Posted on 07/21/2003 6:07:30 PM PDT by amigatec
SCO is giving the "tainted" Linux users out there a way to clean up their filthy ways via a licensing program that will begin in the coming weeks.
After dolling out threats of legal action, SCO has called on enterprise Linux users to come forward and pay for code the company claims to own. The legal zealots at SCO reckon Linux has grown up too fast by nicking technology such as support for large SMP systems from its copyrighted Unix code. SCO plans to start calling Linux customers this week, asking them to pay up or face the consequences.
"Following the distribution of our letter to the Fortune 1000 and Global 500, many prominent companies using Linux contacted SCO to ask, 'What do you want me to do?'," said Darl McBride, president and CEO, The SCO Group, in a statement. "Today, we're delivering a very clear message to customers regarding what they should do."
Well, it's not all that clear of a message. SCO says the pricing terms for a license will not be announced for weeks. The suspense continues.
SCO's sudden burst of courage comes after it received U.S. copyright registrations for Unix System V source code. The company had been waiting to make sure all its legal bits and pieces were in proper order before kicking off its Linux licensing business.
IBM has been SCO's main target up to this point, but now the company wants to attack all the dirty, open source users out there.
"Today, we're stating that the alleged actions of IBM and others have caused customers to use a tainted product at SCO's expense," McBride said. "With more than 2.4 million Linux servers running our software, and thousands more running Linux every day, we expect SCO to be compensated for the benefits realized by tens of thousands of customers. Though we possess broad legal rights, we plan to use these carefully and judiciously."
Doesn't that put your mind at ease?
After making "no contribution" to the 2.2 Linux kernel, large vendors began dumping hundreds of Unix files into the OS in the 2.4 and upcoming 2.6 Linux kernels, according to SCO. This code has made it possible for Linux to run well not just on the two processor servers where it got its start but on eight, 16, 32 and 64-way boxes.
SCO is demanding that enterprise users pay for this SMP technology, but why?
There are but a few Intel-based boxes that size in existence, and IBM, the main target of SCO, does not even scale to 64 processors as of yet. Linux is most often found on small systems or on clusters of servers. The number of customers benefiting from this Unix code is quite slim.
Still, Linux customers of all shapes and sizes are to pay for all the bells and whistles in the code. SCO says home users and small-time players aren't on its immediate legal horizon, but contaminated corporate users need to fess up.
"We have a solution here that gets you clean," McBride said, in a conference call.
SCO suggests that the dirtiest players of all are companies such as IBM and Red Hat that let users purchase Linux without providing an OS warranty. SCO continues to put pressure on IBM to help its customer base out and take on the Linux IP costs.
SCO also added a little pressure to Linus Torvalds. Up to this point, SCO has been attacking IBM on contractual issues which left Torvalds out of the fray. With the new copyright claims, however, SCO says Torvalds may come under attack.
"As of today, it is a different game," McBride said. "We are not saying Linus created the problems, but he inherited them."
SCO claims it has a well thought out plan for licensing the Unix IP but remains reluctant to provide any details on the costs a business may face. The lack of information here leaves a nasty air of intrigue hanging over the matter, and we think SCO should speak up sooner rather than later. ®
Munchkins should be careful what they wish for. They might get it.
I also addresed this note to RinaseaofDs, who said
The economic incentive for a platform-independent open source operating system (and a few other very basic every-unit-item sort of things like a browser) comes from hardware vendors. Why would Dell help fund the Open Source Development Lab? Because when they look at their Accounts Payable, they see Microsoft right up there as one of their largest elements of cost. They're not in business to make money for Microsoft. Screw Microsoft. If Dell can reduce their OS bill to some bag of money they contribute every year to OSDL, instead of those big checks they write to Bill Gates every quarter, that's money in the bank for them.
That's why HP is in it, and IBM. Today servers, tomorrow the desktop. Let's stop writing those big checks to Gates, and let's stop pouring our money down commodity ratholes like HP-UX and AIX. All those things are so much alike we might as well have one in common between us, share the damned thing, and then go make money on hardware, middleware, and services.
This is a huge threat to Microsoft. Their distribution channel has started funding their replacement. It's not here yet, but you can see it coming from here. So, out come the FUD cannons and all the rest of the Microsoft PR hokum. The Russians are coming! It's the Chinese! It's hippies! They're all thieves! It's got legal problems!
Well, no, it's not the communists, it's the hardware vendors. They're moving to take some of their margins back from a software monopolist with an attitude.
Microsoft and Sun are not going to stop linux, or even slow it down. These are huge companies they are up against. The hardware boys want to give Gates a haircut, and he can't stop them. They have the distribution channel that Gates needs to reach the market, and if they want to cut off his air, they can. But first they have to develop an alternative, and work at making it real good... all the usual stuff a big company does when they're on a crusade. It'll take years, and they know that. They don't care; they'll still have this problem in 2008 if they don't start working it now.
