McBride's New Open Letter on Copyrights 770
dtfinch writes "An open letter was posted today by Darl McBride, where he restates his claim that the GPL violates the U.S. Constitution, patent laws, copyright laws, and the DMCA. Mostly he just builds up a false image of the Free Software Foundation and open source supporters claiming that they have no respect for intellectual property and believe copyrights should be eliminated, then attacks that image, AKA the straw man attack. Nothing we haven't seen before."
Irony abounds. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Irony abounds. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Irony abounds. (Score:4, Insightful)
honestly, he doesn't care if anyone on this site believes him or not (unless his mom is reading that is...)
Re:Irony abounds. (Score:5, Informative)
They couldn't care less about the "Linux license" pocket money. And as it is, all SCO needs is a PR and law departments, so if other employees go away, that would only be convenient. And somehow I don't see him caring the slight bit about what his mom thinks of SCO business practices, either...
Re:Irony abounds. (Score:5, Interesting)
They have stated that "one anonymous Fortune 1000 company" has bought a license and I deeply suspect it's either Microsoft or that holding firm (the Canopy group IIRC)
There are only 2 groups here:
Re:Irony abounds. (Score:5, Interesting)
SCO won't survive the IBM counter claim for sure.
Re:Irony abounds. (Score:5, Insightful)
Disclaimer: I work in Public Relations.
That having been said, CEOs and the like never, ever, write press releases themselves. And an open letter is just that -- a press release. Call it whatever you want, but that's the purpose it serves.
CEOs and CFOs and Presidents and the like don't write letters themselves because writing is generally not what they're good at -- and if they are, that's incidental. Most large corporations have an entire PR department whose only purpose is to handle, wait for it, public relations.
The mark of any good manager is the ability to delegate responsibility effectively. You may be a fair writer, but if your reputation and your company's are at stake, why not hire an expert?
For the record, I think Darl McBride is a fscking moron. But the fact that he didn't write the open letter shouldn't come as a surprised to anyone familiar with corporate culture.
Re:Irony abounds. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Irony abounds. (Score:4, Funny)
I find the word "work" and phrase "Public Relations" to be inconsistant with each other.
I suggest you use the alternative statement, "I lie for money."
Re:Irony abounds. (Score:5, Insightful)
But I work in a non-descript brick building in a small town in upstate New York. How ever will people learn of our product?
Advertising -- and Public Relations.
Now, I want to tell you why you want to buy it. But it's kind of complicated. I only have a 15 second radio spot. Which of these messages do you suppose is more effective?
1) Widgets are designed to PDQ your YSZ using ASD technology licensed from ZX. They are sufficient for small to medium clients.
of
2) Widgets are freakin' awesome, man. I don't need to tell you. There's all this technology in there but you'll never know anything about it except that you have more time and more room to breath when you use it.
#2 is full of exaerations, vague descriptions and is incomplete. But if they entice you to take a closer look, BAM! Good enough.
You're all taking a VERY close look at SCO's arguments at the moment. Ordinarily that would be a marketting success, but since SCO only has old or stolen products, I'd say maybe they should be averting your gaze a little bit...
Re:Irony abounds. (Score:5, Informative)
Indeed. That's why it was published on Dec 4th... one day before Dec 5th when the judge has scheduled oral arguements the 3 motions to compel discovery (2 by IBM against SCO and 1 by SCO against IBM).
I'm not going to make predictions about what the judge will say or do tommorrow... but I will predict that this diversionary tactic doesn't prevent coverage of whatever the judge says.
can't have been written by lawyers (Score:5, Insightful)
That letter can't have been written by a lawyer: it just makes no sense whatsoever. Even someone who ordered his law degree by mail would know better.
The letter argues that because the FSF takes a certain political view of copyrights, its copyright-related contracts are invalid and violate the US constitution. That's roughly like saying that you would lose your drivers license because you have stated that cars are bad for the environment.
Fortunately, we live in a country where one's political views don't generally affect the validity of the contracts we enter in.
Re:Irony abounds. (Score:5, Informative)
IAAL. I can assure you that the PR people wrote it with a smattering of legalese dusted on top. The "arguments" are incoherent, the "authorities" are off the point while the rant at the outset about copy-left, etc. is completely irrelevant.
I must admit to admiring the ability to spout this rubbish with a straight face.
Closed Letter (Score:5, Funny)
You are in violation of copyright law, as I have copyrighted this letter and encoded it using an advanced version of english which we have developed at SCO group.. Each sentence, as you can see, ends in two puncuation marks, however, you seem to be able to read the text just fine..
We regret to inform you that there is no possible other implementation for this english derivative, is our copyright, and therefore, you must be circumventing our extremely intelligent and work with the intent of profit..
Sincerely,
Darl McBride
Re:Closed Letter (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Closed Letter -- pedantic spell checking is fun (Score:5, Interesting)
'ye shalt' is then wrong. 'thou shalt'
'readeth' is not a proper conjugation, simply use 'read'.
'ye hearts' should be 'thy heart dost'
'I am using ye' => 'I be using the'
'hast thou hearest' => 'hast thou not heard'
'Remindest' is an improper combining of dost. Drop the do, and add an apostrophe: Remind'st
'ones'? just 'one' will do.
Most humbly, I remain _thy_ servant...
Re:Closed Letter -- pedantic spell checking is fun (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Closed Letter (Score:5, Informative)
Red Hat has aggressively lobbied Congress to eliminate software patents and copyrights.
However, after visiting the site, the only word used is "patent," the only occurance of "copyright" is at the bottom of the page claiming that it's a © of Redhat.
exactly (Score:3, Insightful)
Darl's argument:
#1, Red Hat is anti-american, because we say they are against Patents and copyrights.
#2, evidence is shown that they are against software patents, with a copywright notice at the bottom.
#3, Conclusion: Red hat is bad because we say they are against patents and copywrights.
This is idiotic. It's obvious he's just making unsupported claims here. Darl & SCO are retarded and have no leg to stand on. I just hope the NYT points it o
Ok then. (Score:4, Insightful)
Yet it qualifies as news here. No wonder McBride keeps running his mouth (:
Re:Ok then. (Score:5, Insightful)
Myself... I found the part where he talked about the glory of copyright where the author could do anything he wanted with it and then moaned and complained that he can't take GPL code and make it proprietary rather poetic.
