COMMENTARY--It's the next big Linux controversy: Who should be liable if customers wind up using software that was created from misappropriated intellectual property?
Linux resellers are not especially eager to tackle the question, but they know it lurks just over the horizon, thanks to the filing of the SCO-IBM lawsuit earlier this year. Ever since then, chief information officers have been reading that they could be vulnerable to future litigation for using open-source software.
None of this has escaped the attention of Microsoft and other like-minded suppliers of proprietary software. They are making sure customers know all about the protection plans they offer in the event that a company winds up in this sort of legal bind.
But when it comes to the indemnification question, the Linux crowd is ducking the issue. Not SuSE Linux, not Red Hat--not even IBM, the biggest Linux reseller of them all--says it plans to extend an indemnification umbrella to its customers.
