| Carlo Piana | |
| Birth Date: | 1968 9, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Omegna (VB), Italy |
| Known For: | Free software advocacy, antitrust activities, open standards |
| Occupation: | Lawyer, free software advocate |
| Nationality: | Italian |
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,[1] and served as external general counsel to the Free Software Foundation Europe ("FSFE").
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,[2] [3] where he represents both the FSFE and the Samba Team, the standardization of OOXML at ISO/IEC, and more recently defending Oracle[4] [5] 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 ("IFOSS L. rev.")[6] and has been a member of the board of the Open Source Initiative since 2022.[7] [8]
In 2008 he established a freelance consulting practice on IT law, where he leads a small group of IT lawyers named Array.[9]