SCO vs IBM

[Linux Frank]

Hi Guys,

I just thought I'd post this article I found the other day. It's written by Eric Raymond, so be prepared to be preached at . Anyway we all know that SCO are going after IBM and Linux if it can, so this has relevance to us all. However here is Raymonds' quite succinct rebutal of the SCO claims.

It's a fair old read, but I am not knowledgable enough to know if everything said is accurate.

http://www.opensource.org/sco-vs-ibm.html

[Void Main]

I've been following this from day one and I for one am not too concerned about it. It's just a lash out from a dying company and if you ask me they are just trying to get what they can before the ship sinks. I never have liked SCO and have had to use their UNIX in the past in an entire department. I eventually replaced it with NT4 if that gives you any idea about how I felt about SCO. I would rather have replaced it with Linux but the vendor didn't have their software ported to Linux at the time.

[Tux]

Balls to SCO.

That's my feeling on the matter

Their case is weak anyway, and more to the point nobody liked them before this whole thing and now they will be losing any friends they had.

SCO knows its a dodo, that is the reason for this legal action.

[Membrax]

Lemme tellya, this sounds good to me :

http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-5138820.html?tag=nefd_top

"Intel chips in on anti-SCO defense fund

update Intel has gotten involved in the legal battle between the SCO Group and Linux, contributing money to a defense fund geared to protect users of the open-source operating system.

The Open Source Development Labs, an industry consortium that employs Linux leader Linus Torvalds, announced Monday that it is organizing the legal defense fund.

"It would be made available to some Linux customers that come under litigation from SCO," said the OSDL's executive director, Stuart Cohen. A subcommittee of the consortium's board of directors will decide how to allocate funds, he said.

Intel has been largely quiet in the legal case, but it and several other major computing companies are actively involved in the OSDL.

OSDL hopes to raise $10 million, Cohen said. So far it's raised $3 million from a group of companies that includes IBM, MontaVista Software and Intel.

The funding would be used to protect Linux users who are sued for Linux issues common across the industry, not for issues particular to that user or company, an OSDL representative said.

SCO, which claims to own several key Unix copyrights, argues that Unix software was illegally moved into Linux and is demanding that companies using Linux pay license fees or face legal action.

Linux uses interfaces that are covered by SCO's copyrights, SCO has argued. Thus, the use of Linux "constitutes a violation of the United States Copyright Act," the Lindon, Utah-based company has said. Legal experts have advised Linux users to see what comes of court cases before agreeing to any license deals, however.

SCO's legal actions so far have targeted IBM, though leading Linux seller Red Hat has brought a suit against SCO in return.

OSDL isn't the first to offer protective measures in the legal domain. Hewlett-Packard indemnifies its Linux customers against SCO Group actions. And Red Hat has begun a legal defense fund of its own for open-source programmers."