[OT] SCO is Going After End Users

[Russ Salsbury]

ComputerWorld says that SCO is going to charge Linux end users a
license fee for "the opportunity to run Linux legally."
<http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/linux/story/0,10801,83287,00.html?nas=PM-83287>
Lots of companies will pony up.

I realize that this is OT, but SCO's action strikes at the heart of
Open Source. Somebody with the right patents can try to tax or shut
down the rest of us, regardless of the validity of their claims. If
IBM, Red Hat, and the decide that the the cost of settling is less
than the cost of litigation, we all loose. Fortunally, the claim
against IBM is so big, $3B that they may fight it instead of settling.

-- Russ

 

[Sybren Stuvel]

Russ Salsbury enlightened us with:

ComputerWorld says that SCO is going to charge Linux end users a
license fee for "the opportunity to run Linux legally."

Utter crap. First they'd better proof their point instead of harassing
inocent people.

I realize that this is OT, but SCO's action strikes at the heart of
Open Source.

No they don't. If they can't point out what code is theirs, they
are obviously having a hard time recognising it. If they can't even
recognise it, how can they clame it?

If IBM, Red Hat, and the decide that the the cost of settling is less
than the cost of litigation, we all loose.

No we don't. If they point out which code is theirs, we'll rip it out,
replace it by better code, and they won't have a leg to stand on.

Sybren

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Gerhard_H=E4ring?=]

ComputerWorld says that SCO is going to charge Linux end users a
license fee for "the opportunity to run Linux legally."
<http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/linux/story/0,10801,83287,00.html?nas=PM-83287>
Lots of companies will pony up.

I realize that this is OT,

Then please keep it to the appropriate groups. I'm sick and tired of
"news" about SCO's alleged claims.

but SCO's action strikes at the heart of
Open Source. Somebody with the right patents can try to tax or shut
down the rest of us, regardless of the validity of their claims. [...]

That may be so in the US. In Germany, SCO is not allowed to spread their
FUD any further for the time being:

http://www.golem.de/0305/25730.html (German)

I'm too lazy to find an English translation for you.

Please let's keep this stuff off list. SCO is gaining way too much
attention already. And this is all they want: increase their stock
value/hope to be bought out.

Explicit Reply-To set if you fell you need to discuss this further with
me. Otherwise EOD from my side.

-- Gerhard

 

[Paul Boddie]

I realize that this is OT, but SCO's action strikes at the heart of
Open Source. Somebody with the right patents can try to tax or shut
down the rest of us, regardless of the validity of their claims. If
IBM, Red Hat, and the decide that the the cost of settling is less
than the cost of litigation, we all loose. Fortunally, the claim
against IBM is so big, $3B that they may fight it instead of settling.

(Insert footage of an office in IBM's legal department: the camera
pans upward from a stack of papers representing SCO's claims;
hysterical laughter can be heard as the camera pans across to one of
the lawyers; "I love this job!" he exclaims.)

Despite the wider implications of this case, plus the implications of
other recent developments (for me, that would have to include the
increased interest by various European Union factions in the
introduction of software patents), this really isn't the right forum
for constructive discussion about such issues. However, it must be
said that far too many people are unaware of such goings-on, or are
virtually apathetic about them ("as long as the free stuff keeps
coming", "it's not my place to think about it" and "if it's made
illegal, my employer will retrain me").

But thanks for the reminder that we really are lucky to be able to use
technologies and tools like Python, that the climate in which they
have been developed has so far been favourable to such innovation, and
that we should strive to maintain such a favourable environment
through the appropriate forums and channels.

Paul

 

[Ben Finney]

This might be interesting "news" for SCO/Caldera:

.... but not for comp.lang.python. Please, don't give this stuff more
publicity.

 

[Ville Vainio]

I realize that this is OT, but SCO's action strikes at the heart of
Open Source. Somebody with the right patents can try to tax or shut

It might be slightly on topic in that the future versions of Python
could theoretically (and developers willing), shall we say, not pay as
much attention for unixware as the target platform... perhaps even
drift so far as not being able to compile at all >;-).

 

[Daniel Dittmar]

It might be slightly on topic in that the future versions of Python
could theoretically (and developers willing), shall we say, not pay as
much attention for unixware as the target platform... perhaps even
drift so far as not being able to compile at all >;-).

SCO doesn't want you to actually use unixware. You should only pay them as
if you do.

Daniel

 

[Bryan]

what's to prevent this from happening to python? all those c modules?
couldn't they have been copied from microsoft, sco, etc? how is python
protected from others claiming the modules are copied works?

bryan