The Long-Term Impact of Jacobsen v. Katzer 77
snydeq writes "Lawyer Jonathan Moskin has called into question the long-term impact last year's Java Model Railroad Interface court ruling will have on open source adoption among corporate entities. For many, the case in question, Jacobsen v. Katzer, has represented a boon for open source, laying down a legal foundation for the protection of open source developers. But as Moskin sees it, the ruling 'enables a set of potentially onerous monetary remedies for failures to comply with even modest license terms, and it subjects a potentially larger community of intellectual property users to liability.' In other words, in Moskin's eyes, Jacobsen v. Katzer could make firms wary of using open source software because they fear that someone in the food chain has violated a copyright, thus exposing them to lawsuit. It should be noted that Moskin's firm has represented Microsoft in anti-trust litigation before the European Union."
ZOMG!!! The law applies... (Score:4, Interesting)
...even when using source code licensed under open source terms!!!
And all these corporations using open source software to run their business are at risk of violating the terms of those licenses and will now drop open source like a sub-prime mortgage derivative laundered ten times over.
Oh, wait, it was a proprietary product that violated the open source license....ZOMG is right, proprietary vendors are screwed, how can you know if your closed source vendor has stolen open source code until after you've invested in using their product and put your business at risk.
Gee, I guess its just one more reason to use open source software from open source vendors. Who knows what kind of trouble those closed source vendors are getting you into.