Biography:Van Lindberg

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Van Lindberg
Van Lindberg in 2016.jpg
Lindberg in 2016
Born (1976-06-25) June 25, 1976 (age 48)
Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
EducationB.S. Computer Engineering/History (Dual Major)
Juris Doctor in Law
Alma materBrigham Young University
OccupationAttorney, author, and software developer
EmployerTaylor English
TitlePartner

Van Lindberg (born June 25, 1976) is an American attorney, software developer, and author. He works as a partner at Taylor English, a national law firm, and as the CEO of OSPOCO, an open source program office-as-a-service business.[1][2] Since 2012, Lindberg has been a director on the Board of the Python Software Foundation,[3] where he also currently serves as its general counsel. Prior to working at Taylor English, Lindberg was Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Rackspace,[4][5] an attorney at the law firms of Dykema and Haynes and Boone, and as an engineer for the web hosting company Verio. Lindberg has been recognized by the American Bar Association Journal as "One of the Nation's 12 Techiest Attorneys."[6][7]

Career

Lindberg is primarily known for his work on copyright and open source law. He is the author of the Cryptographic Autonomy License,[8] a network open source license approved by the Open Source Initiative in February 2020. He is also an editor of the Open Source Casebook,[9] and author of Intellectual Property and Open Source,[10] a developer-focused guide to intellectual property issues that has been used as a textbook for teaching the concepts of intellectual property and open source licensing.[11] In 2013, Lindberg testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the importance of open source models in copyright.[12]

Controversy

The Cryptographic Autonomy License, or CAL, is a network copyleft license, requiring redistributors to make source code available. The CAL also contains a requirement to “maintain user autonomy” with respect to user data processed using the software.[13] According to the license, anyone providing services using CAL-licensed software must also provide each recipient both a copy of the source code and the "User Data" pertaining to that recipient. The rationale, as argued by Lindberg, was that providing someone a copy of the source code alone, without also providing the user's data, was effectively prohibiting the user from self-hosting or migrating the software to a new location without loss of functionality.

The "User Data" provision of the CAL was controversial. Several long-time associates of the Open Source Initiative, most notably Bruce Perens, argued that requiring organizations to provide users their "user data" was a violation of tenet #6 of the Open Source Definition, prohibiting licenses from discriminating against fields of endeavor. After months of argument on the license-review list, Perens quit his association with OSI, saying that it was headed down the path of approviding licenses that were not "freedom-respecting."[14][15] The OSI approved the CAL in February 2020, making it the second network copyleft license certified as "open source" by the board.

Patent Reform

Lindberg is also notable for his opposition to patent trolls.[16] Under Lindberg, Rackspace became known for its extremely aggressive stance against patent trolls[17] and its efforts to promote patent litigation reform, focusing on the Innovation Act in the U.S. House of Representatives and the PATENT Act, its companion in the U.S. Senate.[18] Lindberg has appeared with Senator John Cornyn[19] and in videos for the Internet Association[20] in support of the legislation.

Rackspace Hosting, Inc. v. Rotatable Technologies LLC

In 2013-2014, Lindberg headed Rackspace's efforts against Rotatable Technologies, LLC, a non-practicing entity that was accusing companies of infringing patent U.S. 6,326,978[21] for using screen-rotation capabilities in apps running on the iOS and Android mobile operating systems.[22] Rackspace rejected an immediate offer to settle the patent infringement case for $75,000 and instead instituted an inter partes review, leading to the patent being declared invalid.[23] At the time of the decision, Rotatable had pending suits against 31 other companies.[24]

Participation in Open Source Foundations

Lindberg has been in the leadership of various open source foundations. He has been an officer of the Python Software Foundation since 2007, serving as PyCon chair, general counsel, as well as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board. From 2013-2017, he was on the board of directors for the OpenStack Foundation[25] and in 2014, Lindberg was the first chair of the Docker Governance Advisory Board.[26]

