[NCLUG] Organizing against SCO?

[J. Paul Reed]

On 23 Jul 2003 at 03:43:24, jbass at dmsd.com moved bits on my disk to say:

> Otherwise, take notice, that the RMS affected open software camp really
> does need to respect software copyrights if they expect the GPL to mean
> anything at all. And maybe the open software camp will finally learn that
> the very copyright that protects GPL, does in fact protect other IP
> owners as well.

In your rush to paint RMS-followers (which I don't include myself in) as IP
bandits, you've missed the point John.

The reason the Australians went to their equivalent of the Federal Trade
Commission is not because they're "siding" with IBM in the lawsuit claim,
and it's not because they think IP is irrelevant. They're doing it because
SCO has resorted to threatening other companies with a lawsuit before the
outcome of their primary suit on the matter has even reached discovery.

It has nothing to do with the legal merit of the case against IBM; it has
to do with anti-competitive business practices and SCO's use of (according
to the Australian complaint) "unsubstantiated claims and extortive legal
threats for money."

Don't confuse the two.

I think if you talk to even RMS-supporters, you'll find that their issue is
with SCO bullying other companies before the IBM suit has been decided.
As you point out, I don't think there's any question that IBM is going to
win this one... but SCO needs money to keep fighting, so what better way
than to extort your competitor's customers to keep paying for a suit you're
going to lose? 

That's what this issue is about... and why it's worth bringing to the FTC's
attention (although, a lot of good it will do you under CEO Bush's
administration). 

Let SCO finish bullying IBM before they begin bullying everyone else.

Later,
Paul
------------------------------------------------------------------------
J. Paul Reed -- 0xDF8708F8 || preed at sigkill.com || web.sigkill.com/preed
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