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OLSWANG

As UK plc drags itself out of recession, CIO's and their Boards are looking once more at their IT needs. For many users the "pause" they have placed over the last few years on IT upgrades makes their impending rollouts all the more important. At the same time, the suppliers of software and services have been eagerly awaiting for the upgrade cycle to begin in earnest and have created what appear to be very compelling propositions for their customers. For many of these propositions, the devil is in the detail and that detail is in the contractual terms that accompany the software and services. This article considers the legal approaches that open source distros use to get paid for something that at first looks like a free lunch.