Re:Ok then. (Score:5, Insightful)
bre-x was a mining company with a large stake in indonesia. although the stake was considered to be mediocre at best, bre-x brought back some core samples for assay that showed insanely high gold concentrations. shortly thereafter, bre-x announced that they had a 210 million oz find (at $300 an ounce... well, do the math)
it was all faked, of course. they had "salted" the core samples (literally sprinkling gold into the crushed "ore") and then spun the results as far as they would go. the result was an astronomical stock price and a lot of very very rich directors and geologists.
by the time that anyone had figured out that the whole thing was a pum and dump, most of the directors had fled to the grand caymans - except for one who "fell" (possibly pushed) from a helicopter over the indonesian jungle.
bottom line: five people got wealthy of a pack of lies, thousands lost their life savings on stock, one lost his life. it's the exact same business model with sco... yet apparently investors haven't learned a damn thing.
Re:Ok then. (Score:5, Funny)
Surely.. (Score:5, Funny)
basis in law! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:basis in law! (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, quite a few EULAs outside the United States are based in copyright law. Many countries' copyright traditions don't recognize an equivalent of 17 USC 117 [cornell.edu], which states that copying a program into RAM is not infringement; the owner of even an authorized copy needs special permission from the copyright owner to load it into RAM, and a EULA provides this permission.
Re:basis in law! (Score:5, Informative)
Nevertheless, there is little need in the US for EULAs.
If it is nothing new... (Score:3, Insightful)
Everyone, breathe in, breathe out. Chill. Just chill.
Re:If it is nothing new... (Score:5, Insightful)
closed source please (Score:5, Funny)
Left something out? (Score:5, Funny)
Yep, the GPL is REALLY BAD! (Score:5, Funny)
1) The GPL kills small cute furry animals.
2) The GPL causes cancer in laboratory animals.
3) The GPL encourages terrorism.
4) It hurts THE CHILDREN.
5) Reciting the text of the GPL backwards will cause the appearance of the Anti-Christ and will initiate the apocalypse.
Re:Yep, the GPL is REALLY BAD! (Score:5, Funny)
Y'know, that's not wholly untrue. I did that a few years back, when everybody thought Gore had won.
Re:Yep, the GPL is REALLY BAD! (Score:4, Funny)
EEEK
Re:Yep, the GPL is REALLY BAD! (Score:5, Funny)
9) Costs you VOTES
10) Increase lethal accident rates
11) Increases crime rates
12) Electrocutes birds
13) Contains dangerous amounts of bacteria
14) Causes hurricanes and earthquakes
15) Second-hand GPL kills people
16) Eats away at 401k-plans
17) Causes rolling blackouts
18) Is illegal but has a california drivers license (but mows your lawn)
18b) Makes tasteless jokes
19) Doesn't give enough change back at the register
20) Has cooties
21) Breaks for no apparent reason
22) Cuts people off in traffic
23) Doesn't signal for a turn
24) Skips commercials on TV.
25) Downloads Music from the Internet
26) Masturbates daily
27) Doesn't go to church
28) Uses coarse language including F-words a lot
29) Keeps the toilet seat up
30) Farts, Burps, Smells, doesn't groom.
31) Are you still reading this>
How long must the list be?
* Click "Post Anonymously". Submit.
if it's yours... you can give it away! (Score:3, Insightful)
"The software license adopted by the GPL is called "copy left " by its authors. This is because the GPL has the effect of requiring free and open access to Linux (and other) software code and prohibits any proprietary use thereof. As a result, the GPL is exactly opposite in its effect from the "copy right " laws adopted by the US Congress and the European Union."
This makes it seem as though software writers are being persecuted by having their code forcibly ripped from their hands and given away for free. What new (or revivalist?) idiocy is this? They left out the whole part where the creator chooses to release it under the GPL or not.
The open letter they discarded (Score:5, Funny)
deconstucting the constitution (Score:5, Interesting)
Nowhere do I recall ever reading anything on compensation, that to me is more of an ethical issue if you ask me, but IANAL so I really don't want to stick my foot in my mouth... Or the kb in my ass. As I take the Constitution regarding copyrights is just as stated 'securing for limited times the exclusive right to their work'. SCO is turning this into a circus fanfare with a) either money the underlying issue, or b) other entities are using SCO as a puppet to do their deeds.
However, there is a group of software developers in the United States, and other parts of the world, that do not believe in the approach to copyright protection mandated by Congress. In the past 20 years, the Free Software Foundation and others in the Open Source software movement have set out to actively and intentionally undermine the U.S. and European systems of copyrights and patents.
This is serioulsy bold, and slanderous statement of this guy to make, and I'm wondering who's going to be the first to open a can of lawsuit ass on SCO. It's one thing to make known your beliefs, but to claim someone is intentionally breaking a law is no laughing matter. Pretty ballsy move. Stupid but ballsy.
Leaders of the FSF have spent great efforts, written numerous articles and sometimes enforced the provisions of the GPL as part of a deeply held belief in the need to undermine or eliminate software patent and copyright laws.
Know something, I couldn't even finish reading it because it's so dull, overrated, cumbersome to understand, and downright dumb at this point. Isn't it about time someone maybe IBM or some other bigwig came in the picture, did a hostile takeover and demoted this clown to mailroom janitor, or parking lot car washer.
Re:deconstucting the constitution (Score:4, Interesting)
His statement was neither libel nor slander. It was a twisting of the truth into something that, while still true, misrepresents intention.
The FSF (and others) believe that progress is made through openness, just as Darl (and his other brother Darl) says. But, they are not trying to "undermine" all copyright and patents-- just those relating to information. And, "undermine" is a loaded word. Rather, the FSF appears to be trying to modify the current system into something that does not allow the hoarding of information.
Me, I see that most of the really hard scientific progress was done in the open, when people were free to use ideas and concepts without threat of litigation. So, I agree with the FSF.
But, YMMV, of course.
Re:deconstucting the constitution (Score:5, Interesting)
So my summary of what Darl of SCO is saying is this:
The GPL is unconstitutional, because the GPL allows people to limit the use and distribution of their writings and discoveries to only those people who do not intent to use copyright or patent law to subdue it.
So, basically, Darl of SCO is saying that he realizes that SCO has distributed Linux under GPL after he knew about what he claims as his infringement of SCO IP. And because that distribution would negate all his claims of infringed IP, he has no other choice but to dispute the legality of the GPL. Well, maybe he doesn't realize that, but at least his lawyers did.
The only other alternative, accepting to have knowingly broken the terms of the GPL license by distributing GPL-licensed software while not agreeing with the terms of the license would not make sense, and according to the law of Chewbacca defense lead to immediate aquittal of his case.
