The US company has been breaking GPL2 license for years

Mar 6, 2015 14:49 GMT  ·  By

VMware is now getting sued in Germany by a Linux kernel developer after the company took Linux kernel code, modified it, used it, and refusing to make their modifications open source, thus breaking the GPL2 license.

VMware is a multi-billion company that virtualizes computing, from the data center to the cloud to mobile devices, or at least this is what they say they do. The company employs over 14,000 people and it's a force in the industry. If you take a closer look at the Wikipedia entry, you will notice a lot of company acquisitions for undisclosed amounts. This is as big as it gets.

According to a report released by Software Freedom Conservancy, VMWare is also in the habit of taking Linux kernel code and modifying it for its own software solutions. That would be fine and a lot of other companies do that, but they are also obliged by the GPL2 license to release those modifications as open source so that other people and companies can benefit.

The Linux kernel is open source and free, the work done on it costs money

What many people don't realize is that the Linux kernel is being built by people paid to so. Over 80% of the Linux kernel developers are employed by various companies like Red Hat, Intel, and so on to work on the Linux kernel. Thus, the companies advance the kernel and they benefit from the fact that it's open source.

VMware, on the other hand, just takes the Linux kernel, changes what it needs, and doesn't release the modifications under GPL, as they should. The Software Freedom Conservancy said that it's problem that's been going on for years and now something is finally done about it.

"Software Freedom Conservancy announces today Christoph Hellwig's lawsuit against VMware in the district court of Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany. This is the regretful but necessary next step in both Hellwig and Conservancy's ongoing effort to convince VMware to comply properly with the terms of the GPLv2, the license of Linux and many other Open Source and Free Software included in VMware's ESXi products," reads the official communique.

Software Freedom Conservancy is a non-profit organization and it's looking for donations to enforce the GPL2 license.