SCO Derides GPL, Will Revoke SGI's UNIX License 681
larry2k writes "PR newswire has an open letter from SCO to IBM.
From the letter: 'SCO believes that the GPL -- created by the Free Software Foundation to supplant current U.S. copyright laws -- is a shaky foundation on which to build a legal case.'" The release is also carried by NewsForge. Among other things, SCO says "By so strongly defending the controversial GPL, IBM is also defending a questionable licensing scheme through which it can avoid providing software indemnification for its customers."
Doesn't supplant mean "replace"? That's not what the GPL does.
And if you're wondering why you have not received an invoice from SCO for any Linux-based OS you may be running, benploni writes "From Groklaw: In this Detroit News story Blake Stowell explains why no one has received an invoice: 'SCO in August said Linux users could avoid lawsuits by paying a one-time fee of $699. The fee will rise to $1,399 on Oct. 15. Since the response to its appeal was adequate, SCO didn't send bills to thousands of Linux users, company spokesman Blake Stowell said.' [emphasis added]. We all knew there was no way they'd risk actually sending out invoices, and here's the proof."
The problem with business (Score:1, Interesting)
Indemnification DDOS (Score:5, Interesting)
SCO has been shouting that since the beginning. My bet is they have a legal DDOS already planned to sue every single one of IBM's customers. By IBM providing indeminification, they would be swamped responding to the individual claims. It may be hard to take out a 800lb gorilla with a slingshot, but half a million mosquitoes will suck one dry.
I remember an article or discussion in the last week about Darl getting a bonus and the freedom to cash out more stock once SCO has 4 consecutive profitable quarters. Febuary 4th would round this out nicely. Then Darl is free to jump ship and watch it burn. I'm sure someone will post the link below
Same old same old (Score:2, Interesting)
ulterior motives? (Score:4, Interesting)
IBM To Buy Out Novell? (Score:5, Interesting)
Stupid SCO (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:IBM To Buy Out Novell? (Score:3, Interesting)
Indemnification (Score:5, Interesting)
WHY ISN'T SCO OFFERING ITS CUSTOMERS INDEMNIFICATION AGAINST IBM'S CLAIMS???????
SCO has shown that they believe that indemnifying customers over alleged violations of IP is critical to a business. Why won't they offer it themselves?
Grab your popcorn! (Score:5, Interesting)
Bel, the mostly sane..
Joe's got a great letter but... (Score:5, Interesting)
You might be interested in reading this article at MetroActive.com [metroactive.com]
Excerpt:
In the chapter "My Contact," Firmage writes that in the white-hot weeks leading up to USWeb's IPO, a year ago, he was awakened by his alarm at 6:10am one morning but then he decided to hit the snooze instead of going to the gym.
"A remarkable being, clothed in brilliant white light, appeared hovering over my bed in my room," he writes. "Out of him emerged an electric blue sphere, just smaller than a basketball, which was swirling with what looks like electrical arcs. It left his body, floated down, and entered me."
Firmage soon founded the International Space Sciences Organization with $3 million of his own money to administer a project he called "Kairos," a Greek word meaning "the right moment" or "a critical time." Firmage believes we live in a "kairos" in which humanity is finally advanced enough to comprehend alien beings.
Not that Joe is wrong but this is just another interesting insight into this guy.
I loved the point he made about what if Physics, etc were developed based on proprietary interests. zinnnnnnnnnnnnng!
Mor[m]ons are buying. (Score:3, Interesting)
Word is that the Salt Lake Tribune(?) published one of those "SCO -- which is a 'best performing stock' with +800% -- is run by nice Mormons, IBM is the evil Goliath"-articles today.
/. and SCO (Score:5, Interesting)
There's an article refering to SGI's stuff (The Linux in Hollywood one) this morning and now McBride starts pointing a finger at them too. I wonder how many SCO FUD Spinners read
Re:The problem with SCO's business (Score:3, Interesting)
After domesticated horses have been let loose and have bread in the wild it is a tough claim to make for the original horse owners to lay stake to this offspring. Especially if the owners left the barn door open on purpose.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world.
Those who understand binary and those who don't.
