SCO selling Linux licenses online

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The SCO Group is also claiming "ownership" of BSD base and Microsoft

The SCO Group have also claimed that users of the BSD based distributions and even Microsoft users themself are using their "Unix" without a license.

http://www.byte.com/documents/s=8276/byt1055784622054/0616_marshall.html"So
"you want royalties from FreeBSD as well?" I asked. Sontag responded that "there may or may not be issues. We believe that UNIX System V provided the basic building blocks for all subsequent computer operating systems, and that they all tend to be derived from UNIX System V (and therefore are claimed as SCO's intellectual property)."

"So is anybody clean? What about Apple and Microsoft?" I wondered. "Sun is clean," he said?but he gave no answer in regards to Apple and Microsoft.

"But I thought that Microsoft had signed a license agreement?" "No," Sontag said. Microsoft merely licensed an "applications interface layer."


The position for BSD users is worse than for Linux users because, unlike the GPL license the BSD license does not grant the actual right to use the patented methord used within the code.


The SCO Group is effectively scamming Linux Users with a variation of the "Data Protection Scam"
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22data+protection+scam%22

Check with your local "Better Business Bureau" if this is in violation of local Fair Trade Acts and Unfair Practices Acts.

1) The SCO Greop has already effectively granted all downstream users of the right to use the Linux kernel under the terms of the Gnu General Public License (GPL).
Since 1994, both Caldera ( which only changed its name to The SCO Group in 2003 ) and the Santa Cruz Operation ( The original SCO which changed its name to Tarentella ) have accepted, profited from and redistributed copyrighted source code from hundreds of developers under the terms of the GPL license.
http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html
The SCO Group has failed to put forward ANY substantial legal theory why the SCO Group should not be obligated to abide by the terms of the GPL.
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/sco/sco-without-fear.html
Linux Users already have a license -- the GPL.
The SCO Group is pulling a scam selling unnecessary licenses under terms that directly violate the SCO Group's obligations under the General Public License (GPL).

2) It is a criminal offense to claim, with fraudulent intent, that you have a copyright if you do not. The SCO Group does *NOT* hold the copyrights to the UNIX source code. Novell has *NOT* transfered the title for the works that the SCO Group fraudulently filed for copyright in 2003 when the title has not been transfered. Novell claims it has the right to hold the copyright. The SCO Group do not have the right to sue anybody for violation of copyright works without the assent of the title holder.

3) The SCO Group's claims the right to sue for work in standard UNIX and POSIX interfaces that AT&T and Novell granted full rights to use royalty free in perpetuity for the ISO, ANSI and FIPS federal standards.

4) The SCO Group's contract claims against IBM and others based upon the AT&T license in respect to rights of so called derivative works is in direct contradiction to evidence presented to the SCO Group by Novell.

5) The SCO Group though the press and SEC filings, has bolstered the share price of the SCO Group based upon demonstrably false claims to the contrary of above points 1,2 and 3. The SCO Group CEOs and legal agents were notified by Novell and IBM to the fact *before* the SCO Group made these false claims and presented them as fact. The actions of the SCO Group must be in violation of several US SEC regulations.

The SCO Group is effectively scamming Linux Users with a variation of the "Data Protection Scam"
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22data+protection+scam%22

Check with your local "Better Business Bureau" if this is in violation of local Fair Trade Acts and Unfair practices Acts.

Posted by: David Mohring   Posted on: 02/23/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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