BTW: Who else confuses WindRiver and WinDriver?
Re:deconstucting the constitution (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a very interesting point you have there, one I had not considered. Of course, I believe he fails to see the flaw in his argument. That flaw is obvious, really...
SCO's distribution of Linux under GPL wasn't wholly their IP. They didn't create it from nothing here. Perhaps some of it was, certainly, but there's certainly a lot of it that was part of the Linux kernel, or a contribution by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of open source developers. They own the copyright on all that code, and they released it under the GPL. The GPL is essentially their license to let SCO used their copyrighted code. If SCO rejects the GPL or is successful in having it overturned, they don't magically get all that copyrighted code. Instead they get a big class action suit smacking them square in the face for copyright infringement, because now they've used other people's copyrighted material, without permission, for profit, etc, etc...
I just don't think SCO realizes the depth and power of the GPL. It's based upon copyright law itself. If you overturn it, then you fall back to the normal copyright law, which states that you can't use copyrighted code, period. It doesn't matter that the developer has shown it to the world, it's still that developer's property, and it is not SCO's to use. Fighting the GPL is not smart, because even if you win, you lose.
Re:deconstucting the constitution (Score:5, Interesting)
You're missing an essemtial part of Darl's reasoning. Darl believes his company owns the rights to Unix and to all derivative works. If true, then all the Linux kernel developers have been extending and improving a derivative of the original Unix (never mind that Linus started from scratch). Not only that, they've been doing it without permission of the copyright holder and it doesn't matter that these derivatives are GPL'd because they're illegal, unauthorized copies.
Note: I'm not supporting Darl, I'm just trying to show that he could very well be ignoring the possibility of legal retaliation by the kernel developers simply because he believes they don't have a leg to stand on.
Hilarious stuff in here... (Score:5, Insightful)
Technology leadership? In 1986?! During the height of the Japanese bubble? This guy cracks me up! You're such a card, McBride.
--AC
Re:Hilarious stuff in here... (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the word you are looking for is asshole, not card.
McBride started off as funny, but the fact this has already gone on long enough, and Darl McBride is still sitting there trying to ruin open source and all it stands for, has just really started to wear thin with me.
I can't wait for IBM's lawyers to do him over - "Do you hear me talking hillbilly boy?!"
Amusing quote (Score:5, Insightful)
"...without protection, American companies would unfairly lose technology advantages to companies in other countries through piracy, as had happened in the 1970's.
This statement offers no explanation, whatsoever.
Don't they (Score:5, Interesting)
If I remember right, tomorrow is the oral discovery arguments for their case against IBM. Doesn't this mean that tomorrow they have to actually justify their unwillingness to clarify the nature of their case and answer to a judge for it?
Can't wait to see what that does to their stock.
Am I totally mistaking the nature of Discovery, but doesn't it mean that any evidence they haven't submitted by tomorrow, they can't use in the case? Meaning if they don't clarify their violations, rather than just giving the names of a bunch of documents (some of which contain nothing but some #includes and a "not implemented" comment), the "linux community" can then go around confidently stating that no such violations exist?
When's Redhat's Lanham Act case get to hit court to ask for injunctions?
Anyway, it probably wouldn't be too far-out to assume Darl's letter is some kind of diversionary tactic. Or that they won't try to do something even bigger and noisier tomorrow to draw attention away from the court.
Re:Don't they......they don't..... (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't believe that tommorrow means the close of items which they could possibly bring to trial... The issue is that, IBM has twice demanded information, they have claimed that IBM needs to give them some too (so they're bad too..).
Most interesting is Darl's statement that "this nonsense will continue for 18 more months...we've got a schedule with MS to keep..."
THAT'S INTERESTING!!!!...he's finally put a schedule behind how long they are going to keep this up.
Re:Don't they......they don't..... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm assuming that the judge will simply get angry at the foot-dragging and set some type of time-table for discovery to move forward. If SCO still doesn't produce anything by the end of the timeline, the judge might set another hearing to accept motions on behalf of dissmissal.
All in all, Darl's right. It's gonna be 18 months till this case gets thrown out (even over failure to produce during discovery)....I think they (SCO) will stretc
Re:Don't they......they don't..... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Don't they......they don't..... (Score:5, Funny)
You're dealing with an entity that:
- Technically died a long time ago, but hasn't stopped moving
- Needs to suck the lifeforce out of other entities to ensure its own survival
You don't simply bury something like that. You need to cut off its head and put a stake through its heart first.Re:Don't they (Score:5, Interesting)
That is a gross oversimplification but it's basically what it boils down to. Based on the results of tomorrow's hearing, the parties will probably be required to return to court in a month or two to see if they've followed the court's orders.
So you're just a bit off on your understanding of discovery. Tomorrow's hearing is not the end of the discovery process; basically, it's a chance for the two sides and the magistrate judge to assess how much progress has been made in discovery so far and what still needs to be done.
This trash was written by Boies... (Score:5, Interesting)
First of all it doesn't sound like the Darl we know and love. I've read enough of his BS and listened to him enough to know his style and this letter just doesn't have it. It tries to show some hint of intelligence which we all know McBride is devoid of. Second, the information about the Supreme Court rulings, the constitution, and the DMCA all read like a lawyer wrote them. It reads like it came from the world's most ignorant and incompetent lawyer, but it was definitely from a lawyer.
It's too bad for Boies that his name is being put on such utter trash. He did have a good reputation once, but it'll be ruined before this case is over.
Or by Darl's bro and a tech writer?? (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.gr oklaw.net/article.php?sto ry=20031204195915515
"But here is the odd part: SCO's lawyers didn't write this manifesto and neither did Darl, judging by the headers on the Word file. Yes, thanks to Microsoft's utter disregard for user privacy, we know who actually wrote this document, or at least whose computer was used. You see, Microsoft preserves such info as metadata, little pieces of info about you in the headers of each d
It's a clever troll, by Darl's standards (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a little clever, actually. The DMCA is opposed by many who also support the GPL, the common ground being that both groups tend to be deeply concerned by the proper application of intellectual property rights. The DMCA is also opposed by scofflaw copyright infringers, those being the people it was nominally designed to fight. Therefore, people who support the GPL are copyright infringers and scofflaws.
It's not a tactic that works against people who habitually apply logical analysis to what they read, but that isn't the majority of people, is it? (If it were, many a war would never have taken place.)
