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有個在研發單位工作的朋友問我，是否只用到一些開放原始碼的程式在產品中，就要開放整個原始碼，我躊躇了一下，我認為是，但是，看到他們辛辛苦苦地研發，結果還要把程式公開，尤其是會給競爭廠商知道，這也怪吧！

但是，畢竟在開發過程中也使用到別人或說是很多人貢獻的程式碼，在GNU GPL(General Public License)的規範下，也要把自己的程式公開，才是符合開放原始碼的精神！

最近，自由軟體基金會（FSF）這個打著「自由（free，非免費）」、「開放（open）」旗幟的單位，竟然告了Cisco Systems，原因就是因為Cisco產品使用了開放原始碼，卻沒有履行公開程式碼的義務，這也確認了我應該要回覆那位朋友為要開放的答案。

雖然，法院也是要審理這個案子，並會產生一個「判例」，但至少開放原始碼的精神是這樣的？
Ron

[原文] http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/2880376
(Source: Datamonitor)The Free Software Foundation has filed a lawsuit against Cisco Systems in the US District Court of New York because it claims it not has met its obligation to provide source code for the open source software used in its Linksys routers.

The FSF said most of the programs under scrutiny are licensed under the GNU General Public License and the GNU Lesser General Public License, which encourage companies to modify the software and then share it with others. One of the conditions states that anyone who redistributes the software must also provide the source code. FSF says Cisco has distributed it without providing the corresponding source code.

Brett Smith, licensing compliance engineer at the FSF, said: "We began working with Cisco in 2003 to help them establish a process for complying with our software licenses, and the initial changes were very promising. Unfortunately, they never put in the effort to finish the process for compliance. As a result, we believe that legal action is the best way to restore the rights we grant to all users of our software."