IT Observer reports that Linux use in publicly-traded companies may be a violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, under the grounds that under the Act, companies are required to disclose ownership of intellectual property to shareholders.
The study indicates that dozens of companies are discovered each year to have violated the terms of GPL, and if they are public companies, they are violating Sarbanes-Oxley.
“Linux is a powerful operating system,” says Jay Michaelson, an author of the study and Wasabi Systems’ General Counsel. “But if companies violate the license, the consequences can be more severe than they think. If companies are violating the GPL, they don’t have the right to use that software. And if they don’t have the right to use the software, they’re violating federal law if they claim that they do.”
Source: IT Observer
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