SCO may raise 'Linux' license fees

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Minor Correction II

According to SCO [whether or not you agree]:
SCO Group has purchased from Novell all rights to Unix; therefore, no one has any valid claim to Unix. AT&T sold Unix to USL, who sold it to Novell, who sold it to Santa Cruz Operations, who sold it to Caldera, who then became the SCO Group.

SCO is claiming that IBM has given AIX code to the Linux community -- and AIX being a version of Unix, is owned by SCO. Therefore, IBM is in violation of contract / copyright. Linux therefore becomes a derivative work of Unix and is therefore owned by SCO. It is irrelevant if you or I contribute code to Linux -- we would be contributing to a non-public derivative work of Unix that should not exist in the marketplace. Those whose contributions violated existing patents would become liable for their contributions.

SCO claims to have identified over 12,500 lines of code in Linux that originated with Unix -- some copied directly, some using different variable names, some with similar structures, etc. Granted, a mess to sort out.

According to court documents, IBM has delayed the process by not turning over the "hundreds" of variations of AIX code but instead only producing a few.

What is amazing is how much "screaming and chest beating" is occuring on the side of Linux supporters who *may have been* "seduced" by IBM. Rob Enderle, former IBM security employee, presented an interesting view of how IBM employees "could have" contributed code illegally and how middle management is covering it up.

Consider the legal consequences if Ford and GM employees both contribute proprietary code [owned respectively by Ford / GM] to Linux *on [or off] company time*. Both Ford and GM then have a legal claim against the employee and against the Linux distro / version containing the code, not to mention the problems if both Ford and GM end up using that distro in their own operations -- Ford having a claim against GM and vice-verca -- because the employees contributed "illegally." Now consider the mess if both Ford and GM are publically supporting Linux -- in effect, both have given up their proprietary / copyrighted material, right?

Whether popular or not, SCO appears to be defending its Intellectual Property rights and defending my right as a programmer to get paid for what I do.

Posted by: TlCl   Posted on: 08/11/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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