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Yes, distribution has legal risks. Use does not, it only has the risk that they are unable to get ZFS distributed.

Worth noting Oracle could clear it up very easily, the fact they won't is a worrying tale.

I don't think anything Oracle can do would change the usability of OpenZFS.

I'm also not positive how easily they could fix the distribution problems given OpenZFS has over a decade of work after the split, but as a whole I'm only discussing use, not distribution.

Oracle could do what they did with DTrace in 2017, and release it under the GPL in addition to the CDDL. Then the OpenZFS folks would have to track down every contributor to OpenZFS, and get their permission to re-license their contribution. Contributions from folks who refused or couldn't be found would have to be re-implemented or dropped.

It is a pain in the ass, but it has been done before.

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