Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 1st Jul 2007 10:30 UTC
SWSoft, the company behind Parallels Desktop for Mac, is possibly violating the LGPL license by using LGPL libraries from the WINE project without providing access to the source code. The WINE project first discovered the violation early this June, and after several failed attempts at getting the source code to the libraries, they set up a wiki page to keep track of the ongoing violation. The WINE project wants to resolve the issue "without starting legal action". Thanks to MacWereld for pointing this out [Dutch].
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Member since:2006-01-03
Even if they had linked against GPL code, they would not be forced to reveal their code. If they chose not to disclose their code, then they would lose the right to distribute the GPL code.
This would mean they would have to retire their product and rework it to add in the lost GPL functionality. As for the improper distribution already done, a court would have to define what compensations were due.
But in no case would they be forced by court to reveal their code.
Member since:
2005-07-06
Why would it have been "great" if it was GPL'd?
Most likely if it had been GPL'd it would never have been used in the first place, and they would have re-implemented the code from scratch and made it closed source. And that way everybody would be worse off.