SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Coverity announced today that open source strategist David Maxwell will debate the merits of popular and often competing open source licenses with leading open source advocates Mike Milinkovich of the Eclipse Foundation and Matt Asay of Alfresco. The event, sponsored by the Free and Open Source Software Learning Centre (FOSSLC), aims to provide those using or considering using open source licenses a deeper understanding of key differences in business, community and academic uses of open source. The live event will also be broadcast for free via webcast.

Maxwell, who is also the director of the open source Coverity Scan Initiative, serves as a member of the Board of Directors for The NetBSD Foundation and will join the debate to discuss the value of the BSD license. Fellow debater Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, will lead the discussion about the Eclipse Public License (EPL) while Asay, vice president of business development at Alfresco, will debate the advantages of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

"Improving open source code is a pillar of Coverity's software integrity strategy, which is focused on helping all companies and organizations deliver high integrity software," commented Maxwell. "The fast adoption of open source has made quality, integrity and licensing important business priorities for many developers, organizations and companies. In this debate, we are highlighting the different choices companies face for licensing and using open source in their business software, services, and products."

Coverity began working with open source projects and promoting open source education in 2006 when it launched the Scan Initiative to strengthen commonly used open source code bases. Coverity advocates helping businesses understand the process of incorporating open source code into critical activities like software governance and license compliance.

To register for the free broadcast of the debate or to find out more information about the August 31st event, visit www.fosslc.org.

To register for the 2009 Scan open source report, visit http://bit.ly/f5jOZ.

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About Coverity

Coverity (www.coverity.com), the software integrity company, is the trusted standard for companies that have a zero tolerance policy for software failures, defects, and security breaches. Coverity's award-winning portfolio of software integrity products identifies critical defects to prevent software quality and security problems throughout the application lifecycle. As the leading expert on both proprietary and open source code analysis, Coverity also operates the Coverity Scan Initiative, started on the behalf of the Department of Homeland Security in 2006, to analyze open source code for defects. Over 100,000 developers and 600 companies choose Coverity to help them ensure the delivery of high integrity software. Coverity is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco.

SOURCE Coverity, Inc.