Crack Smoking and Prostitution (Score:5, Funny)
I'm a big believer in copyrights," Torvalds wrote in an e-mail interview. "Of all the intellectual property (laws), copyright
"If Darl McBride was in charge, he'd probably make marriage unconstitutional too, since clearly it de-emphasizes the commercial nature of normal human interaction, and probably is a major impediment to the commercial growth of prostitution," he wrote.
There was a time when an SCO thread was funny. (Score:3, Insightful)
Reading the letter made one thing perfectly clear though.
McBride like many executives these days seems only interested in the constitutionality of the copyright and patent rather than freedom of speech. ergo, the citizen should have no right to dictate how their creative works can be copied, modified and reused and that only the copyright office can do as such.
Such a perversion of the terms of the constitution I have never seen, well until 1998... but this line of thinking keeps getting more pronounced each and every year.
Maybe it's time we stopped pointing and laughing at SCO and looked at the bigger picture. McBride is but one of thousands of execs who wish to lay the smack down upon personal freedoms in order to kill competition and lockout the individual from the marketplace.
The recent move by the RIAA to secure anti-trust law exemption is based upon the very views expressed today by McBride: That the indivuals rights should be trampled by the government in the name of corporate self interest.
Just a jack handy moment...
Amusing Circular logic (Score:3, Funny)
I've read other odd things that he has said, but this seems to be a new one.
Uhh, actually - bitter protest against copyrights (Score:5, Interesting)
BITTER PROTEST AGAINST COPYRIGHTS
If I said I didn't have an incentive to grow oranges unless I could plant a tree in your yard, or if I said I didn't have an incentive to grow cotton unless I could own slaves on the plantation, most people would see this is these as the worthless shallow arguments that they are. But if I said I didn't have an incentive to to make beneficial or creative works without a copyright monopoly, then all of a sudden people just take it on faith, they don't even question it, they just assume that society would fall apart without them. In my humble opinion, this is intellectually dishonest, especially considering that the entire Renaissance happened without copyrights.
The simple fact is, there is no equivalency relationship between copyrights and property rights - incentive does not a right make. The moral and historical foundation of property derives from the fact that property has physical limits, while the foundation of copyrights dervives from kings who granted publishers monopolies in return for not publishing bad things about the monarchy. The history of copyrights is not one of rights, but control of sharing and restricting the open use of knowledge.
That is why people who copy are not criminals, thieves, or akin to pirates who board ships and murder people. No, infact they are really victims of a cruel deception. A deception that copyrights somehow financially benefit artists and creators. The simple fact is, that for every artist that makes it "big" there are literally thousands who copyrights haven't helped a bit, even hindered, or destroyed.
However, this is not the only failure of copyrights - it is just one in many issues related to copyrights that are just blown off ignored, or glossed over. Like the failures of Hollywood culture, the failures of big media to provide quality material, the failures to provide reasonably priced books to college students while tabloids are dirt cheap, and massive anti-trust behavior in the software industry to name a few.
While the problems associated with copyrights might have been bearable 20 years ago when the biggest issue was Xerox machines, today we are entering into the information age where information is so easy to copy and manipulate that there can be no middle ground. Our society will either have to control all of it or none of it. Our communications will either have to be monitored or free, our privacy to be either contunuiously probed or protected.
In that sense, copyrights are like a vine that will never stop growing to choke off our freedoms until we cut it off at the root. The DMCA, infinite extensions, billion dollar lawsiuts, are all just symptoms of a poor belief system - not the cause. So the efforts to find a "middle ground" on copyrights are a failure because they do not address the core issue. That contrary to copyrights, the right to copy and distribute creative works and knowledge is a right!
Like freedom of religion, and freedom of the press, the right to copy things is a right that exists above government. It is a moral right, it is an inherent right, it defines the very nature of the human condition. It is beyond politics and the petition of leaders.
In fact, the entire foundation of politics rests on the notion that it's better to fight wars with words than wars with bloodshed. But to copy things does not require coercion or viloence at all, the rules are not the same. We will not change the copyright situation by petitioning our leaders, or voting to change the system. No it can only be changed by defiance.
Defiance by holding the belief that people have rights, even if those rights appear contrary to the popular mob or to the system. Defiance, by shedding off the guilt and shame that those who try to impose copyrights impose on us and understanding that they are
and Part II, protest against patents as well (Score:3, Interesting)
This one is far more harsh, but I think makes my point just as well.
COPYRIGHTS AND PATENTS ARE THE SLAVERY OF THE INFORMATIOn AGE(Part II)
There seems to be this attitude that the suffering of slaves prior to 1850 was something that only happened back then. That it has nothing to do with now, that we are more civilized, more modern, more mature, and more sophisticated. With it comes the arrogance that what happened then, means nothing now, that what happened there has no value here, that the great torment
Ok.... I'm Drunk.... (Score:3, Funny)
and...
I see this little peice of shit Darle McFuckwit with his stupid "open letter" a I just skimed it...
So... I pronunce Darle is a complete nin-com-poop. Even drunks like me can see that he's an idiot.
I'm fucking drunk and I'm smarter than everybody at SCO!!!!!
It's amazing! (Score:5, Insightful)
SCO and "science" (Score:5, Insightful)
We believe that the "progress of science" is best advanced by vigorously protecting the right of authors and inventors to earn a profit from their work.
If any real scince was carried out that way, we would still be in the dark ages. Real science is developed through scientific journals. Open publication of their discoveries and progress. How far would we be if lived in a society where Mathematicians had to pay roalities for using other peoples theroms in their proofs?
SCO is right on copyrights but has it reversed (Score:5, Insightful)
Aahh, yes, the jack-ass (Score:5, Interesting)
The software license adopted by the GPL is called "copy left " by its authors. This is because the GPL has the effect of requiring free and open access to Linux (and other) software code and prohibits any proprietary use thereof. As a result, the GPL is exactly opposite in its effect from the "copy right " laws adopted by the US Congress and the European Union. - But, Darl, you can use GNU/Linux and other Free Software as much as you want. It is when you try to redistribute Free Software under a different licence, it is the moment when you violate the GPL - you violate a licence. GPL is your EULA if you will, only it does not affect your USAGE of Free Software in any way, only your redistribution of Free Software. You do know what a contract means, don't you?
