Medsphere Systems Corp. and its two co-founders settled their suits against each other this week, drawing an end to an odd saga in which the founders were sued for sharing open-source software with the open-source community. The suit arose over the posting of Medsphere code, which itself leverages the VA's open-source Vista EMR, to high-profile open source community SourceForge.net. At this point, if they're not lucky, Medsphere and former CEO Kenneth Kizer may end up with fewer friends than SCO Group [1] and its CEO Darl McBride.
The Aliso Viejo, CA HIT vendor had filed a $50 million lawsuit against co-founders Scott and Steve Shreeve (as well as 20 other unnamed defendants) alleging that, among other things, the two had misappropriated trade secrets and breached their contracts by making the SourceForge post. In response, the Shreeves countersued the company, Kizer and additional board members.
To learn more about the suits:
- read this Modern Healthcare article [2]
Related Articles:
Open source EMR struggles with business model. Report [3]
Can open source save your life? Report [4]
U.N. official backs worldwide use of open-source software. Report [5]
Links:
[1] http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/21/HNscoibm_1.html
[2] http://www.modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071019/REG/310190025
[3] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/open-source-emr-struggles-business-model/2007-08-13?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss
[4] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/spotlight-can-open-source-save-your-life/2006-07-17
[5] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/editor-s-corner/2006-10-09