Marhsall Kirk McKusick President, Usenix Association What are the dangers for enterprises in using the GPL or “GPLed” software?
Marshall Kirk McKusick: If you use it simply as a standalone thing, like you get Apache and use it, you are probably in no danger whatsoever. You could have trouble if you start making changes in the Linux kernel and try to firewall your changes. Maybe you use a loadable device driver to get a nugget of software to allow your hardware to interact. Maybe there are huge amounts of functionality in the device driver that have nothing to do with running the hardware. But, by isolating that nugget in a so-called loadable module, you think that you are safe from the GPL, and you think that you are not going to have to hand that out. You’re wrong. If the GPL holds up, you are going to lose, and your software is going to die. It will get sucked in, and everybody else, including your competitors, will get their hands on it. If you are modifying GPL software, and you are not giving your changes back because you are trying to protect your intellectual property, you are at a grave risk of losing t
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