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In my day job, I came across some information instructive as to how the IT Top 12 (my index of the leading information technology suppliers) uses open source software (OSS). CA (formerly Computer Associates) added some interesting OSS-related verbiage to last year's 10K. (10Ks are the annual reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which tend to be much more detailed than the annual reports sent to shareholders. As of Sarbanes/Oxly and similar rules outside the U.S., they also tend to much more forthright than a brochure-like annual report because guys are starting to face prison time if they sign off on the things without crossing every 'T' and dotting every 'i.')

Here's what CA said:

“Some of our products contain software from open source code sources. The use of such open source code may subject us to certain conditions, including the obligation to offer our products that use open source code for no cost. We monitor our use of such open source code to avoid subjecting our products to conditions we do not intend.

"However, the use of such open source code may ultimately subject some of our products to unintended conditions so that we are required to take remedial action that may divert resources away from our development efforts. We believe that the use of such open source code will not have a significant impact on our operations and that our products will be viable after any remediation efforts. However, there can be no assurance that future conditions involving such open source code will not have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flow. "

Wow, that says it all. I treated this In fact, in a subset of my IT Investment Research reports that appeared on ebizQ in January (and that's how I ended up writing this blog). But it took me three or four pages to say what CA said in two paragraphs:
-- We'll take but basically we want "to avoid subjecting our products to conditions we do not intend."
-- If it turns out we did something we didn't intend we'll "divert (development) resources" so as to make sure we don't lose any money on OSS

I have no problem with this approach but if you're thinking of donating your time to OSS, remember who you are working for.

Posted by dennisb in OSS Business Issue |Digg This|Add to del.icio.us

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