[clug] Re: SCO copyright registration

Darren Freeman daz111 at rsphysse.anu.edu.au
Wed Jul 23 13:37:22 EST 2003


On Tue, 2003-07-22 at 21:27, Randall Crook wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-07-22 at 09:08, Jepri wrote:
> I'm sorry guys/and gals, but I refuse to pay money to a bunch of greedy
> idiots who refuse to tell me exactly how I'm "breeching" their
> copyright. I would rather they tell me what code is theirs so I can cut
> or replace the stuff and get on with life.

I think we all agree on that part, the question is how we as a community
will respond. We've already been accused of being lazy or apathetic (by
a reporter who sent Tridge a single isolated email). Of course that's
not true, most of us care but we don't really have a clever response
other than to ignore the threat since the risk to us is small.

But what about the newbies who are just ready to take up GNU/Linux and
free software in general? How will they react to such outrageous press
releases? The damage is being done right now. Every day that goes by
without a public show of confidence in Linux is another day that
ordinary people will think SCO is winning. If they sow enough FUD, they
really will have won.

This is the sort of topic that might attract newspaper and TV reporters
if a public event is held again and again. Something exciting that gets
people wondering just what this Linux thing is anyway. It could be
turned totally around, into a massive backfire for SCO. When more people
learn that there is an alternative to Windoze and other proprietary
software, that it actually works and doesn't crash or trash your
documents randomly, and that big business doesn't want people to know
that it's FREE, that's a big news story. It sounds like an exciting
movie plot just waiting to be written.

But for now very few people actually know about it, it's just a
conspiracy theory made up by pimply antisocial nerds to make themselves
feel important. People need to know that their freedom is being trampled
on for profit, before they even know they have it.

So the question once again is: "What can we do about it?".

Any serious, practical suggestions would go down well as a topic for the
next meeting IMHO. There's rallies, legal action, press releases,
installfests with cool slogans, advertising (if we had some money,
perhaps IBM would help out with that), order 1000 copies of Knoppix and
start giving it away in public places (add an HTML to the desktop
explaining the SCO vs IBM and Linux thing), etc. etc.

Can we get a hold of an inflatable Tux ;) We might be able to convince
the people in Nuclear Physics, RSPhysSE, ANU, if we can stick it on top
of their accelerator tower... or float it down the lake... or fill it
with helium and anchor it somewhere convenient...

Why don't we look into holding a stall at the weekly flea market at the
old train station? Most of the sellers are from computer stores that
want you to buy MS software to make money.. we could just stand there
giving away free software and explaining to people how they could
benefit from trying it out. Maybe giveaway those case stickers from
everythinglinux as long as people stick them onto the case in front of
you (they're $1 each so they're more expensive than the CDs). We could
start a nationwide project to give away CDs and each LUG team posts the
number they give away at each event, and maybe some video footage for
posterity. Of course honesty would be required but I think that's a safe
bet in this case.

Do we have a source of funding? For example from IBM, RedHat, Mandrake,
etc.? I'd be happy to help out with such projects but I'm cashless.

I think there's plenty we could talk about during and after the pizza,
just on this topic alone.

My $0.02 ;)

Have fun,
Darren




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