over 99%)
Windows is 0% in mobile
New USPTO Memo Makes Fighting Patent Trolls Even Harder
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just made a move that will protect bad patents at the expense of everyone else
Outline of Open Source Initiative Coverage to Come (Now That Consensus is Changing)
Policing Wikipedia and attacking critics is not a sustainable strategy
Gemini Links 23/03/2025: "Connor of the Cats" and CSS Naked Day
Links for the day
Links 22/03/2025: Science and Antoine Beaupré on "Losing the War for the Free Internet"
Links for the day
We Probably Served Close to 100 Million Gemini Requests
Many of these requests probably came from bots, but it's hard to distinguish (to block them) ... This coming summer Gemini Protocol will turn 6
Just Because Microsoft Resents Techrights Doesn't Mean SLAPPs Will Silence Techrights
To confront lies the best solution is to speak truth
Windows at New Low Levels in Madagascar (Population About 33 Million)
Madagascar does not need Microsoft
Slop Images Are Bad Optics, Including for Perl.org
Slop devalues one's genuine work
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: Proprietary Software Companies in Control, the Scandals Cannot be Hidden Anymore
We'll talk about it later this month and next month
Slopwatch: Fake News About Security Using LLMs That Make Fake 'Articles' About "Linux" (With Slop for Images)
This cannot end well
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 22, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, March 22, 2025
Gemini Links 22/03/2025: "Ukay Ukay", Microplastics in Tea, Jujutsu, and More
Links for the day
Links 22/03/2025: Johor Flooded, Ador Traps Young Musicians With Contract
Links for the day
[Video] Richard Stallman on What Patents Would Have Done to Music (Covered by Copyrights)
Our WebM version can be played using Free software, independently of the availability of Invidious mirrors
Our IRC Community Turns 17 Very Shortly
A few years from now our IRC community will turn 20
Microsoft Destroys and Exploits, It Does Not Create
A race to nowhere
Linux Foundation Buys Misleading Puff Pieces About Itself, Earns Some LLM Slop to Accompany the PR (Openwashing and Propaganda as a Service, With the Brand "Linux" Needlessly Borrowed)
Isn't it funny that after the "LF" (misusing the brand "Linux") flooded the Web with press releases and fake articles (that it had paid for) it now gets some LLM slop doing the same?
It's About So Much More Than 2 Microsofters, It's About Freedom to Speak About Crimes at Microsoft
Suffice to say, if some people related to our professional field attack women and get arrested for it, then there's nothing immoral about relaying this information
Links 22/03/2025: Social Security Attacks and More Attacks on the Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/03/2025: INTERPOL, DDoS by "Hey Hi" Hype, and RSS/Feed Readers
Links for the day
Links 22/03/2025: Alzheimer Research and Mega-breaches in the US
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 21, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, March 21, 2025
Gemini Links 21/03/2025: Leasehold, LOTI, and Project Managers
Links for the day
Links 21/03/2025: Energy Facilities Under Fire (or on Fire), EU "Solidarity with Ukraine" and First Console
Links for the day
Links 21/03/2025: "IBM cuts Thousands" and Outlook Outage Again (Microsoft Looks for Excuses)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/03/2025: "Happy Spring" and Leaving "The Enterprise"
Links for the day
Many Articles About Layoffs Are Still Fake, Still LLM Slop, Even About IBM Layoffs
No wonder tech and tech journalism are getting so much worse
Speak More About the GNU Manifesto (40 Years Old This Month), It Helps Remind People That GNU/Linux Was Started by Richard Stallman and the Ultimate Goal is Freedom
We generally encourage people to speak about Software Freedom
Slappification: Using More SLAPP to Cover Up SLAPP and Chaining SLAPPs (From Microsoft) in a Failed Bid to Censor Techrights
How low can a person with a law degree stoop?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 20, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, March 20, 2025
Hidden from coroners and the public: tech industry cultural contagion
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock