The risk arising from unknowledgeable and unmanaged use of open
source software by tech companies is no longer merely theoretical
or such that only involves a remote possibility of exposure. The
exposure is tangible, here and now.
A New York court is presently hearing a claim that was recently
brought by CoKinetic Systems, a developer and manufacturer of
in-flight entertainment (IFE) software, against a global technology
giant, which is also one of the leading players in the IFE market,
whose systems are used by numerous airlines. The suit, which
alleges anticompetitive acts and abuse of monopoly power, seeks
damages of $100 million.
A substantive argument of the plaintiff (among other arguments
relating to anticompetitive acts) is that by failing to comply with
the requirements of the GPL open source license and refusing to
distribute the source code for the open-source Linux based
operating system of its IFE hardware, the global corporation
blocked competitors
