By Jay Lyman (ITManagersJournal.com)
It is not uncommon for companies to use free or open source software within their organization. In fact, many software developers use various open source components and free software code snippets within their own software projects, often times unknown to anyone but the developer himself. Thus, what happens if your company violates the GNU General Public License (GPL)? Historically, you'd earn the scorn of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the open source community, and you might have to disclose or rewrite some code. However, the intellectual property disclosure requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 may present an additional threat to companies that violate the GPL. One expert even suggests that failure to comply with the GPL could be a criminal violation punishable by fine or imprisonment.
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