Money hungry software companies...

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 8:48 pm

This is quite insane. What's this world comming to? Everybody wants to sue everybody.

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The SCO Group Inc. has turned its focus to Linux customers, making it clear for the first time that it could sue them for using code that the company claims violates its intellectual property rights. Furthermore, in an effort to protect its claimed rights, SCO plans to roll out a UnixWare for Linux licensing program in the next few weeks.

"Rather than go out and just say, 'Let's go sue everybody now,' we're coming out with a well-thought-out program," SCO's CEO Darl McBride said last week while announcing the plans. "Essentially, the legal fairway we're working with just got a lot wider," he said.

Whether or not this fairway will encroach on their home turf is undoubtedly on the minds of some Linux users this week. They wonder why Linux vendors such as Red Hat Inc. and IBM Corp. will not indemnify their customers, and why they should pay a license based on IP (intellectual property) violations that have not yet been publicly disclosed, much less proven in a court of law.

"This is more of a PR move in an attempt to put pressure on end-user organization to put pressure on IBM to settle quickly," said Dan Kuznetsky, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based IDC. Like other observers, he questioned the wisdom of buying an SCO license sight unseen. "What happens if they lose? Are they going to issue refunds? The cart and the horse are in reverse order here."

"I think everybody who is involved should be monitoring the situation, but I don't think there is any cause for sudden alarm or hasty actions," said Jeffrey Neuberger, an IP lawyer at the New York firm Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner, who has been following the case. "History shows that these things have a way of working out. This is a very high-profile case, but it's very likely that it will be resolved in a way that leaves the user base untouched," he said.

Customers can do a number of things to mitigate their risk, Kuznetsky said, starting with a call to their Linux vendor. "If I was an IBM customer, I'd turn to IBM and say, 'What are you doing for me?'" IBM, for example, has said it plans to stand by its users, but a frank discussion about the terms of customers' primary agreements may shed some light on what exactly that means.

For those who are not comfortable with the wait-and-see approach, there is always BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution). Its features are similar to Linux's, but it was already the subject of a protracted copyright dispute in the 1990s, so BSD users are considered to be a less likely target for SCO's lawyers.

Those looking for an insurance policy against a lawsuit can simply factor the cost of a UnixWare license into their budgets. While Lindon, Utah-based SCO has yet to announce the cost of its UnixWare for Linux license, the company says that current UnixWare licensing fees are in the ballpark of what they'll be charging. A single user, single processor UnixWare 7.1.3 Base Edition license costs $720.

source

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 10:05 pm

I am totally confused here.

Could someone quickly explain?

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 10:35 pm

I sort of am too, but what it seems like is that a company that makes Linuxware which is probably some kind of network linux distro wants to sue people for using it, or something, because they want you to have a license, but technically linux is open source so ... I don't know... lol

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megaspaz · Post by **megaspaz** » Tue Jul 29, 2003 1:05 am

basically, sco at first sued ibm stating that ibm broke it's contract with them (the reality is that sco products sucked and became irrelevant quickly in both unix and linux). then somewhere down the line, it turned to linux has stolen ip from the patents sco bought from novell in regards the system v and that linux got the stolen ip from ibm. sco refuses to reveal which code since they don't want the linux community to fix it. plus system v is pretty worthless now anyway since it's pretty common knowledge since there's a variety of print and publications on unix including system v. sco, still isn't giving up on their lawsuit against ibm and trying to trick everyone into thinking they're running code using stolen ip. now they're using that fud to try to trick everyone into buying a unixware license. but if you want the skinny on sco and this drama, go to http://www.slashdot.org and you'll figure out exactly how many people will be purchasing that unixware license. no one. companies on the other hand who use gartner for their tech information will either hold off on linux migration or be stupid enough to purchase such a license. if anyone works for said company, my apologies for any possible insult you may have felt.... but your company is stupid.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1151, old post ID:10140