The Linux Foundation's forces are growing stronger, as yesterday it was announced that a new member was joining in, for the enhancement of the popularity of Linux. Black Duck Software is now a Foundation ally, and will further aid in the common quest of maintaining a perpetual growth of Linux.

The involvement of Black Duck will be mainly to collaborate with the Foundation's legal experts regarding programs that support software development, including Linux and open source. The legal obligations on copyrights are now becoming more important, as policies aimed at managing the proper code use are created by companies that include open source in their products.

Bill McQuaide, executive vice president of products and services at Black Duck Software declared, "Corporate counsels, outside law firms and internal software development teams have relied on Black Duck’s solutions for many years; indeed many very large enterprises have deployed Black Duck’s solutions to save developer time and reduce cost by providing a framework for hybrid development. For this reason, we look forward to lending our expertise to The Linux Foundation, which provides a forum for bringing users, vendors and developers together to discuss the evolving legal landscape in the open source software market."

"Understanding the legal nuances of software has been an important topic for proprietary and open source software users and vendors for decades," said Amanda McPherson, vice president, marketing and developer programs at The Linux Foundation. "But until now, companies didn’t have a neutral forum in which to discuss these seemingly sensitive matters. We’re happy to welcome Black Duck to participate in these valuable discussions."

About The Linux Foundation

Founded in 2007, The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit organization involved in sustaining the growth of Linux, and is supported by various companies around the world. The work of the Linux Foundation revolves around the promotion, protection and standardization of Linux by delivering unified resources and services required for the enhancement of open source software usage.

About Black Duck Software

Since its creation, in 2002, Black Duck has become one of the biggest providers of services and products aimed at accelerating software development by using third-party code and open source. Black Duck focuses on aiding companies in shortening their time-to-market, as well as in reducing maintenance and development costs. This is done with great attention to various issues related to open source, such as security vulnerabilities, version proliferation and hidden license obligations.