References

  1. ↑ "Van Lindberg - Intellectual Property Attorney - San Antonio, Texas: Taylor ENglish" (in en). https://www.taylorenglish.com/people-van-lindberg-intellectual-property-copyright-open-source-and-government-policy-and-practice-attorney.html. 
  2. ↑ "Open Source Vet Joins Taylor English IP Team In San Antonio" (in en). https://www.law360.com/articles/1277484/open-source-vet-joins-taylor-english-ip-team-in-san-antonio. 
  3. ↑ "History of PSF Officers & Directors". Python Software Foundation. 2015-06-10. https://www.python.org/psf/records/board/history/. 
  4. ↑ "Rackspace Names Open Source Expert Van Lindberg VP of Intellectual Property". thewhir.com. 2013-02-19. http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/rackspace-names-open-source-expert-van-lindberg-vp-of-intellectual-property. 
  5. ↑ "Rackspace Python IP master fights patent trolls". Computer Weekly. 2013-02-20. http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/open-source-insider/2013/02/rackspace-python-ip-master-fights-patent-trolls.html. 
  6. ↑ "Techiest Lawyers: Code Master". ABA Journal. 2012-04-16. http://www.abajournal.com/gallery/techlawyer/543. 
  7. ↑ "ABA Journal Names Van Lindberg of Haynes and Boone One of the Nations 12 Techiest Attorneys". Preffs. 2012-04-16. http://preffs.com/aba-journal-names-van-lindberg-of-haynes-and-boone-one-of-the-nations-12-techiest-attorneys/. 
  8. ↑ "Cryptographic Autonomy License version 1.0 (CAL-1.0)". OSI. https://opensource.org/licenses/CAL-1.0. 
  9. ↑ "Open Source Casebook". https://google.github.io/opencasebook/. 
  10. ↑ Lindberg, Van (2008-07-25). Intellectual Property and Open Source: A Practical Guide to Protecting Code. O'Reilly and Associates. ISBN 978-0596517960. 
  11. ↑ "The open source book you'll actually want to read". cnet. 2008-07-15. http://www.cnet.com/news/the-open-source-book-youll-actually-want-to-read/. 
  12. ↑ "Rackspace helps school Congress on copyright and open source". GigaOM. 2013-08-02. https://gigaom.com/2013/08/02/rackspace-helps-school-congress-on-copyright-and-open-source/. 
  13. ↑ "Cryptographic Autonomy License Approved by OSI". Copyleft Currents. 2020-02-15. https://heathermeeker.com/2020/02/15/cryptographic-autonomy-license-approved-by-osi/. 
  14. ↑ "For approval: The Cryptographic Autonomy License (Beta 4)". License-Review list. 2020-01-03. https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2020-January/004598.html. 
  15. ↑ "Bruce Perens quits Open Source Initiative amid row over new data-sharing crypto license: 'We've gone the wrong way with licensing'". The Register. 2020-01-03. https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/03/osi_cofounder_resigns/. 
  16. ↑ "Rackspace's patent warrior: why OpenStack is safe". DataCenter Dynamics. 2014-11-19. http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/app-cloud/rackspaces-patent-warrior-why-openstack-is-safe/91861.fullarticle. 
  17. ↑ "Rackspace knocks out patent troll that claimed monopoly on rotating smartphone displays". GigaOM. 2014-09-22. https://gigaom.com/2014/09/22/rackspace-knocks-out-patent-troll-that-claimed-monopoly-on-rotating-smartphone-displays/. 
  18. ↑ "Here we go again: 5 key questions for patent reform in 2015". GigaOM. 2015-01-19. https://gigaom.com/2015/01/19/here-we-go-again-5-key-questions-for-patent-reform-in-2015/. 
  19. ↑ "Sen. Cornyn: We need to limit the business of 'frivolous' patent litigation". VentureBeat. 2014-10-14. https://venturebeat.com/2014/10/08/sen-cornyn-we-need-to-limit-the-business-of-frivolous-patent-litigation/. 
  20. ↑ "Video: It's Time to Stop Patent Trolls". Internet Association. 2015-08-26. http://internetassociation.org/082615patents/. 
  21. ↑ "U.S. Pat. No. 6,326,978, Display method for selectively rotating windows on a computer display". United States Patent and Trademark Office. 2001-12-04. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,326,978.PN.&OS=PN/6,326,978&RS=PN/6,326,978. 
  22. ↑ "Another Patent Troll Slain. You Are Now Free To Rotate Your Smartphone.". Rackspace. 2014-09-22. http://www.rackspace.com/blog/another-patent-troll-slain-you-are-now-free-to-rotate-your-smartphone/. 
  23. ↑ "Rackspace Hosting, Inc. v. Rotatable Technologies LLC: Final Written Decision and Denied Motion to Amend IPR2013-00248". National Law Review. 2014-09-29. http://www.natlawreview.com/article/rackspace-hosting-inc-v-rotatable-technologies-llc-final-written-decision-and-denied. 
  24. ↑ "RPX: Search results for ""Rotatable Technologies LLC""". RPX Corp. 2015-09-02. https://search.rpxcorp.com/advanced_search/search_all#grouped=true&searchq=%22Rotatable+Technologies+LLC%22&utf8=%E2%9C%93. 
  25. ↑ "Board of Directors". OpenStack Foundation. 2013-11-10. https://www.openstack.org/foundation/board-of-directors/. 
  26. ↑ "Docker Governance Advisory Board". Docker Inc.. 2014-11-04. https://blog.docker.com/2014/11/docker-governance-advisory-board-output-of-first-meeting/. 

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