In taking this position SCO has been attacked by the Free Software Foundation, Red Hat and many software developers who support their efforts to eliminate software patents and copyrights. Internet chat boards are filled with attacks against SCO, its management and its lawyers. Personal threats abound. At times the nature of these attacks is breathtaking - the emotions are obscuring the very clear and important legal issues SCO has raised. This is to be expected when the controversy concerns such deeply held beliefs. - Darl, when you try to STEAL people's copyrighted work, it is the moment when you start getting these kinds of reaction. At the moment when you decide to enslave the free, at the moment when you decide to take away something that belongs to everyone by the expressed permission of the copyright holder, at this moment you become an enemy. When you LIE, you become an enemy and an annoyance.
Despite the raw emotions, however, the issue is clear: do you support copyrights and ownership of intellectual property as envisioned by our elected officials in Congress and the European Union, or do you support "free" - as in free from ownership - intellectual property envisioned by the Free Software Foundation, Red Hat and others? There really is no middle ground. The future of the global economy hangs in the balance. - Darl, but it is you, who do not recognize the copyright, you do not want to recognize a contract for redistribution of Free Software that you enter, once you start redistributing Free Software. You are going against simple contract and copyright laws, nothing else.
The Free Software Foundation, Red Hat and other GPL advocates take the contrary position. The FSF and Red Hat believe that the progress of science is best advanced by eliminating the profit motive from software development and insuring free, unrestricted public access to software innovations. The Free Software Foundation was established for this purpose. The GPL implements this purpose. Red Hat speaks for a large community of software developers dedicated to this purpose. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has dramatically undercut this position with its guidance in Eldred in how to define the term "promote the Progress of Science and the useful arts..." under the Constitution. - Supreme Court is misguided at best and at worst it has a hand in the pie. What you call innovation, others call extortion. If a hundred programmers come up with an exactly same solution algorithm to a problem why should one of them be able to subdue the rest into paying royalties for something that must be free? An algorithm? It is bound to happen simply by the nature of mathematics - anyone familiar with math knows, the Pythagorus theorem could be discovered by many individuals simply because in math it is natural to find the most optimal solutions to problems, and the proven theorems are such solutions. Software is all about algorythms and thus it is about the most optimal solutions, and these solutions can be expressed as theorems. Such ideas must be free for everyone to use, since they are the tools, the building blocks that we use in order to solve our real life problems. If we are not allowed to free
The document creators (Score:5, Interesting)
And there I was hoping Darl at least understood his position well enough to write garbage like this by himself. Does Darl even exist, or is he like the Wizzard Oz, a non-existant entity? Just kidding. He may become a non-existant entity after the court-room is done with him, though
Unconstitutional ??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Unconstitutional ??? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't get it. How can the GPL be unconstitutional ?
The basic arguement seem to be that the constitution states the purpose of copyright is the "promote progress of science..." AND the supreme court recently wrote "motive of profit is the engine that ensures progress of science".
There's certainly no disputing that the constitution really does have that, and that the court really did write such an opinon recently.
They claim the GPL is designed to destroy the profit motive. Suspecd disbelief for a moment and ignore the scant profit Redhat made a couple times.
So, if you put these three things together, you get:
I personally suspect there are a dozen reasons why this argument is bad. But that is, as nearly as I can tell from the letter, the basic arguement.
SCO the hypocrits (Score:3, Insightful)
I guess I'm confused why if they are so against it they don't pull all of the GPL'd software from their products to show their resolve.
Oh. Wait. Could it be because ALL their software was written by other people?
Legally Speaking... (Score:5, Insightful)
(As a diclaimer, IANAL, but I have read Eldred and I am familiar with public policy issues on copyright.)
Straw man is the correct term for this letter, as the entire case McBride makes is on a complete misunderstanding of both the GPL and Eldred.
First of all, his use of Article I Section 8 of the US Constitution illustrates absolutely nothing. There is nothing in the GPL that precludes or infringes upon this statute in the least. Congress has the power to grant exclusive rights to a creation but has no power to legally mandate what the terms of those rights are. (See Graham v. John Deere Co. of Kansas City 383 US 1.) Congress has the right to grant me a patent, and if I want to take that patented product and license it to whomever, there is nothing that Constitutionally prevents me from doing so. In other words, if IBM patents a new storage device and they want to make those specifications publicly available through GPLed drivers they have every right to do so. If they want to license such technology to only one company, they may do so. If they want to take every existing model and shove it up their ass, they have every legal right to do so.
Furthermore, precedent sets that the patent power is limited only for the purpose of the "progress of science" - as Bonito Boats v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc 489 US 141 states:
What McBride argues is that the public domain itself is somehow contradictory to the very notion of copyright, and argument which simply does not hold to much scrutiny. Even the majority opinion in Eldred acknowledges that the Constitution does not allow for a perpetual system of copyright, and that at some point material must fall into the public domain.
The argument that profit motive is the best way of ensuring the public good is fine, but it is essentially a non-sequitor in this case. If the Linux kernel contains SCO code then that code has to be legally removed. However, SCO has no right to dictate that only proprietary licenses are legally valid, and that argument does nothing to advance their particular case. Moreover, any judge who has to rule on such a prima facie idiotic argument will quickly rule that SCO has no legal ground. The GPL is, as many have already mentioned, based on an acknowledgement of copyright law and relies on copyright law as a basis for its licensing terms. SCO has no right to say that a copyright holder must use a proprietary license any more than Red Hat says that SCO must drop all claims to their proprietary source code. There is no legal foundation for such a position and McBride clearly has no understanding of the revelant law.
An open letter TO Darl McBride (Score:5, Interesting)
I've got to tip my hat to you. It's rare that you can find someone so outspoken and with such an interesting interpretation of reality who is also able to elicit such vociferous and multitudinous responses from your friends and (more often) your enemies. Really, for your family's sake at least, I feel better knowing that when someone finally points out that the emperor has no clothes, you'll have no problems finding employment in the afternoon talk show circuit.
In the months since you've launched your Sisyphean attack on Linux and Open Source Software in general I've come to regard you with something of a grudging affinity. Like that crazy uncle you hope never shows up for family events but then miss terribly when he's not there, you've become a constant ache that I just know I'm going to miss. Who else can I count on to inspire such fits of laughter and frothing rage?
It's with this new found amiability towards you that I make the following offer. I know you've been wanting someone to buy up The SCO Group and in the interests of not seeing you completely financially devastated, I'd like to buy your company. I'd like to offer you a one crisp United States dollar bill for the entirety of The SCO Group. You may find the amount a little less than you'd hoped for, but as Homer Simpson was once counseled (if I may paraphrase) "I think you should take it."
