[Ilugc] Immunity from IPR issues for Closed Source software
- From: ramanraj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Ramanraj K)
- Date: Thu Jul 22 11:23:54 2004
Natarajan Kannan wrote:
Are closed source software automatically immune from IPR violations?
No, they are not immune. Software licenses are covered by Copyright
Law, and we could avoid using "IPR" here :)
Just because the Linux kernel source was available to all, could SCO
start IP violation suits.
SCO, or its predecessors in title themselves have released the source
code under the GPL and, claims about "violations" are as funny as Santa
Claus [! Original :)] running after the gifts he gave away last
Christmas :)
For eg..
How do we know if <snip> has not lifted code from gcc?
(For that matter any closed source software has not lifted code from
their Open Source counterparts thereby violating licences)
If a proprietary company has lifted code from a GPL'ed program, and
redistributes binaries in violation of the GPL, the author of the
GPL'ed program could claim copyright infringement, and the source code
could be summoned in appropriate proceedings. At present, disclosure of
source code for computer programs is not mandatory, and when that is
done, the problem would cease.
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