Is indemnification a problem? Flick of the switch. They could do it individually, or they could pour some more dough into OSDL and do it through them. If that's what it takes to stop this "There are no WMD's" press frenzy, then they'll do it. What they won't do is watch Gates continue to grab all the margins in the desktop computer business. That was fun for him, but the guys who are actually making the desktop computers would like to make some money, too. So, however long it takes, "Windows" has to go. Or it has to get a whole lot cheaper, soon.
What kind of damages would a company like SCO suing an end-user be expected to get?
What's the indemnity implications of FreeBSD, since Berkeley asserts copyright ownership over large portions of the code and Apple uses it inside of OSX?
Simply nothing more than a slippery slope towards communism. Let the "commnunity" provide it, instead of a business that makes profit for themselves, and for America through taxes. Considering your obvious disdain for lawyers, the communist model takes care of that too, huh.
Is indemnification a problem? Flick of the switch. They could do it individually, or they could pour some more dough into OSDL and do it through them.
Pure fantasy. These companies don't have any money, because the biggest draw of their product is that it is 'free', which means most customers aren't providing back any return revenue.
Don't believe it? Then why is Red Hat completely retreating from the retail market altogether? Couldn't possibly be that their products don't sell, could it?
http://www.linuxandmain.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=364
The unashamed naivety of the Linux proponents is mind boggling...
Oh good. More stuff about communism. Hey, if calling the activities of hardware manufacturing companies like HP and Dell "communism" sounds persuasive to you, then you should keep doing that. I personally find it ludicrous, but I understand that loud and vociferous name-calling is all you guys have.
You're not paying attention, are you. You're talking through your hat again, instead of knowing what you're doing. Here, let me help you: here are just some of the companies funding Open Source Development Labs, which is where Linus Torvalds works: IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Cisco Systems.
IBM is a big company. It's very famous in America. So is Hewlett-Packard. All these companies are. And in spite of your assertion, they have lots and lots of money.
Do you get the picture yet? This is Microsoft's distribution channel -- huge companies with billions of dollars -- funding the development of a common, platform-independent OS. If they want to indemnify the damned thing, they will... your statement that IBM etc. "don't have any money" to the contrary.
The only thing Gates can do about this is spray FUD in the air. So we'll hear plenty of FUD. Much of it from you, apparently. Oh well, no one expects him to go away quietly.
You may want to divert attention from your previous post, but it was clear when it said qoute "Let's stop writing those big checks to Gates, and let's stop pouring our money down commodity ratholes...we might as well have one in common between us, share the damned thing". Sounds like communism to me, but but my definition is probably different from yours.
IBM is a big company. It's very famous in America. So is Hewlett-Packard. All these companies are. And in spite of your assertion, they have lots and lots of money. If they want to indemnify the damned thing, they will...
Those are hardware vendors, who do not have their own Linux version to indemnify. You're going to need Red Hat, SuSe, Mandrake, Red Flag and Torvalds among others to warranty the software, IBM is just 'iron' right Nick, didn't I learn that from you?
The only thing Gates can do about this is spray FUD in the air.
Ah, the omnipresent M$ connection. Or should I say, obsession.
Sounds like FUD to me. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Communism to me always signified some big centralized government that owned all the industries, and for some reason always seemed to come with a police state hidden in the box. What that has to do with people cooperating toward a common goal is not clear to me. I suppose if we want to slander all forms of behavior that do not pit each human against every other one, hammer-and-tongs, then "communism" would be as good a slander as any. But it would still be FUD.
So what? They could indemnify it anyway. Microsoft apparently decided to indemnify everybody against infringement on Windows 2000. Do you really think there are no purchased components in Windows 2000? Of course there are. They don't have to write every line of code themselves to idemnify it, that's just you blowing smoke in an Internet forum.
To suggest that Microsoft does not have a business interest in slowing or halting the development of a new operating system by its major distribution channel is ludicrous. Of course they do. They'd be fools not to throw every spear at it they can.
Doesn't everything?"
It's not my fault you don't have any arguments. Go get some better spears. You can't just holler "Communists! The Chinese! Hippies!" and expect anyone to take you seriously.
The effort by the hardware manufacturers to create a competitor to Windows is potentially one of the more interesting chess matches we'll ever see. It's got big players... bit players... huge money at stake... it's technology... it's courtrooms... it's marketing... it's a game that will take years to play out.
Will Microsoft buy a hardware vendor? Will Intel put the linux kernel in the CPU? Will Europe provide the desktop market for linux that drives commercial app development? Will IBM buy Red Hat? Will Natalie ever forgive Martha? Tune in next week and see what happened.
Or, sit there hollering "Communists!" There's always some guy in the back doing that; it might as well be you.
Now you're getting nasty...:D
And when you find one that is wholely owned by a US Company that beats M$ on price/benefit, maybe I will buy it.
But right now all you are doing is helping these foreigners like Torvalds destroy the US software industry, and help countries like China and North Korea build their linux dynasties. You don't care, obviously, so long as IBM skates. Just don't expect that you won't have guys like me pointing out your actions to you and everyone else, every chance we get.
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