Red Hat Developer Demands Competitor's Source Code

sfcrazy writes "A very serious argument erupted on the Linux kernel mailing list when Andy Grover, a Red Hat SCSI target engineer, requested that Nicholas A. Bellinger, the Linux SCSI target maintainer, provide proof of non-infringement of the GPL. Nick is developer at Rising Tide Systems, a Red Hat competitor, and a maker of advanced SCSI storage systems. Nick's company recently produced a groundbreaking technology involving advanced SCSI commands which will give Rising Tide Systems a lead in producing SCSI storage systems. Now, RTS is blocking Red Hat from getting access to that code as it's proprietary. What's uncertain is whether RTS' code is covered by GPL or not — if it is then Red Hat has all the rights to get access to it and it's a serious GPL violation."

Comments

Moral: Never look at, much less touch, GPL code.

[HornWumpus]

Never touch any code under GPL.

Otherwise some asshole will demand to see your source to prove you didn't lift anything.

Never look at GPL code. If it's not out there under BSD you should develop it yourself.

If you are a professional coder, looking at GPL code can forever compromise you. After that they will demand you 'prove' purity.