Re:Stock? (Score:5, Interesting)
this may be a stupid question, but I'm curious (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, when this case finally gets to trial, and SCO loses (God willing), could the company turn around and sue for extortion/other illegality, since it has been proven in court that SCO has no legal basis to enforce/collect licensing fees?
Re:Pro-Linux Conspiracy (Score:2, Interesting)
http://oss.sgi.com/letter_100103.txt
My prediction (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why does SCO want IBM to provide indemnificatio (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, I just came to the same conclusion myself, took me a little bit.
It seemed very odd to me that SCO has called for "user" indemnification from IBM (and others) for some time.
But makes sense, it is just part of a strategy to try to "maximize" possible litigation extort... er ... income.
Joe Linux-user has practically empty pockets, IBM has very large money filled pockets. If Joe Linux-user has indemnity from IBM, we can sue him, tying up some IBM money and resources, and possibly gain a nice settlement as a result.
We sue enough of em, and that would give us leverage to force IBM's hand to buy us out to shut us up and remove us as a thorn in their side. Bwahahahaha, ain't SCO brilliant?
Unfortunately, IBM is basically saying "Hey, SCO. Homey don't play dat."
Regards,
Fredrick
Re:Why does SCO want IBM to provide indemnificatio (Score:3, Interesting)
SCO really thought IBM would quietly settle. They probably pissed their pants when IBM called their bluff. So they are trying to exert pressure on IBM thru IBM's customers by stirring up this idea of indemnification.
For me, this hypothesis passes the "Ockham's Razor" test. Simple and believable.
Re: Stock? (Score:5, Interesting)
> I can accept that.
Why, because it makes no sense? I've heard people say things like that before, yet it seems to defy logic.
One lemming is perfectly normal. A whole group of them is not. If only one is stupid and jumps off a cliff, then the rest follow. Another example is crowd, and how they will panic as a group, like a concert, and end up killing others accidently.
How often have you been in an audience of some sort, not paying attention, but everyone started clapping, so you did too? A minor, but common, example.
My personal conclusion would be that an individual thinks as an individual, as long as he is alone, but when he is in a group, he will defer his own opinions and follow the majority of those around him, assuming the majority knows best. I would bet money that this is an instictual reaction for man and animal, akin to "follow the herd and stay together to stay safe".
Re:Fire up the photocopiers! (Score:5, Interesting)
355 South 520 West
Suite 100
Lindon, Utah 84042 USA
801-765-4999 phone
801-765-1313 fax
Actually, if i wanted to do some harm, I would suggest that the masses do the same thing that was recently done to a notorious spammer: search for "free catalog" on the internet and fill in the information with Darl's name and SCO's information. If a few thousand people did a few hundred catalog requests each, this would mean about a ton of mail a day.
Now, I am sure they get a ton of mail as it is, normal mail, bills, hate mail, etc. but this still sucks to have to deal with. DDOM (distributed denial of mail)
If you have the bucks, and use a good LD service like the 10-10-987 at 3 cents a minute, you could just fax them thousands of pages that have only one word on the front. I bet they use a paper fax machine. At least it would tie it up for legitimate use if enough people would war dial it. Would also work with the regular number, with people keeping their phone tied up by asking stupid questions.
I guess we could all order pizzas from the local dominoes to be delivered there, but I think they would catch on to 10,000 pizza's being ordered and thats not fair to them....
Yea, nasty kiddie stuff, but fun as hell to at least think about.
Re:Mor[m]ons are buying. (Score:5, Interesting)
As a Utah transplant I would characterize the "The Trib" simply a less pro-mormon publication. I wouldn't thik it's possible to have the circulation that The Trib has and be anti-mormon. I can't speak for the first 40 years of its existance but displaying a shred of balance is far from what I would call anti-mormon.
I also would characterize the Trib's coverage as pro SCO. Headlines and first paragraphs consistently tell SCO's side while the very end of an article will have a couple quotes from the other side. I can easily see how someone who wants to invest in good clean profitable Utah companies could read the Trib and fall for the SCO point of view.
