[oclug] Canadian LUGs and SCO

[Milan Budimirovic]

Rod Giffin wrote:

> 
> There are a couple of other points I have not mentioned before.
> IBM is not being sued for 1 billion dollars for 1 issue.  They are being
> sued for 1 billion dollars each in identified damages for 3 separate
> issues, plus unnamed amounts for 9 separate issues. A total of 3 billion
> dollars PLUS,  none of which resolves the licensing issue if SCO should
> win in court.
> 
> Rod.

OTOH, SCO is itself in breach of the Linux kernel's license agreement.
To my knowledge, SCO has not ceased to distribute Caldera. Which means
that either their lawsuit is without merit, or SCO is knowingly
distributing GPL'd software with the intent to proprietize some or all
of it. Which means that the GNU people are going to have to seek serious
legal action against SCO, or face a world where the GPL has no legal
weight.

However, I don't think that any proprietary software vendor wants to see
the GPL struck down, because that would call into question the validity
of ALL End User License Agreements (EULA's). Trust me, nobody wants to
go there. Not IBM. Certainly not Microsoft.

In any event, as I mentioned in a previous post, SCO has been
distributing the Linux kernel, source code and all since the 2.3 kernels
were released (when the alleged copyright violations would have begun),
and long before. They are a founding partner in United Linux. Even
discounting the fact that they agreed to license the code in question
under the GPL by distributing the software themselves, they themselves
have been an active participant in the devlopment and distibution of the
Linux kernel. By doing so they have implicitly waived the right to claim
ownership of the code. They have had at least four years to speak up.
Why now?

Anyway, I'm not sure how all this works, but I would imagine that IBM
has the right to file a Motion for Dismissal before the case ever gets
to court. If that is indeed the case, then that Motion, and SCO's
response to it, may be the most interesting part of this whole sordid
mess.