A lot of powerful companies would like to stop the infectious spread of open-source software. Microsoft has attacked the General Public License (GPL), which allows people to freely download, modify and redistribute open-source software; SCO Group is pursuing multi-billion dollar claims against IBM, Red Hat and Novell Inc. for their contributions to open source; and patent holders large and small have sued open-source users for infringement.
But it was Daniel Wallace, a 61-year-old retiree from Indiana, who almost did what those powerful companies have yet to do–pose a legal threat that could actually bring the burgeoning open-source movement to a halt.
