On Mon, 2003-07-21 at 18:04, Edward Dekkers wrote: > > http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php?id=1679444165&eid=-100 > > Surely some clever programmers can just re-write the offending code so > as not to breach IP? (from memory wasn't it the TCP/IP stack?) This will > not save IBM, but surely then they would not be able to sue Linux users > if their so called 'copied code' wasn't in the new versions?
This shows only that SCO thinks they can scare people into paying them money for fear that SCO might own the intellectual property. The case is going to drag on for a long time and SCO has to prove two things in the IBM case, and only one of those affect anyone other than IBM and its customers: 1) That SCO owns some rights to UNIX. Novell says all that they transferred to SCO was the right to license, not ownership of the code. SCO claims they own it all. 2) That IBM violated some IP that belongs to SCO. At this point it is a contract dispute; SCO claims that IBM unlawfully took parts of what it had licensed from SCO, in violation of the contract, and placed that or allowed it to be placed in Linux. So SCO will have to show that there is code in Linux that was in the stuff IBM licensed from SCO, that IBM placed or allowed the offending code to be placed into the Linux source stream, and that act violated the contract. SCO has a lot to prove. If they prove the case against IBM then that will affect IBM and its customers. But since this is a contract dispute, it can only affect parties involved in the contract. I never signed any agreement with SCO. Did you? To go after the Linux community as a whole, SCO will need to show they have more than licensing rights, and that offending code moved from their source into the Linux source stream. Reminiscent of the USL vs BSD lawsuit of a decade ago. Sad what became of Caldera, now SCO. In the early days of Caldera the original crew donate a lot to the Linux community; Novell compatibility stuff, dosemu stuff, etc. But the current management is grasping at straws to try to save their stock value. - rick warner -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
