[clug] CSIRO gets SCO's threatening letter

[Daniel Smith]

On Mon, Feb 02, 2004 at 05:43:08PM +1100 or thereabouts, Anthony David wrote:
> Michael James <Michael.James at csiro.au> writes:
> 
> > Seems CSIRO is being threatened under the terms of its old AT&T license.
> > Sounds like it's the standard SCO letter.

Nope. The old SCO letter was Fortune 500 companies, who were either
known Linux users or Previous Xenix/UnixWare/OpenServer customers.

This appears to be closer to SCO vs. IBM/SGI/HP inasmuch as
they are fishing for "inappropriate use" of IP obtained under
the AT+T UNIX Source Licence.

Anybody got "Mentally contaminated" badges from back in the
AT+T vs Regents era? 

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

I'm guessing that these are not entirely interchangable.
Seeing as any Universities that obtained a licence would have
done so under Academic provisions, where CSIRO may have wanted at the time
to sell UNIX based products (CSIROnix? BHAGnix?).

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

Mmm. I think there will be fairly shortly.

> Solidarity is important. As long as licensees are unaware of other's actions
> SCO has the tactical advantage. Especially among Government and
> its agencies. I wonder if SCO have served UNSW or the Dept of Defence(
> guessing they would have acquired an AT&T licence or two, including
> source licenses).

Regardless, suing "City Hall" is a manifestly stupid idea.
They have the ability to make life "difficult".

Especially if you are engaging in "questionable" behaviour WRT the
stock market.

I'll shutup now, before I say anything that will get me lynched.

Daniel
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My views do not represent those of my employer.