[NCLUG] Organizing against SCO?

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Wed, Jul 23, 2003 at 09:39:52PM -0600, jbass at dmsd.com wrote:
>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

Sure, I can understand that.  However, SCO is trying to get people to
pay for these "illegal" copies before discovery phase has even
completed.  It's way more than a little early to start threatening
people that in several years they may be using illegal software.

>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.

I understand that.  However, if SCO is really on Linuxs side, as they
seem to be saying, you'd think they'd want to make it so that people
could move on.  Heck, if anything it could be more in their favor,
because if they want to show that X people are using linux at such and
such a point in the future, that number is going to be bigger if people
aren't afraid of SCO.

Of course, I wonder if they're really thinking about pursuing other
cases after IBM.  If they win against IBM, they're probably going to be
rolling in it, and if they fail I doubt they'll be able to win the other
cases.

As it is, it seems to me like SCO is trying to squealch Linux adoption.
Who's to benefit from that, eh?

To come full circle, I'm not necessarily looking to put pressure on SCO
to drop the case or anything of that sort.  It's just that to me it
seems odd and borderline anti-competitive towards Linux some of the
things that SCO has been doing.  However, I don't have anywhere near the
appropriate expertese to determine if that's true or not.  I can
conjecture, based on information I have and an extremely imperfect
knowledge of the legal system.

What I'd like is some confirmation from someone who is *MUCH* better
equipped to deal with it than I am, that what SCO is doing is not
unduely hurting other Linux users while they are making their case
against IBM.

Sean
-- 
 With Microsoft you get Windows...  Linux gives you the whole house.
Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com, ltd. - Linux Consulting since 1995.  Qmail, Python, SysAdmin
      Back off man. I'm a scientist.   http://HackingSociety.org/