McAfee's Security FUD vs the GPL
January 8th, 2008 by Maddog
http://www.infoweapons.com/blog/?p=105
In the wake of possible violations of the GNU General Public License
(GPL), antivirus software vendor McAfee has taken to making what have been
seen as disparaging comments against the popular open source license. Paul
McDougall, in the InformationWeek article, "McAfee Issues Warning Over
'Ambiguous' Open Source Licenses", reported the on the statements
contained in the McAfee annual report:
In its recently published annual report, McAfee warned
investors that the "ambiguous" license terms governing the
open source software it uses "may result in unanticipated
obligations regarding our products.
"To the extent that we use 'open source' software, we face
risks," McAfee warned.
McAfee said it's particularly troubling that the legality
of terms included in the GNU/General Public License -- the
most widely used open source license -- have yet to be
tested in court.
The wording of the annual report was not lost on Egan Orion who, in his
article "McAfee throws some FUD at the GPL", pointed out the errors dished
out by McAfee. He also speculated that the company may actually end up
damaging its own interests with its FUDmongering:
Also, how can McAfee pretend that the redistribution
obligations relating to open source software that are so
clearly stated in the GPL were "unanticipated" by it?
That claim is tantamount to the admission that McAfee
had previously assumed that it could get away with
violating the GPL with impunity. Either that, or it's
an admission by McAfee's executive management of their
utterly gross incompetence at directing and managing a
legally responsible software development enterprise.
Read the entire article at:
http://www.infoweapons.com/blog/?p=105
--
Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to
do what we ought. -- Pope John Paul II
--[Manny [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Alternative Information and Opinion at http://www.phnix.net
Advocacy blog: http://mamador.wordpress.com
Personal website: http://mannyamador.multiply.com
--[Pro-Life Philippines]-------------------[http://www.prolife.org.ph]--
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