I recently answered a LinkedIn question about whether providing Software as a Service (SaaS) is considered a “distribution” under the open-source GNU General Public License. The question and answer are reproduced, in slightly edited form, below.
Q. Is hosting a software as a SaaS offering considered as ‘distribution’ under GPL / LGPL open source licenses?
A. I believe that SaaS hosting is not intended to be considered distribution.
Read more…
California’s budget crisis is affecting how quickly entrepreneurs can form their business entities: Standard turnaround time for hand-delivered Articles of Incorporation now is close to four weeks. (The situation for limited liability companies [LLCs] is better at two weeks, though still much longer than it was just half a year ago – see LLC Formation in Record Time.)
Update as of November 3, 2010: LLC formation time now has stretched out to approximately three weeks.
According to the filing service that I use in Sacramento, this is the worst turnaround time they have ever experienced and is attributable to the Secretary of State not filling empty staff positions because of the State’s budget problems.
Fortunately, if quick turnaround is important, 24-hour expedited filing is available for an additional fee of $350.
This blog does not provide legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, please contact an attorney directly.
This past December, a Missouri Court of Appeals held that a user was bound by a website’s terms and conditions, even though she was not obligated to click to signify assent to those terms (Major v. ServiceMagic, Inc.).
The court noted that where a user is obligated to click to signify agreement to terms, such “clickwrap” agreements are routinely enforced. Where clicking is not required, a site’s “browsewrap“ agreement usually will be upheld if the user has actual or constructive knowledge of the terms and conditions before using the site.
Read more…
Dana Shultz is a business-savvy lawyer located in Northern California's San Francisco Bay Area (in the East Bay, near Oakland) who has in-depth knowledge of law, business, technology, and the needs of startup and early-stage companies.