You see I've been both amused, enraged, and more recently dismayed as the scope of your intellectual property land grab expands. I finally decided that some sort of intervention was necessary after I read your latest diatribe in which you both demonstrated a profound lack of understanding of intellectual property law as well as the GPL and made thinly veiled threats to employ the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to further expand your legal assault against Linux. Darl, have you even read the DMCA? Do you know what it is or says? Were you aware that you've got to actually demonstrate you've got copyright in something that's been infringed before you can even open that can of worms?
I'm sure it may have slipped your mind what with all the heavy composition you've apparently been engaged in, but although you've talked a lot about your lawsuits with IBM and RedHat, you haven't actually won either of them yet. As such, that presents a real problem for your DMCA strategy because so far you've been unable to demonstrate an intellectual property interest of The SCO Group that's been infringed in any way. Sort of putting the cart before the horse aren't we?
Surely it's also obvious to you now that you've painted yourself into a corner with respect to the GNU Public License (GPL)? If you prevail and the GPL is declared invalid, as a distributor of many works (including Linux) which were formerly licensed under the GPL, The SCO Group would appear to be guilty of copyright infringement on a rather unprecedented scale. (Without the GPL Darl you can't distribute Linux or Samba.) If you fail, and the GPL is valid, you've released all your supposedly infringed works into the Open Source community under terms where you lose all ability to make infringement claims on pretty much any IP grounds. In which case any value of any intellectual property left in the corpses of your versions of Unix is pretty much gone.
So please, I urge you, it's time to stop the madness. Take me up on my offer, let Mr. Boise have his cut of my buyout, and walk away a winner Darl. I'm pretty sure it's the best offer you're going to get.
Your friend,
Specter
Nothing really new (Score:3, Interesting)
And of course that's not the case - RedHat (the case he presents) actually makes profit selling GPLed software and associated tech support.
Basically, he is saying - I don't like the GPL, therefore I feel free to violate it, and with it, relevant copyright laws. I said it before and I'll say it again - Mr. McBride, by continuing to distribute and sell Linux without any authorization, you are continuing to violate the same copyright laws you are "fighting" so hard to defend. That's a criminal violation these days.
Can I arbitrarily declare that I feel the Microsoft Shared Source or even regular EULA violates the U.S. Constitution and the spirit of copyright laws and start distributing bootleg Windows XP and 2003 server ISOs? Are you kidding me? I'd have FBI at my door in no time. So should SCO!
What else do the Feds need? Where are the criminal copyright prosecutors that
First Markets should, THEN Courts should Decide (Score:5, Interesting)
When McBride argues about the legal underpinnings and defending it by court decisions, he is backward looking. Courts are restricted to only looking at the past and existing laws and legislations in making decisions.
On the temporal scale the Judiciary has control over the past. The legislature is forward looking and has control over the future. So, any law that the legislature passes now, will become the touchstone by which the courts will judge later. And on the temporal Scale the Executive has control over the present. I beleive in this case, the Execution should be done by the Market forces, rather than by an arm of the Government. (And SCO must be executed too.)
Based on the results of the market forces, the legislature should then frame "forward looking legislations" that then become the laws which the courts must address. Currently, and in all the arguements that McBride advances, the fact is that the courts were restricted to INTERPRETING "Progress of Science and useful Arts" in the LEGAL sense only - obviously the legal framework is vvery restrictive in identifying what really "Progress" means, and is it must be understood that the courts had their hands toed behind their backs - thier's is a legal interpretation of Progress and not a broader economic, social, cultural, and political meaning of Progress.
The meat of my comment is above - the rest of the comment is just trying to build my case more ...
The global economy is not hanging in the balance, waiting breathlessly for SCO/McBride to vulturize millions so the "global economy" can breathe a sigh of relief. This is just another bluster from the McBride. McBride is nothing but a fly on the wall in terms of the current efforts and "real work" that are really advancing the state of the global economy. I highlight this McBride quote, because it captures bluster of the rest of his sophomoric argument.
It is interesting that he talks about the "legal underpinnings" being sound. If tomorrow the Legislature passes a law (legislations are forward looking), that makes it clear that there is no room for interopretation, and SCO is wrong and stupid, that will be the easy end to the SCO/McBride Extortion story. Like McBride says " Internet chat boards are filled with attacks against SCO, its management and its lawyers," and I think they are filled with attacks for a good reason. And since the chatboarders are also voters, it would be possible for them to choose the right representatives, who would go and legislate, and then carry the legal "attacks" on SCO rather than just have flame wars.
Wealth Creation and OSS (Score:3, Funny)
That last one is Oxford. They run Debian. Cool.
In your heart, you know he's right (Score:3, Insightful)
'Where did you make the change from Liberal Democrat to Conservative Republican?'
He said, 'Well, I was in Northern California in 1964 and I was making a film, Major Dundee. I was driving down the road and there was a Barry Goldwater for President billboard and it said, 'In Your Heart You Know He's Right'. I looked at the billboard and it was almost a vision and suddenly in my heart I knew he was right - and at that moment I made the switch'.
George Orwell, "1984":
He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast!
Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.
All of us stupid, short-sighted Free Software idiots:
Finally, we understood. In our hearts, we knew Darl was right. We won the victory over ourselves and mailed in our $699 checks, and we were thankful that we were given a Second Chance to avoid having to pay $1399. We loved closed source.
We loved SCO.
Don't you love a happy ending?
Specious reasoning (Score:3, Insightful)
First of all, Eldred v. Ashcroft was about whether the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) could change the lifetime of copyrights from 50 to 70 years. The main challenges were that the CTEA (1) overlooks the requirement of "originality," (2) fails to "promote the Progress of Science," and (3) ignores copyright's quid pro quo. The case only narrowly answers these questions for the CTEA. While some decisions have larger ramifications, not all decisions can be extended to other areas.
Profit motivates copyrights. Congress has power to legislate copyrights according to Constitution. And?
There's no logical flow here but I think what Darl is saying is that: GPL not motivated by profit. Therefore, GPL violates copyrights. Therefore, GPL violates Constitution.
Darl, given that logic, I would say that you are a good candidate for a future Darwin award.
Letter Contradicts Itself (Score:5, Insightful)
"SCO asserts that the GPL, under which Linux is distributed, violates the United States Constitution and the U.S. copyright and patent laws."