Re: Stock? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: Stock? (Score:5, Interesting)
The observation that "a person is smart, people are dumb" is a useful simplification of the differences between individual psychology and group psychology. Quite simply, people act differently in groups than they do when they believe they are solitary. Usually, they cede some of their decision making to the group consensus. Not always, and only to a certain extent, but any number of experiments have been completed that substantiate that assertion.
As a result of this evidence, media, marketing, and politics have all evolved to take advantage of group psychology. Further, people spending any time in those professions generally opine that people are rather stupid. But when you and I look around and talk to our friends and family, we generally observe that we are among fairly smart people. That dichotomy goes directly back to the statement you objected to.
So forget about the ants. Analogies only stretch so far and the breadth of variety in nature is absolutely breathtaking. If there ever was an psychological opposite to the ant, we're probably it.
Regards,
Ross
Profits after termination... (Score:3, Interesting)
quotes (Score:2, Interesting)
I cannot point you directly to the quotes, but this is exactly what they mean by the GPL not standing up. It is bizarre. And it seems based on the common fallacy of thinking that once you have the code you are in the clear... the idea that it's not illegal to possess copyrighted material, just to recieve it. Somehow, they think they can invalidate the GPL in the sense that there are no possible monetary damages. I.e. the damages of violating the GPL have no monetary value and therefore are nothing to worry about.
It may be true about the monetary damages (but I doubt it... there are other ways to set value to the code, e.g. you can use SCOs $1400/CPU figure. ) Anyway, even if that's true it's clear that you would be enjoined from using the GPLed code... you might not get a penny, but at the very least the user would have to stop using the code.
Now a lost of IANAL types makes this mistake, and quite a few lawyers will argue it for a fee, but there is no way it will come down like that in court.
Re:IBM To Buy Out Novell? (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, it makes more sense now, than ever before.
Novell licensed Unix to SCO for selling Unix, right?
So, IBM buys Novell, pulls the carpet out from under SCO, and tells them "We own Unix now, you we are terminating your license/agreement/contract with regards to selling/distributing and supporting System V Unix".
Then take the code that IBM now owns (from Novell) and GPL the whole lot!
Maybe a little far fetched, but could happen. I am not holding my breath over it, as it would just be too sweet a deal, if it should happen.
Regards,
Fredrick
Re:Stock? (Score:2, Interesting)
- enforceable, the part of the GPL that says recipients can redistribute;
- non-enforceable, (some of) the extra conditions imposed on the redistributor.
Surely, "free redistribution, but only to males" would not hold. But then the question is how it would fail. If the copyright holder sues someone for redistributing to females, will the outcome be to remove the restriction, or (as you claim) to disallow redistribution entirely?Re:validity of GPL (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Fire up the photocopiers! (Score:1, Interesting)
Hmm, I gues this has been moded up to level 5
because the Linux community is so ethical.
Re:Grab your popcorn! (Score:3, Interesting)
I was asked once why a colleague was always causing problems. It seemed impossible to figure out why he did what he did. My comment was--you're assuming there is a real purpose behind his actions. Sometimes, people simply operate at a level above their intellectual capacity and what you take for malice is merely an inability to comprehend the consequences of their actions.
And sometimes, people are simply nuts. And it happens a lot more often than most would expect.
A good friend of mine and I have worked at several different companies together, including a couple of startups at which all sorts of insane and imposssible-to-explain things happened. We were also commuting together, so we spend a full 90 minutes every day jointly wracking our brains and trying to figure out just what deep, nefarious plan they were executing, because clearly it had to be very devious, full of misdirection, based on the seeming irrationality of their actions.
Then one day, it dawned on us: Their actions *were* irrational. Period. After I understood the idea that a certain percentage of otherwise successful people are actually crazy in minor but occasionally significant ways, I began to recognize what was really going on in all sorts of odd situations.
And I also noticed that sane, levelheaded people tend to assume, a priori, that their colleagues, coworkers, bosses, etc. are similarly rational. 98% of the time, they're right, but that 2% can really mess with your head.
In one of the situations I mentioned, we found very clear evidence of the individual's instability when we discovered some of his forgotten writings left in a desk we were given to use. I'm a religious guy and believe in visions and revelations, for certain times and certain purposes, but the notion that this dweeb had been told by God Himself to start this company to do God's Work just made me bray like a donkey.