Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A federal judge's ruling Friday may help proponents of Linux open-source software sidestep a significant legal threat. SCO Group Inc. does not own the copyright to Unix operating-system software, as it had claimed, and Novell Inc. is the proper owner, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball said in a filing in federal court in Utah. SCO Group had sued Novell in 2004 for falsely claiming ownership of Unix. In 2003, SCO Group filed a high-profile lawsuit against International Business Machines Corp. for contributing code to Linux open-source software that it said included some of SCO's Unix-related intellectual...

U.N. office in D.C. targeted By Betsy Pisik THE WASHINGTON TIMES NEW YORK — The United States this week proposed shutting down the influential office of the U.N. representative in Washington, prompting complaints from some U.N. officials that the move would curtail the organization's access to Congress. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte suggested closing the $1 million-a-year U.N. Information Center (UNIC) at a meeting of the U.N. budget committee Tuesday, one of several proposed cost-cutting measures. U.N. officials were aghast at the suggestion, saying they had been assured that UNIC-Washington was not to be included in a planned consolidation of information...

There is a bogus petition circulating via e-mail. Please note that the UN Information Center website disavows the petition and states: "The UN is NOT involved in soliciting or collecting such petitions." (http://www.unicwash.org/unic%20was%20response%20to%20petition.htm) --- Subject:  RE: UN Petition Urgent New Subject: Please Sign (UN Petition) If you are against the war that the US is about to declare please read on. The UN is collecting signatures to avoid this tragedy. PLEASE COPY this e-mail to a new message, sign at the end of the list that follows, and send it to every one you know. If you receive this list...