ICD: Revision 3.0 of open-source GPL stirs concern in embedded space

[ Thanks to peter penguin for
this link. ]

“Even as Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation
works to complete version 3.0 of the General Public License (GPL)
for open-source software, at least one major commercial real-time
operating-system (RTOS) company in the embedded communications
space is expressing concern over the evolving GPL and its legal
ramifications.“

“Curt Schacker, vice president of corporate marketing for Wind
River Corp. (Alameda, CA), says that since the GPL has never been
litigated, there is no legal precedent for its terms and
conditions. “Until such a point is reached,” he explains, “it’s
anybody’s best guess. Therefore, if you use Linux and you agree to
the terms and conditions of the GPL, you are-at least to some
degree-placing a bet as to the implications of the code that you
develop.”

“More customers are telling us that they see interesting aspects
to Linux,” Schacker continues. “They want to use it for some parts
of the applications that they are developing. For example, they
might want part of their system to execute with Linux and have
another part of their system execute with an RTOS. Because the
requirements in the embedded space are so broad, it certainly makes
sense to target different parts of the problem with different
technologies. But we’re seeing a growing problem due to the growing
uncertainty of using GPL-based code in embedded development.”

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