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.

[7][8] In 2008 he established a freelance consulting practice on IT law, where he leads a small group of IT lawyers named Array.