January 9th, 2008
McAfee claims open source legal concerns are much ado about nothing
McAfee says concerns about potential open source litigation are unfounded.
The company issued a statement this week to ZDNet following news this week that the security software company cited potential legal risks associated with its use of open source in its most recent annual report and letter to shareholders. Chief spokesman Joris Evers said the issue is much ado about nothing.
“It is standard practice for public companies to include an extensive list of potential risk factors in their 10-K filings. We included in that list of factors is reference to potential licensing risks associated with open source software. This risk factor has been included in previous McAfee filings and is similar to current filings from other companies in the technology space including Symantec, Oracle and many others,” said Evers in an e-mail to ZDNet.
“We are an avid supporter of open source, this is cautionary language that is commonly used. We did not include the risk factor as a result of any pending or threatened litigation relating to McAfee’s use of open source software,” the statement claims. “The open source software risk factor was included in our 10-K because it is a general, ongoing potential business risk. Other companies that use open source software in a similar manner face similar risks. ”
Still others including our own Dana Blankenhorn points out that McAfee — which has been openly disdainful about open source security — acknowledges that the company’s software may have become “infected” with some GPL software.
Paula Rooney is a Boston-based writer who has followed the tech industry for almost two decades. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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