[clug] Online protest against SCO

[Martin Pool]

On 27 May 2003, Simon Haddon <simon at sibern.com.au> wrote:

> According to SCO it is not the specifics of the code that they are 
> concerned about.  It is the similarity that they are saying infringes on 
> their IP.

SCO have made several contradictory statements over time, but they are
now saying that there is verbatim SCO code in the Linux kernel.

  http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?thold=-1&mode=nested&order=0&sid=6877

Amongst other things SCO say

 - IBM, by helping Linux, is contributing to the decline of SCO's
   business.  (True, but not illegal.)

 - There must be SCO code in Linux because it would be impossible for
   it to be so good otherwise.  (Obviously ridiculous.)

 - IBM breached their contract with SCO by copying SCO proprietary
   code into Linux.

 - Ditto for SCO's trade secrets revealed to IBM under a nondisclosure
   agreement.

 - Other parties breached SCO's copyright by copying SCO code into
   Linux before IBM was involved.

Somebody accurately compared SCO to the Raellians, who got a lot of
press by claiming to have cloned a human but have been awfully slow to
actually show a baby.

Once SCO point out the particular files it ought to be pretty
straightforward to prove the matter one way or another, even without
SCO code to compare it to.  The person who submitted the code to Linux
can explain where it came from, whether that be  invention from
scratch or inspiration by BSD or ancient Unix code.

-- 
Martin 

linux.conf.au 2004: Adelaide, Australia         http://lca2004.linux.org.au/