Now here’s a silly headline: OSNews purports that Linux Users May Be Violating Sarbanes-Oxley. A brief read of the article will tell you that a corporation is likely violating its obligations to its shareholders if it is failing to audit, track, monitor and closely examine the copyright, license and patent requirements of ALL of the products they use. There may be just as much liability from the shareware, freeware, postcardware and every-ware installed willy-nilly inside a company. Developers, consultants, IT personnel and users are notorious for bringing in a little utility from home on floppy, USB tab or download and spreading it around the office. It may be that the Fortune 500 is liable for thousands of postcards for EditPad as well.
The solution is to follow the law, even one as obnoxious as SOX (and complain to your legislator if this is burdensome), with an audit and a compliance plan. The inflamatory headline that “Linux users are bringing chaos to the world” is just insulting. Any company using software needs to do their best to ensure they are not violating copyright, patents or licenses. No news here, move along.