[clug] CSIRO gets SCO's threatening letter SEC: UNCLASSIFIED

Cox, Neil Neil.Cox at defence.gov.au
Mon Feb 2 05:05:01 GMT 2004


>From following arguments on www.groklaw.net and others:

1) Novell says that SCO do not have the right to cancel unix licences
(Novell licensed some rights to Unix IP to SCO)
(http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20040102193043203,
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1142898 and many others)
2) Open Source Victoria has asked the ACCC to investigate SCOs whether SCOs
actions comply with the Trade Practices Act
(http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39119283,00.htm)
3) There seems to be some doubt as to whether or not SCO can actually ask
for this information under the original licence terms
(http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20040106112439165)
4) I Novell has acquired SUSE and is indemnifying SUSE users from this sort
of thing
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/01/12/novell_launche
s_linux_indemnification_program/).


There's also lots of stuff at Leon Brooks's site
http://www.cyberknights.com.au/scoaway.phtml Cyberknights were also talking
about possible legal action against SCO a little while ago.

Of course the usual IANAL applies, but surely CSIRO has a lawyer or two that
they cold run this past.

Cheers,
Neill


-----Original Message-----
From: Michael James [mailto:Michael.James at csiro.au]
Sent: Monday, 2 February 2004 15:20
To: linux at lists.samba.org
Subject: [clug] CSIRO gets SCO's threatening letter


Seems CSIRO is being threatened under the terms of its old AT&T license.
Sounds like it's the standard SCO letter.

Anyone got a copy of such an old license? We're scrabbling to find one.

Is there a group of letter recipients forming in Australia to deal with
this?

Late last year there was talk of a "put up or shut up" motion
 similar to the German ruling, did this get going?


----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
Fwd: SCO Licencing Agreement

Michael,
Do you know if this SCO claim is being made
 against the versions of LINUX you are using?  (Suse)
If so can CSIRO make a claim
 that our old original AT&T license already covers their claim?
Any ideas/info on how CSIRO can make the claim?
The original license was bought by Maths and Stats,
 do you know anybody who would still have some knowledge?
I guess the important thing is how many hosts
 we can include in our original source agreement.
 
-----Original Message-----


The Chief Executive, CSIRO has received a letter from The SCO Group, Inc.
requiring CSIRO to report on a Licence Agreement that we have in place with
AT&T. The subsequent Agreement has been transferred to SCO and they require
CSIRO to report as per the Agreement.

 
The purpose of this email is to locate the Agreement.
The Agreement details are the following:

 

AT&T/SCO Licence No: F-SOFT-0066 - Licence Grant to Use UNIX Technology

 

We are required under the Licence to report to SCO
 on how it is being used at present. 

 I would appreciate all addressees to give this issue a high priority
 as failure to report within 30 days (by 19 Feb)
 will result in the Agreement being cancelled by SCO.



-- 
Michael James                         michael.james at csiro.au
System Administrator                    voice:  02 6246 5040
CSIRO Bioinformatics Facility             fax:  02 6246 5166


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