Harald Welte is someone enterprise IT folks should get to know and maybe worry about. The softspoken programmer has successfully encouraged–and sometimes forced–more than 100 companies to either remove or release source code that he believed infringed on the General Public License (GPL). In 2005, his work even resulted in an injunction against security vendor Fortinet, forcing them to stop shipment of some products until they later agreed to a settlement. In the past, much of his work has been accomplished as an individual through the German court system. (He owns a copyright on some commonly used–and oft-misappropriated–code in the Linux kernel, which gives him certain legal rights.) But Welte is also pursuing cases in Taiwan, Korea and elsewhere. And he hopes later this year to launch a not-for-profit organization dedicated to pursuing GPL violations. His goal: A world where GPL violations simply don’t occur. “I would be very happy if I could spend all of my time doing kernel development rather than doing this messy work of legally enforcing the GPL…In our view, it is necessary to raise public awareness and to make cases public. If you do GPL enforcement in a very quiet way…the general IT industry doesn’t take notice and we’ll actually see more infringements rather than less… This is not a witch hunt or some kind of religious battle, it’s just making corporate users play by the rules who have for whatever reason overlooked them.”I’ve posted a podcast of my recent interview with Welte. In it, he discusses his accomplishments, his goals and his reasons for getting involved in this “messy work.” If you’ve ever considered “borrowing” open source code without properly following the license, this is something you should hear. You can also learn more about Welte’s activities in his blog. Related content feature Key IT initiatives reshape the CIO agenda While cloud, cybersecurity, and analytics remain top of mind for IT leaders, a shift toward delivering business value is altering how CIOs approach key priorities, pushing transformative projects to the next phase. By Mary Pratt May 30, 2023 10 mins IT Strategy IT Leadership opinion Managing IT right starts with rightsizing IT for value While there are few universals when it comes to saying unambiguously what ‘managing IT right’ looks like, knowing how to navigate the limitless possibilities of IT is surely one. By Thornton May May 30, 2023 6 mins Digital Transformation IT Strategy IT Leadership brandpost Designing the campus of the future starts with high-quality 10Gbps connectivity By Huawei May 30, 2023 4 mins Network Architect Networking Devices Networking feature Red Hat embraces hybrid cloud for internal IT The maker of OpenShift has leveraged its own open container offering to migrate business-critical apps to AWS as part of a strategy to move beyond facilitating hybrid cloud for others and capitalize on the model for itself. By Paula Rooney May 29, 2023 5 mins CIO 100 Technology Industry Hybrid Cloud Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe