Carlo Piana
Encyclopedia
Carlo Piana is a lawyer by training and a Free Software
advocate. A qualified attorney in Italy, Piana has been practicing IT law since 1995,
focusing his practice on software, technology, standardization, data protection and digital liberties in general, and serves as external General Counsel to the Free Software Foundation Europe
("FSFE").
Piana has been involved in some of the cornerstone legal cases in Europe, such as the long-running antitrust
battle between the EU Commission and Microsoft
where he represents both the FSFE and the Samba Team
, the standardization of OOXML at ISO/IEC, and more recently defending Oracle
in its attempted acquisition of Sun Microsystems
.
Piana is a member of the Editorial Committee of the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review
("IFOSS L. rev.") and is president of the board of directors of the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation.
In 2008 he has established a free lance consulting practice on IT law, from where he leads a small group of IT lawyers named Array.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
advocate. A qualified attorney in Italy, Piana has been practicing IT law since 1995,
focusing his practice on software, technology, standardization, data protection and digital liberties in general, and serves as external General Counsel to the Free Software Foundation Europe
Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe was founded in 2001 as an official European sister organization of the U.S.-based Free Software Foundation to take care of all aspects of free software in Europe. FSF and FSFE are financially and legally separate entities.FSFE believes that access to and...
("FSFE").
Piana has been involved in some of the cornerstone legal cases in Europe, such as the long-running antitrust
Antitrust
The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...
battle between the EU Commission and Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
where he represents both the FSFE and the Samba Team
Samba (software)
Samba is a free software re-implementation, originally developed by Andrew Tridgell, of the SMB/CIFS networking protocol. As of version 3, Samba provides file and print services for various Microsoft Windows clients and can integrate with a Windows Server domain, either as a Primary Domain...
, the standardization of OOXML at ISO/IEC, and more recently defending Oracle
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
in its attempted acquisition of Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
.
Piana is a member of the Editorial Committee of the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review
International Free and Open Source Software Law Review
The International Free and Open Source Software Law Review is an English language law review focusing on Free and open source software.- Overview :...
("IFOSS L. rev.") and is president of the board of directors of the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation.
In 2008 he has established a free lance consulting practice on IT law, from where he leads a small group of IT lawyers named Array.
External links
- Array is an array Array official website.
- http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060401001402147 Interview by GroklawGroklawGroklaw is an award-winning website covering legal news of interest to the free and open source software community. Started as a law blog on May 16, 2003 by paralegal Pamela Jones at Radio UserLand, it has covered issues such as the SCO-Linux lawsuits, the EU anti-trust case against Microsoft, and...
- Law is Freedom Blog, both in Italian and in English
- Profile on Fossbazaar
- IFOSS L. rev. Editorial Committee
- http://robertogaloppini.net/2007/05/17/italian-open-source-advocate-carlo-piana/ Interview by Roberto Galoppini (Commercial Open Source Software)
- http://www.fsfe.org/projects/ftf/network.en.html Recommended lawyer by the FSFE's Freedom Task Force
- http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2008/030808-piana.html Interview by Linux World