Lessons from the Battle Over UNIX
Users of open source software may not be able to defend against a copyright infringement claim if a contribution to the software was infringing.
Before releasing software to the open source community, a company needs to make sure that it has the legal rights to do so.
A company procuring title to software needs to make sure that the chain of title is clean.
Posting source code to a web site will significantly reduce or eliminate any ability to claim trade secret protection for that code
.