Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet)

Posted Jun 12, 2004 0:49 UTC (Sat) by pimlott (guest, #1535)
In reply to: Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet) by verzonnen
Parent article: Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet)

I am indeed sugesting that you stop developing that particular bit of software that you are being sued over.

What makes you think that will make the suit go away? Say the claim is copyright infringement, that you've included some improperly contributed code in your software that is really owned by an evil corporation. Under US law, you can be penalized up to $30,000 in statutory damages per act of non-wilful infringement. Yes, this includes acts you didn't know were infringement, according to a smart law school friend of mine, so you're on the hook for everything you've done to date. Not to mention, this makes the software undistributable by anyone (in the US at least) until the case is resolved. I hate to think about it, but this could be a very serious problem awaiting us.