[P1] OT: Unix code lawsuits

[Chris Beaumont]

A number of years ago (2000) a company that had seen better days 
('SCO') bought some rights to a trademarked name 'Unix' and some of its 
code, from what I have heard..Then they put a bunch of this old Unix 
code that they had acquired up on its web site, inviting people to 
download and 'study' it..  It was the first act in a sleazy strategy to 
extort money, it seems to me...

Now, it appears, they are trying to extort money from the Linux 
community trying to claim that Linux has some of that code in it, so 
that it is a 'derivative work' from Unix and that companies that use 
Linux need to pay them.. This is kind of ridiculous for many reasons, 
not the least of which is that this company themselves used to have a 
linux distro of its own..and sell support for it.. (you cant 'sell' 
linux, its free, and so all code in it is released under the GPL and 
free to download freely..)

It wont fly.. their case is basically a nuisance case.. I'm sure that 
eventually they will be thrown out of court.. Linux has been around 
since the early 90s..

If the case had merit, why didn't they pursue it years ago? Its a 
desperate act, in my opinion..

Another strike against them.. Linux's strength is that it is developed 
by a huge community of people, for free.. so suing that community is 
basically futile.. because nobody 'sells' it.. it is given away.. at 
least the core part of it..

(For the same reason, figures on Linux's 'sales' are overwhelmingly 
innaccurate, because most users just download it off the net..for free.)

The penetration of Linux in the server market is huge.. It is popular 
because it just works.. its very stable - and performance is excellent..

SCO is a company that used to make a unix variant for 386 PCs (yes, 
really that long ago..) They still exist, but mostly just to pursue 
this vendetta, as far as I can tell, but after this nobody will 
probably buy many of their products, IMO.. Its a blunder of immense 
proportions morally, IMO, especially after they seemingly released the 
code on their site..for free...

In retrospect, that action looks suspiciously like a trap, don't you 
think?

-Chris



On Thursday, June 19, 2003, at 10:26 AM, Mark Winter wrote:

> Folks;
>
> Does anyone know what's the story behind the lawsuits against IBM and 
> Apple in regards to the Unix code?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Mark
>