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

[Charles Stevenson]

John,

jbass at dmsd.com wrote:
> We are really not as far apart as it might seem. The propaganda by
> those supporting IBM (and other major corporate iron vendors) has
> been deceitful at best, to cover up obvious violations agains SCO's
> rights. Their "alliance" with open software is likely only to flurish
> as long as it serves their short term needs, which is to take down
> SCO and Microsoft and bring operating system software back into the
> hands of big iron companies. In the end they need to regain control
> of their hardware/software IP to minimize market share threats and
> lock in their customers with targeted proprietary value added.

I partially agree. Corporations are highly competitive, cannibalistic 
entities. Both sides are fighting nefariously. We live in a society 
designed with an inherent dependancy on the capitalist economy. History 
has proven that adversaries periodically unite against a common threat. 
I do not believe that GNU/Linux can stand on its own two feet in the 
courtroom without the help of the FSF, EFF, ACLU, or even a corporate 
giant like IBM. Each side has its own internal motives, to be sure, 
however the fact that they share a common goal results in the 
conjunction we are seeing.

Additionally, I wouldn't go so far as to say "obvious violations against 
SCO's rights" without having seen the evidence first-hand. What evidence 
gave you the confidence to pass judgement on which party is right and 
which is wrong? Was your assertion based upon the online FUD? Do you 
know something we don't?

> I'm clueless why the linux community is trying to protect the
> largest gready corporations in the US ... it's not because they
> have any sincere long term interest in free software.

Clueless perhaps... ;-) I believe I covered this in the precedent paragrah.

> Now some in this forum have asserted that SCO's position is completely
> without merit, and others outside our community have used this forum
> to slander SCO without merit and post grossly false and missleading
> "facts" about the merits of the case.

I find your assumption hypocritical--as neither those in favor, opposed 
or indifferent to this subject, who are also members of this forum, were 
present at SCO's forum. Correct me if I'm wrong.

> I strongly suspect that if significant portions of the Linux community
> were helping the tiny underdog SCO here, that SCO would help the Linux
> community instead responding tit for tat because of the shit being
> piled on them for attacking IBM.

Underdog or not, a corporation is a corporation. Is SCO really the 
victim here? Remember, this corporation's last dying move, rather than 
drumming up funding and support in order to come out with a new product 
, was to try and weasel some money out of what remains of their IP. At 
least IBM is a corporation that has products and customers. IBM has 
survived many trends in computing and I dare say this little thorn in 
their side we call SCO is not going to detract them from their destiny.

Do we really want SCO's help? SCO's lawsuit, threats and claims can 
hardly be seen as anything other than a direct attack upon the Open 
Source Community and its benefactors.

> Now if anybody still strongly believes that SCO's concerns and rights
> in this case are completely without merit regarding derivative code
> rights and the state of the law regarding IP, trade secrets, and
> copyright I'll be happy to continue to provide references and balance
> to this discussion.

I believe that your assertion regarding this issue is unfounded, until 
proven otherwise. It disturbs me that so many people are basing their 
arguments on media propaganda and hearsay.

> I *AM* a Linux supporter, but I also strongly believe in being fair,
> honest, and moral ... with the belief that we all should try hard to
> "just do the right thing". IBM is not doing the right thing here, and
> the dollars they expect will ultimately come out of our pockets. DITTO
> for a half dozen other major corporate Linux kernel contributors.

Is this really an issue of right and wrong--good vs evil? What I 
perceive is the natural, chaotic, evolution of our economy with respects 
to the increasing value of intellectual property, in our society, as a 
form of capital.

Kind Regards,
core

P.S. Nothing personal John. :-) I was merely in the mood to retort.