Just when you thought that the Sony DRM rootkit controversy was dying down, here comes another accusation that Sony and their partner were inappropriately using open source software in the offending components. This is going to be an interesting test of how open source licenses are enforced, and what the remedies are for violating said agreements.
Link: Software Writers Spot Open Source in Sony BMG CDs.
If open source software is tightly integrated into a single executable program, the whole application has to become open source software, even open source software such as LAME whose MP3 encoder is licensed under the more relaxed Lesser General Public License (LGPL), a lawyer said.
"That's the flipside of open source: If you don't respect the open source rules, the old regime of copy protection comes back in full force," said attorney and Internet specialist Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm at law firm SOLV in the Netherlands.
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