Sarbanes-Oxley and the GPL: No Special Risk

Software Freedom Law Center

4/18/2008
(Original Publish Date: 2/28/2006)

Some have recently argued that corporate executives face increased risk of criminal liability under the SarbanesOxley Act of 2002 (SOX) if their companies develop and distribute code licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The argument, as it has been made, raises significant concerns about SOX compliance, but it fails to clarify the scope and context of these points. We have reviewed these issues and, as discussed more fully below, there is in fact no special risk for developing GPL'd code under SOX. Under most circumstances, the risk posed to a company by SOX is not affected by whether they use GPL'd or any other type of software. Arguments to the contrary are pure antiGPL FUD.