birth_place image_size nationality birth_date known_for image article_title name occupation
omegna -lrb- vb -rrb- , italy 250px italian 25 september 1968 free software advocacy , antitrust activities , open standards piana small.png carlo piana
 carlo piana lawyer , free software advocate
carlo piana

carlo piana is a lawyer by training and a free software 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 serves as external general counsel to the free software foundation europe -lrb- `` fsfe '' -rrb- .
piana has been involved in some of the cornerstone legal cases in europe , such as the long-running antitrust battle between the eu commission and microsoft where he represents both the fsfe and the samba team , the standardization of ooxml at iso/iec , and more recently defending oracle in its attempted acquisition of sun microsystems .
piana is a member of the editorial committee of the international free and open source software law review -lrb- `` ifoss l. rev. '' -rrb- and is member of the board of directors of the protocol freedom information foundation .
in 2008 he established a freelance consulting practice on it law , where he leads a small group of it lawyers named array .
