SOUTH PORTLAND – Free software, open source licenses and other issues surrounding information technology ownership will be the topic of the fourth annual Law & Technology Conference June 19 and 20.

The conference on Information Technology Ownership will take place at the Marriott at Sable Oaks in South Portland.

There are movements in the computer software field promoting “free” or “open source” software. This software is sold in a way so that users can change the code, adapting the program for particular needs, fixing bugs faster than now commercially possible and improving the product. Redistribution of these evolving products is legal.

Tech entrepreneurs constantly collide with legal and ownership issues as they innovate, often struggling with the tension between a culture of openness and creating a profitable business.

The Information Technology Ownership conference is taking these issues head-on with presentations by Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Movement, and its legal counsel, Eben Moglen, Larry Rosen, counsel to the Open Source Initiative, and Emery Simon of the Business Software Alliance, which represents producers of proprietary software such as Microsoft.

The conference is designed for the business audience throughout New England as well as legal specialists. It is hosted by the Technology Law Center of the University of Maine School of Law. More information, including a schedule and registration materials, is available at the center’s Web site www.mainetechlaw.org.

The Technology Law Center was established to support Maine’s investments in science and technology through educational programs and research projects in intellectual property law, e-commerce and technology transfer. It also includes the Maine Patent Program, which provides advice on the patent process to Maine’s inventors and small businesses.

For more information contact Rita Heimes, director of the Technology Law Center, at the University of Maine School of Law at 874-6521 or at [email protected].