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Cisco's iPhone takes heat from open-source community

Marguerite Reardon Former senior reporter
Marguerite Reardon started as a CNET News reporter in 2004, covering cellphone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate and the consolidation of the phone companies.
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Marguerite Reardon

The Linksys iPhone has taken some flak over the last couple of weeks from the open-source community after a software researcher, Armijn Hemel, a consultant with Loohuis Consulting, accused Linksys of not publishing the source code for some components in its voice over IP phone, the iPhone. This is a violation of the GNU General Public License, since the iPhones are based on Linux, an open-source operating system software.

John Earnhardt, senior manager for global media operations at Cisco (Linksys is owned by Cisco), responded to the claims on the company's blog. He said Cisco has taken steps to resolve at least one issue raised regarding the iPhone WIP300's compliance with the GNU General Public License, or GPL. Earnhardt said the company is looking into the additional claims. And finally he thanked Hemel for highlighting the issue. He also encouraged others in the open-source community to work with Cisco.

"Compliance with open standards is very important to us and we will continue to take the necessary actions to ensure we are meeting the requirements of open source licenses we use," he said on the blog.

Cisco is currently suing Apple for infringing on its iPhone trademark. Apple launched its new iPod/cell phone called "iPhone" at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco earlier this month.