yelp's sec filing, on open source software

Some of our solutions contain open source software, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary software and solutions.

We use open source software in our solutions and will use open source software in the future. From time to time, we may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software and/or derivative works that we developed using such software (which could include our proprietary source code), or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to purchase a costly license or cease offering the implicated solutions unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid infringement. This re-engineering process could require significant additional research and development resources. In addition to risks related to license requirements, use of certain open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of software. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage, and, if not addressed, could have a negative effect on our business and operating results.

via www.sec.gov

Oh boy.

Comments

[Martin Atkins]

Most commercial software has any warranty disclaimed by the EULA too, so that's a bit dumb.

Not to mention that there are a bunch of risks around commercial software: bugs you can't see or fix for yourself because the source is unavailable, company going out of business and software going unmaintained, etc, etc.

Dumb, du-dumb dumb dumb!