On 18/05/07, Geoffrey S. Mendelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Fri, May 18, 2007 at 05:11:06PM +1000, Amos Shapira wrote: > We have just noticed that one of the programs in our proprietary arsenal > uses GPL code (libipq, the netfilter interface library) even though the > contractor who wrote it was instructed to re-code the application to avoid > using GPL code. Before you do anything, make sure to hire a good lawyer who understands and deals with intellecutal property issues. 99% of the corporate lawyers out there do not.
Thanks to you and everybody else who replied to my question. It seems that the panic is over now. I'll try to clarify: 1. libipq is under GPL, unlike most libraries which are usually released under LGPL and therefore do not pose a problem. 2. The code uses the standard published API's of the library. 3. It turned out from a closer inspection of the code that the part which uses the library is completely self-contained and can be extracted into a separate program which we can release under GPL (all it does is to add the IP timestamp option to packets passing through, might be even worth donating it as a netfilter module to the netfilter project). 4. Incidentaly - the other part of the program uses libpcap to sniff the packet's headers later on, libpcap is released under BSD license and therefore isn't a problem. 5. The first thing I did was to ask the product manager about access to a lawyer (the CEO is visiting customers and investors abroad) and he couldn't give me a positive answer. Again - thanks to everyone for your help. Cheers, --Amos
