Unauthorized 'open-source' files in software :: OSDir.com

Re: Unauthorized 'open-source' files in software (Score: 1, Insightful)
by Anonymous on Dec 28, 2004 - 08:09 PM

I hate when people report about something they have no clue about. If SCO wins (which would probably mark the beggining of the Apocalips) their will not be any SCO copycats, but rather people will shift and develop the GNU Hurd or some other GPLed kernel. The author of the article seems to confused on what SCO is sueing for and that is money. He is also confused on what is free/open source software has any relationship with SCO and that is nothing.
Concering the first part of the paper, I would say that this is the reason why the GPL works and I strongly promote the GPL. How hard is it for companies to have a change log on what was copied, from where, and what type of licence. And why do you copy from open source if you do not belive in it. Shame on them, I belive if any company is out their that used code from another project then they should contribute to the project or reliese their product with a similar licence.
For short, do not waste your time on this article, this is another article which proclaims that open/free source software will lead to the end of the world and the death of millions of people.

Bad writer, no coffee (Score: 2, Informative)
by Anonymous on Dec 28, 2004 - 08:24 PM

Mr. Weisman has completely mixed up many different issues. He mentions "businesses" instead of saying "software manufacturers" in cases of FOSS copyright violations and general businesses for SCO's [baseless] claims on GNU/Linux. The writer really should've written two different articles; one about the misuse of FOSS code with their liabilities on software manufacturers and another about the possible liabilities on businesses that use FOSS, since those liabilities greatly vary.

Some companies, like Tewksbury's Avid Technology Inc., which makes digital film editing machines, have sought to avoid license conflicts by banning open-source software.

Avid makes very nice hardware and software. There are very few software manufacturers that use FOSS since they perceive it as a threat to their revenue stream. IFAIK no one has sued [concerning the aforementioned style suits] over the use of applications like Apache, OpenOffice, Gaim, PDFCreator, Mozilla, Python, etc.

FOSS is a business' friend. It can save them a lot of money. If you're a closed source software vender just make sure your code is clean, like mentioned in the article.

Mr. Weisman's article should've titled: "Open Source: the boogyman in your PC". I'm sure it pleased some of the Globe's advertisers.

Re: Unauthorized 'open-source' files in software (Score: 1)
by Anonymous on Dec 28, 2004 - 11:19 PM

Last year I noticed some comments in code my company received from an Indian outsourcing firm - comments that appeared to be written by a native speaker of American English. I Googled the comments and discovered that the Indian firm was selling us free software as if they had developed it. From what I've seen of this (very large, well-known) Indian firm's practices, it didn't surprise me. To get it removed and/or license-complient I had to copy the corporate counsel in my emails to management - my bosses didn't want to hear about any problems; I was branded a trouble-maker for even bringing it up.