Code of uncertain origin

Posted Aug 16, 2006 22:21 UTC (Wed) by fergal (guest, #602)
In reply to: Code of uncertain origin by jsarets
Parent article: Code of uncertain origin

Lets say that somehow, Google is forced by a court to reveal the IPs and this guy is tracked down. He turns out to have written this in some way that was totally illegal. Then what? That still leaves the entire Linux community in receipt of stolen goods. Best case scenario everyone distributing the code has to stop. That's an enormous mess even without taking into account boxed CDs of Linux distributions.

That's just the best case.

Code of uncertain origin

Posted Aug 17, 2006 2:35 UTC (Thu) by Mithrandir (guest, #3031) [Link] (1 responses)

Except that code isn't "property", any more than Intellectual Property is "property".

Just a nit pick! :)

Code of uncertain origin

Posted Aug 17, 2006 17:28 UTC (Thu) by fergal (guest, #602) [Link]

Nit: I didn't use the word "property".

But even if I had, the basic point is the same. If you don't have permission to use it, you shouldn't depend on it. Good faith will only get you so far and will not get you very far if you knowingly put your faith in the modern day euivalent of some bloke in the darkest, smokiest corner of a dogy pub.