The past Friday, I got to speak one-on-one with a lawyer for the company that purchased the company I work for (back in April) about free software, the GPL, and some details on how the web works. It was cool being in the position of educating someone in a legal field (she didn't have much experience with Copyright or software---we're not a software company).

I'm very happy that I'm speaking directly to company lawyers on this, because going through management would strip conversations of all substance. We write some free software, and my intent is to keep it that way, and explain why the GPL (any version) and AGPL are actually the perfect licenses for protecting our company's interests from competitors. There are more conversations to come (and I'm getting them in touch with the FSF), but I hope for the best. Writing free software has helped to keep me at the company for over eight years.

Oh, and the lawyer said she's only been at the company for three weeks. So I'm convinced that dealing with me is part of Legal's hazing process.