Free Republic

FSF Statement on SCO v. IBM Eben Moglen June 25, 2003 The lawsuit brought by the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) against IBM has generated many requests for comment by FSF. The Foundation has refrained from making official comments on the litigation because only the plaintiff's allegations have been reported; comment on unverified allegations would ordinarily be premature. More disturbing than the lawsuit itself, however, have been public statements by representatives of SCO, which have irresponsibly suggested doubts about the legitimacy of free software overall. These statements require response. SCO's lawsuit asserts that IBM has breached contractual obligations between the two...

Ashton was a macaw that lived in the lunch room at George Tate's software company, Ashton-Tate, home of dBase II, the first successful microcomputer database.  There is a lot about that long-gone company that was unusual.  There was the macaw, of course, which was named for the company, not the other way around.  There was George Tate, himself, who died at his desk when he was only 40, but still managed to get married two weeks later (by proxy -- please explain that one to me).  And later there was Ashton-Tate's copyright infringement lawsuit against Fox Software that pretty much...

<p>Linus Torvalds, the founder and lead developer of the Linux open-source operating system, has some strong views about the legal dispute between The SCO Group and IBM, which he shared with eWEEK Senior Editor Peter Galli in an e-mail exchange last week. Torvalds also last week announced he was taking a leave of absence from Transmeta Corp. and becoming the first full-time fellow at the Open Source Development Lab, where he will continue to drive the next version of the Linux kernel, 2.6, due later this summer.</p>

My Visit To SCO Posted on Thursday, June 19, 2003 by Ian Lance Taylor The full story of what one person who signed SCO's NDA encountered on his trip to Lindon, Utah. This essay describes my visit to SCO on June 17, 2003, to discuss SCO's claim that Linux infringes on its intellectual property rights. I visited the SCO office in Lindon, Utah, for about one hour. I spoke with Chris Sontag, Senior Vice President, Operating Systems Division, and with Blake Stowell, Director of Public Relations. In order to speak with them, I signed a non-disclosure agreement. The short version...

The mysterious trojan horse that's been making security experts scratch their heads now has a name as more details of the oddball malware were made available. The trojan horse that has been causing confusion and concern among security researchers for over a month now has been dubbed 'Stumbler' by experts at Internet Security Systems (ISS). As reported earlier, Stumbler embeds itself in Unix systems and seems to be part of a concerted effort to map Internet-connected networks using port scanning techniques. A copy of the trojan was finally captured Wednesday, and investigation of its code began Thursday. After additional analysis,...

 Why SCO decided to take IBM to court By David BeckerStaff Writer, CNET News.comJune 16, 2003, 4:00 AM PT newsmakers A few years ago, Caldera Systems was bobbing along as one of the last software companies to claim a piece of the Linux land rush, scoring a successful IPO that raised $70 million. Since then, Linux companies have gone through several rounds of grueling consolidation, and Caldera--now known as the SCO Group--has sworn off Linux. What's more, the company now finds itself a pariah in the same open-source software community it helped elevate to prominence. SCO's non grata status...

NEW YORK - Linux vendors are under attack. In March, IBM was sued for $1 billion by The SCO Group, of Lindon, Utah, which claims IBM has put SCO's Unix code into Linux, the open-source software program. SCO also has sent letters to 1,500 large companies warning them that if they are using Linux, they may face legal problems. Though IBM is the only company named in SCO's lawsuit, other Linux vendors, like Red Hat and SuSE Linux, could suffer collateral damage. Why You Won't Be Getting A Linux PC The Limitations Of LinuxBoies' Take On LinuxPeopleSoft Jumps On The...

SCO'S EXECUTIVES have been making some extremely wild claims and ridiculous veiled threats lately, even by their own, er... standards. SCO's really cranked up its volume of FUD generation recently, from its announced "termination" of IBM's AIX license (which IBM immediately denied and dismissed) to laughably grandiose ambitions to go after virtually every vendor of Unix based operating systems (excepting Sun, apparently) including possibly even Microsoft. ($10 Million doesn't buy very much SCO loyalty anymore, it seems.) It's almost as though SCO is screaming "All Your Code Belongs to Us" with respect to every Unix or Unix-like system developed since...

Boston -- Linux father Linus Torvalds is leaving microprocessor company Transmeta to work exclusively on Linux kernel development. On Tuesday, the Open Source Development Lab in Beaverton, Ore., announced that Torvalds will join that organization as the first OSDL fellow. In this role, Torvalds will devote himself full-time to the development of the kernel and guide thousands of open-source engineers that contribute code. He also will set priorities and direction for the OSDL's industry initiatives, the lab said. The OSDL, founded in 2000, is aimed to promote the growth of Linux and its adoption in the enterprise. The consortium is...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The creator of the Linux operating system is joining a global development group to focus on further improving the open-source software. Linus Torvalds said Tuesday he is taking a leave from his research job at chip-maker Transmeta Corp. He will become the first fellow at the Beaverton, Ore.-based Open Source Development Lab, which is funded by high-tech companies to, among other things, enhance Linux for corporate data centers. At the lab, he will focus on the next major revision of the Linux core, or kernel. "It feels a bit strange to finally officially work on...

