In what can only be described as a journalistic drive-by shooting, Forbes is running a piece about Cisco/Linksys’ trouble with the General Public License. It appears they used GPL code in their commercial products, but are now refusing to follow the terms of said license. This is the “viral” bit that Steve Ballmer has complained about in the past: if you incorporate GPL code into your product, you have to release the product (or at least the software) under the GPL as well.

There’s nothing wrong with this. These are the terms of the license; companies like Cisco and Linksys are free to use said code — and follow the license — or eschew said code and write their own. What they cannot do is use the code and then refuse to hold up their end of the bargain, but the Forbes piece seems to suggest that that’s what they ought to do. This is very, very odd, I think, and not at all what we might expect from what has been in the past a strong magazine.

More discussion at Groklaw (no direct link; the story posted on 10/14).