He then spends the rest of the letter explaining why copyright is great, and why the FSF and Red Hat are evil for opposing copyrights. Fine. But *nowhere* is there any reasoning given why the GPL violates the consitution, copyright law or patent law. In fact, by the end of the letter, McBride is forced to write:
"Based on the views of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court, we believe that adoption and use of the GPL by significant parts of the software industry was a mistake. The positions of the Free Software Foundation and Red Hat against proprietary software are ill-founded and are contrary to our system of copyright and patent laws. We believe that responsible corporations throughout the IT industry have advocated use of the GPL without full analysis of its long-term detriment to our economy. We are confident that these corporations will ultimately reverse support for the GPL, and will pursue a more responsible direction."
Note that there's *nothing* about the legality of the GPL. Adopting the GPL may be a "mistake", but nowhere does he even attempt to prove the point that he started with, that the GPL is a violation of the constitution and laws of the US.
Too bad for SCO. The only way they can have a long term money-making plan with Linux is if they get the GPL declared illegal, all developer contributions under it made into code in the public domain (I suppose public domain is against the constitution too?!), then they can assert ownership of the whole product based on whatever proprietary contributions they think were made against their wishes by IBM et al. IANAL, but it ain't gonna happen.
What happened to the rest of the first amendment?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Not Only is the GPL's Legal Footing Very Solid... (Score:5, Insightful)
SCO in particular, hasn't noticably changed their product since I was saddled with 286 Xenix a decade and a half ago. Neither their product nor their technical support improved from the first time I used it a decade and a half ago to the last time (And I swore it'd be the last time) I used it just about 4 years ago. I bet it hasn't noticably changed in those 4 years either, especially judging from SCO's current posturing.
So instead of cleaning up their own house (Because they don't know how) they'd rather try to destroy the only source of IT innovation around. People with SCO's mentality (Sadly widespread in corporate America) would shit in your dinner because they don't know how to cook themselves.
Currently the publicity's been pretty one-sided. How's about we start dusting off our technical contacts and start working to expose the lies?
Re:Not Only is the GPL's Legal Footing Very Solid. (Score:5, Insightful)
Plan9. Inferno. NeXTStep. Arguably the original Macintosh and the Xerox PARC work they extended.
Meanwhile, in the open-source world, we're fundamentally tweaking UNIX clones. Totally kick-ass, love-'em, best-of-breed unix clones, but still. You might cite Hurd but, comparatively speaking, it's a toy.
None of the commercial UNIX vendors has done a whole lot to advance the state of the operating system from where it was 30 years ago.
Isn't Apple a commercial UNIX vendor now?
SCO in particular, hasn't noticably changed their product since I was saddled with 286 Xenix a decade and a half ago
Sadly, that's probably true..
Crafty scheme: (Score:3, Interesting)
- Post some incendiary drivel about the GPL on the corporate website, hoping to lure the Slashdot crowd.
- Leave if up overnight, and check the logs next morning, quivering with anticipation.
- Pick through the catch for stuff like:
- Ooh! A Linux user agent! Transfer it to the hit list.
- Send out the DMCA subpoenas
...
Well, you know the rest. The RIAA wrote the refrain to that song.There's a problem with all of this (Score:3, Informative)
And you thought the law was dry (Score:5, Informative)
Perky Children & Spoiled Brats...Tomarrows Lea (Score:4, Insightful)
I looked forward to the day when we would all be adults and those who had nothing to contribute would be swept aside. Sadly, I see that these bratty children are now all grown up, in charge and their manipulative behaviors are polished. And still the smart people are groveling at their feet for attention.
Darl and his kind are not concerned about programmers making money on software. Hell, thats what India is for. He is worried that people like him, who couldn't write "Hello World" to save their life, will not be able to make money off software anymore.
Notice he does not mention the word "Jobs" once in his open letter but mentions corporate interestes like IP and DMCA ad nauseum. Those represent the devices by which a company can stop producing and start fleecing.
And by God, what could be more American than that. Our Founding Fathers(TM), Congress (a division of Worldcom), and Supreme Court(R) have determined this is what is best for us. To question them would be unpatriotic and would be allowing the Terrorists to win.
SCO's lawyers didn't write this... (Score:4, Informative)
check this out (from groklaw [groklaw.net]):
[...]
But here is the odd part: SCO's lawyers didn't write this manifesto and neither did Darl, judging by the headers on the Word file. Yes, thanks to Microsoft's utter disregard for user privacy, we know who actually wrote this document, or at least whose computer was used. You see, Microsoft preserves such info as metadata, little pieces of info about you in the headers of each document you write in Word. Someone on Yahoo took a look [yahoo.com] at the document's Properties, and the document records that it was written by Kevin McBride and Dean Zimmerman, who is apparently a tech writer [caldera.com].
[...]
Er, Free as in speech? (Score:3, Insightful)
The preamble to the General Public License (para 2) says:
No need to panic everyone, the profit motive is alive and well.
Excuse me (Score:3, Interesting)
I am interested to know this.
My letter to SCO (Score:3, Interesting)
Does SCO have any idea what this actually sounds like to serious professionals in the industry? People who were worried are now simply shaking their heads, and this letter claiming that the GPL is somehow against copyrights is simply misleading. Even I know that. I can read the GPL, and what I see, and what most lawyers will probably see is that the GPL is a software licence. It in no way damages copyrights as these are kept by the individual authors. It also has nothing to do with software patents. Does SCO actually know that even if the GPL were to be deemed invalid that it would make itself open to thousands of claims of copyright abuse by all the open source developers whose software SCO has distributed/is distributing?
I find this whole matter to be irritating. Rest assured that I will never recommend SCO software in any form, as SCO seems highly irresponsable at best.
What a joke. SCO is simply amazing in its childish fantasies.
Profit Motive (Score:5, Interesting)
Just because the constitution defined copyright to help protect profit motives and thus speed along innovation, that does not mean we cannot use copyright law in a different way.
I'd like to direct Darl McBride to the ninth ammendment to the constitution of the United States of America. To paraphrase, it basically means that if something hasn't been outlawed, it's legal. Or in other words, nothing is illegal until it has been outlawed. When it comes to using copyright in a different way, that means that there's no law saying that we cannot use an existing law in a way that it wasn't intended (so long as that doesn't break any existing laws).
Yeah, it's a rather weak legal point, but if that's what you're screaming, then you've probably missed my larger point. Every (weak and rambling) point that the article puts forth can be countered by hundreds of examples that prove that this new use of copyright law fits in the mold of what the founding fathers intended. Innovation is happening under this model, the masses have found a way to be involved and to contribute to OSS and the greater good is being served every step of the way. To anyone who cannot see that, I would respectfully question their motives and/or their awareness of temporal reality.