<p>The SCO Group, which is suing IBM for $1 billion, on Monday terminated Big Blue's right to use or distribute its Unix-based AIX operating system.</p> <p>SCO on Monday said it was going to file an amendment to the complaint against IBM with the United States District Court of Utah, where the case is currently pending, for a permanent injunction requiring IBM to cease and desist all use and distribution of AIX and to destroy or return all copies of Unix System V source code.</p>

Another major hardware maker is likely to be added to SCO's legal battle against IBM and others over what it claims is illegally appropriated source code in Linux. In the meantime, Novell backs off copyright claims against SCO. The SCO Group Inc. has found what it says is proof that it owns all copyrights related to the Unix operating system, a claim rival Novell Inc. had contested last month and for which SCO may seek to recoup damages. Also, IBM said that it had no intention of reaching a quick settlement with the SCO Group, a small company based in...

Users and resellers of RAV AntiVirus, popular especially on Linux platforms, are in limbo after Microsoft Corp. announced plans to buy the RAV technology from Romania's GeCAD Software Srl. The RAV product line will be discontinued after Microsoft completes the acquisition of the technology, Microsoft said. GeCAD, which claims that its products protect more than 10 million users worldwide, will support current customers through the end of their contracts. The acquisition has observers questioning Microsoft's ultimate intentions and wondering what the software maker wants with technology that powers leading virus-scanning tools for e-mail servers on Linux platforms, rivals to Microsoft's...

SEATTLE (Reuters) - SCO Group Inc. SCOX.O , which claims International Business Machines Corp. IBM.N illegally used parts of its Unix software in other programs, said on Wednesday that it could revoke its license to the world's largest computer company unless they settled this week. Lindon, Utah-based SCO is suing IBM for more than $1 billion and warned 1,500 other companies last month that they may be violating SCO's intellectual property rights because parts of its Unix software code are being used in Linux. Unix is a widely-used operating system for networked computers that was first developed by AT&T Corp....

<p>Some members of the open-source community are claiming that the SCO Group may have violated the terms of the GNU GPL (General Public License) by incorporating source code from the Linux kernel into the Linux Kernel Personality feature found in SCO Unix without giving the changes back to the community or displaying copyright notices attributing the code to Linux.</p>

Some members of the open-source community are claiming that the SCO Group may have violated the terms of the GNU GPL (General Public License) by incorporating source code from the Linux kernel into the Linux Kernel Personality feature found in SCO Unix without giving the changes back to the community or displaying copyright notices attributing the code to Linux. A source close to SCO, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told eWEEK that parts of the Linux kernel code were copied into the Unix System V source tree by former or current SCO employees.

One of the first observers to see the evidence in the SCO Group Inc.'s intellectual-property claim against IBM and the Linux community says there are direct similarities between the Unix code that SCO claims control over and the Linux operating system. "My impression is that [SCO's claim] is credible," says Laura DiDio, a Yankee Group analyst who was shown the evidence by SCO Group earlier this week. "It appears to be the same" code. But DiDio says the developing battle could hinge on legal fine points that are hard to sort out in the current atmosphere of claims, denials, and...

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32872 Tuesday, June 3, 2003 BIZNETDAILY COMMENTARYBig blue Mormon penguinsUpdates on the Linux wars Posted: June 3, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: Russ McGuire is the online director of Business Reform Magazine. Each issue of Business Reform features practical advice on operating successfully in business while glorifying God. By Russ McGuire © 2003 Business Reform Two months ago I told you about The SCO Group's lawsuit against IBM ( "If you can't beat 'em, sue"). Well, since then, it's gotten a lot messier....

Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer warned his staff in an e-mail Thursday that cheap Linux-based software is a growing threat to the software titan. He vowed to meet the challenge. "Over the long term, I'm optimistic about our growth opportunities. But we face significant challenges in the near and mid term," he said in the e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. "Non-commercial software products in general and Linux in particular, present a competitive challenge for us and for our entire industry, and they require our concentrated focus and attention," he said. Linux, a freely available operating...

Microsoft researchers endorse Linux clusters Knock us over with a feather By Egan Orion: Thursday 05 June 2003, 09:44 "The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it." Mark Twain TWO SENIOR RESEARCHERS at Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center have endorsed Linux Beowulf clusters as the future of scientific computing. The pair, Gordon Bell and Jim Gray, casually mentioned this in passing during a presentation given at the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board meeting held last month at Stanford University. They were presenting a case...