Some Linux Users Violate Sarbanes-Oxley

Goyuix writes "According to the IT Observer, publicly owned companies who are using Linux, could be violating the federal securities laws as part of Sarbanes-Oxley. The article goes on to say that companies are required to "disclose ownership of intellectual property to their shareholders." How are these companies supposed to really list out all the IP owners if they were to install a full desktop or server environment - there could be literally thousands of parties listed! What are the current Fortune 500 companies doing, as many of those use Linux in one form or another?" update several people have pointed out that this is about companies who are violating the GPL, not everyone.

Comments

Re:Ownership != utilization

[bedroll]

There's a big difference between ownership and utilization. For example, if McDonalds employs the use of WinXP workstations in their facilities, that does not mean that they own, but instead license Microsoft's IP.

I completely agree. Just to expand on that, it should also be noted that the GPL does not transfer ownership of IP unto you, it merely gives you license to modify and reuse it. A company would then have to disclose their IP after they changed that code.

Reading the article, it appears that the author is a little confused. The second sentence talks about violating the GPL. You don't violate the GPL by simply using Linux. So maybe the real issue is with companies that release GPLed software without proper attribution and GPL compliance, but that's not the way the article reads.

Re:Not just Linux

[tobiathan]

As one who has had the sad misfortune of suffering through a few SOX audits, it is more about how the auditors choose to interpret and apply the regulations, and less about the regulations themselves.

There is also the argument about what constitutes a "material" defect or weakness. Unless someone is running the backbone of their financial system on Linux or other sw covered under GPL, this is probably not relevant as it would not be considered material to the integrity of their financial data.

Who ownes the Stolen code in Windows?

[Lost Penguin]

By the same token;
What IP is in Windows?
We already know Microsoft has been caught stealing code many times, what is still lurking?
Without a full source to any OS how can anyone know whose IP they are using?