-Chuck
I guess even Darl's entitled to his opinion (Score:4, Insightful)
Doesn't mean that I (or anyone else) has to necessarily agree with it though.
I've not read any other comments yet, so I apologise if I repeat what's already been said.
But I have read though the Article, and want to present my first opinions on parts of it.
I think his use of the terms "$186 billion global software industry" and "technology business" certainly show SCO's position on technological advancement.
Mainly that they think it's primary purpose is to generate a profit.
Darl has a point though. Such laws are critical in the survival of what could be called "The current model".
It's just that GPL, FSF, Linux, etc, are operating on another model. Yeah, they pose a threat. But to say that such a threat is illegal/unconstitutional/whatever is just plain arrogant.
Oh, and speaking as a Brit, there is one other thing that has to be taken into account.
What has the US Constitution got to do with companies/organisations outside of the US? Should European/Asian/etc software houses be stifled/restricted by what's good for the American economy?
"Oh, the drama!"
OK, so it's one side against the other. But, personally, I'm firmly on the side of "you can't own an idea".
You can be responsible for the specific application of a though or idea, but to own abstract concepts that one person happened to think of before another? I just find that a bit wrong really.
Doesn't the GPL predate the DMCA?
Though I'm not sure what - if any - effect that would have on the legal nature of things.
One thing, though. Is the DMCA US-only?
If so, that means that the GPL - being an itnernational license, as far as I know - is certainly legitimate in non-US companies irrespective of whether it's legan int he US. But certainly that would mean that US companies can't complain about it, wouldn't it? After all, surely it's outside of US jurusdiction that way?
if I'm wrong, let me know. I can rebuild a PC with no worries, but legal-matters lose me in no time flat!
Again with the "Profit Motive"
Actually, I kind of agree with the profit motive. What I don't agree with is the way that some companies (including SCO) want to use it.
Yeah, come up with an idea then you have the right to make money from it - well, as long as the idea isn't "ransom Darl McBride for ca$h" or something blatantly illegal and reckless like that. But I think such a profit motive has to be time-limited. If fact, if it's really to "promot
Letter is a smokescreen for stock manipulation (Score:5, Interesting)
I reckon this is just a ruse to get their stock price as high as possible before they get their ass handed to them later today and it crashes through the floor.
Dual-Licensing or BSD is better than solely GPL (Score:4, Insightful)
While I myself choose to give the software away for free, I do recognize the legitimate tradeoffs involved in copyright law. There are businesses that simply are not viable without a short-term (I favor 14 years) payment for use of their software. I don't think that the games that I play would be anywhere near as good if the developers were not paid for them --- it is very expensive to produce the fancy animations and graphics I enjoy.
Those of us who are (barely in my case) able to make it with free software businesses should not lock out others who cannot make it without charging. This is why I make all my software available under a non-GPL license for those who are willing to pay for such a license. That way they can make proprietary enhancements of my software, and sell them, and good for them!
I am one of the more technically successful developers in my industry, yet my business has been bouncing from one fiscal scare to another its entire existence. People who think GPL is the only way should try supporting a family and a payroll (the payroll is harder...) on free software for a few years, and they may find their ideology becomes less fervently fixated on the superiority of one way of doing business.
All that said, I still believe that copyright should require full disclosure of the source code, and the allowance of improvements to be made and sold by others, or else it serves no US constitutional purpose of advancing the arts and sciences.
Did anyone think that was coherent? (Score:4, Insightful)
What he seems to be arguing here is that it is unconstitutional to give inventions or works away without charging for them.
The FSF and Red Hat believe that the progress of science is best advanced by eliminating the profit motive from software development and insuring free, unrestricted public access to software innovations.
This passage (and the first one) seem to stem from a belief that there are forces out there trying to forcibly remove the right of inventors to receive patents and authors to maintain copyright over their works.
Does he not understand what "voluntary" means? No one is trying to take those rights away.
Parent is a repost troll (Score:3, Insightful)
(Credit where it's due [slashdot.org].)
Re:If I understod correctly (Score:5, Insightful)
More like he's saying that a code author has no right to restrict their work in such a way that it can be distributed anywhere and modified freely by anyone within the terms of the licence provided by the original author. In Darl's view, copyright law is concerned with restricting works from being distributed without compensation, not with ensuring that authors are allowed to control distribution of their work as they see fit. He can't seem to wrap his head around the fact that many people have chosen to use their rights, as authors, under copyright law, to choose a set of restrictions that promotes copying and changing of their code, as long as anyone else can do the same. He only understands copyright in terms of sales and exclusivity.
Short version: in Darl's world, you can choose to restrict your works, but you can't choose to restrict your works into openness. Everything must be proprietary and closed, everyone must view each other as competitors to be fought instead of companions to collaborate with.
This seems to be the only logical way, outside of the obvious "pump 'n dump scheme" guess, to explain Darl's view of FOSS.
Re:Software Patents aren't the same as Copyrights (Score:3, Informative)
I seriously doubt that RedHat has interest in blowing away copyright.
Most of this letter really is a straw man attack. It's not worth my time to punch holes in all of Darl's claims, but among other flaws:
(A) Darl claims that the GPL violates the Constitution and a number of other things. All "evidence", weak as it is, deals entirely with his claims about the motivati
Darl Channeling Nixon? (Score:3, Funny)
He's obfuscating the issues on purpose. Notice how he never mentions IBM in the document, but mentions Red Hat over and over?
It's because he wants to associate the GPL with Red. In particular, with Red Commie Un-American Bastards.
Darl's got a real Nixonian / McCarthyite streak in him. He keeps claiming that the "silent majority" is on his side, which is, weirdly enough, what Nixon kept saying up until he resigned in '73.
Re:Nothing we haven't seen before (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Nothing we haven't seen before (Score:3, Funny)
Re:A minor mistake in reasoning (Score:3, Insightful)
It's kind of funny -- Darl claiming that he's fighting for copyright and justice and that the global economy depends on this case...and yet, the GPL works within the bounds of copyright, and most users of it are pretty happy, and the GPL's popularity has increased exponentially for years. SCO's ow
Re:AKA the straw man attack (Score:3, Informative)
Exactly. The argument boils down to "The GPL is unconstitutional because the people who wrote it don't like some current laws."
Of course, not liking current laws is also constitutionally protected in the USA, as is the right to voice ones opinions on the matter.