[NCLUG] Breaking news! SCO is full of crap (big surprise)

jbass at dmsd.com jbass at dmsd.com
Wed Aug 20 13:39:23 MDT 2003


Sean Reifschneider <jafo at tummy.com> writes:
> We're not talking about books, SCO is talking about trade secrets and
> breech of contract, possibly violation of an advertising clause.

The SCO rights and their case is supported by contract law and
copyright law. While the specific case against IBM is as you
state, their basis against the Linux community is primarily
founded in copyright law, specificly the right to control
reproduction of copyrighted materials.

Their assertion is that IBM violated contract in transfering UNIX
technology into Linux, has given notice of the theft to the Linux
community, and further distribution of their property is subject to
royalties.

Under copyright law, the party that violated the terms is responsible
for all copies up to the point the copyright holder notifies everyone
involved. Further distribution by other parties results in each of
those parties individually accepting the fully liability for their
own actions after the notification.

So in this respect, copyright law as applied to books, music, films,
and all other IP protectable by copyright, also applies to software
protectable by copyright.

John



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