Carlo Piana is a lawyer by training and a

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

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 served as external general counsel to the

Free Software Foundation Europe The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is an ''eingetragener Verein'' (registered voluntary association) under German law. It was founded in 2001 to support all aspects of the free software movement in Europe, with registered chapters in seve ...

("FSFE"). Piana has been involved in some of the

cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over time ...

legal cases in Europe, such as the long-running

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

battle between the

EU Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

, where he represents both the FSFE and the Samba Team, the standardization of

OOXML Office Open XML (also informally known as OOXML) is a zipped, XML-based file format developed by Microsoft for representing spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents. Ecma International standardized the initial version a ...

ISO/IEC ISO/IEC JTC 1, entitled "Information technology", is a joint technical committee (JTC) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Its purpose is to develop, maintain and pr ...

, and more recently defending

Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...

in its attempted acquisition of

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

. Piana is a member of the Editorial Committee of the ''

International Free and Open Source Software Law Review The ''International Free and Open Source Software Law Review'' (also known as 'IFOSS L. Rev.', 'IFOSSLR', or 'IFOSS L. R.') was an English language law review focusing on Free and open source software. Overview IFOSS L. Rev. merged into succes ...

'' ("IFOSS L. rev.") and has been a member of the board of the

Open Source Initiative The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the steward of the Open Source Definition, the set of rules that define open source software. It is a California public-benefit nonprofit corporation,_with_501(c)(3).html" ;"title="110. - 6910./ref> is a type o ...

since 2022. In 2008 he established a freelance consulting practice on IT law, where he leads a small group of IT lawyers named Array.

References

External links

Array is an array
Array official website

Interview by

Groklaw ''Groklaw'' is a website that covered 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 (''"PJ"''), it covered issues such as the SCO-Linux lawsuits, the EU ...

Law is Freedom Blog, both in Italian and in English

Profile on Fossbazaar

IFOSS L. rev. Editorial Committee

Interview by Roberto Galoppini (Commercial Open Source Software)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piana, Carlo Living people 20th-century Italian lawyers 1968 births 21st-century Italian lawyers