[NCLUG] Organizing against SCO?

[jbass at dmsd.com]

Sean Reifschneider <jafo at tummy.com> writes:
> If it's true that IBM did that, then they deserve what they get.
> However, the Linux community deserves the right to know about it and fix
> IBM's mistake, and get on with it's business.

Yes and no.  Whoever first violates copyright is liable for all
copies that result from the initial violation, up to the point
that holders of the illegal copies are notified. After notification
holders of illegal copies incur their own liability with continued
use, so in that context SCO's notification is consistant with other
copyright infringement cases. I'm not a copyright lawyer, so I
don't know to what degree SCO is obligated here, or IBM for that
matter.

In terms of how to play the copyright litigation game SCO appears to
be following the rules here, dispite the impact it has on users of
code tainted by the copyright violations.

There are two general remedy strategies in copyright infringment
settlements, distroy all illegal copies, and pay royalties for all
illegal copies.  SCO is looking for the largest possible settlement
from IBM in this to cover a case that will cost a lot. After the
discovery phase is over we will see filings which cover the full
extent of the SCO case against IBM. A big part of SCO's effort here
will be to prove that individual violations actually orginated at
IBM, and sort out from what remains where the remaining violations
originated from. Given that a couple dozen UNIX licensee's that are
actively doing Linux development work are probably in SCO's sights,
it might be several years before SCO is even able to fully disclose
all the violations if it expects to actually get settlements from
these other companies.

Unless IBM get's cold feet and settles early, we are probably looking
for SCO to hold out for maximum damages from the illegal disclosures.
Here, it's in SCO's favor if Linux with illegal copyrighted material
continues to propagate.  It's certainly not in SCO's favor to have
the open source community rapidly remove infringing code before the
final decree and settlement, plus any appeals, for all the cases to
follow.

John