[oclug] Case Closed

[Rod Giffin]

Raymond Wood said:
> On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 12:15:57PM -0400, Rod Giffin remarked:
>> To be totally honest, I wish LUGS, other Open Source advocates
>> had keept their noses out of this.
>
> Does this include Free Software advocates too?  ;)

Yes.

>> Basically it originated as a contract dispute over
>> intellectual property rights between SCO and IBM. It should
>> have stayed a contract dispute between SCO and IBM and the
>> only reason it didn't was because of FUD, statements, and
>> actions by the LUGS, Open Source advocates et al.
>
> I disagree.  The minute that SCO started threatening law suits
> over the Linux kernel, and intimidating Linux users with FUD to
> buy their stupid SCO license so they could "run Linux legally"
> -- this was when the issue went beyond just SCO and IBM.

You can disagree, but I'm looking at the timeline.  Our FUD started first.
  There was no threat initially to Linux users and customers.  Linus
Torvalds was mentioned exactly once in the initial complaint, and only in
the context of being the originator of Linux.  There was no mention of
having to buy a SCO license in order to "run Linux legally".

That all started when SCO started having to defend itself against FUD
comming from... "Free software advocates" and the Linux community.

Now, SCO has submitted an ammended claim that names Linus Torvalds not
once, but 6 times and in a _most_ unfriendly light. Essentially, well
actually they're now saying he was either incompetant or complaisant in a
breach of their intellectual property rights.   None of that was in the
original complaint.  It is a complete change of direction in this case,
with respect to Linux, Linus, and the "Free software" community.

Rod.