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Darl's 2003 Letter to Questar: Proof SCOsource was about AT&T's System V, not UnixWare |
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Monday, May 12 2008 @ 03:35 AM EDT
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On April 29, day one of the SCO/Novell trial in Utah, one of the main issues addressed was whether SCOsource was about Unix System V or, as SCO has recently started claiming, about UnixWare. SCO's position is that they are one and the same. There were questions posed to Chris Sontag about the SCOsource license that Questar bought back in 2003. But earlier, there was an exhibit attached to Novell's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on its 4th Claim for Relief, namely Exhibit 7 [PDF], a May 12, 2003 letter from CEO Darl McBride to Questar CEO Keith Rattie. We never had time to do it as text back in December when it was filed, but I have time now, especially now that we see it matters, and it so, so clearly shows that back in 2003, SCOsource absolutely was about Unix System V, the original AT&T code "licensed by AT&T to approximately 6,000 companies and institutions worldwide", as SCO describes it in the letter, and not UnixWare, which isn't mentioned at all and couldn't be described that way. So here is the letter as text, for the record, and happily the judge has this exhibit in hand. It's so funny, after the August 10th Utah decision that informed SCO it doesn't own the copyrights to Unix it claimed, to read McBride's description of proprietary software as carefully built in a process "designed to monitor the security and ownership of intellectual property rights associated with the code." He contrasts Linux as being a kind of anonymous free for all, with no one caring about who owns what. How hilarious that in fact the court ruled that is was proprietary SCO who didn't know who owned the UNIX code. So much for carefully monitoring IP ownership rights. As for security, I give you Microsoft's record in that department. Exhibit A.
It isn't true what Darl wrote about the Linux development being done by unknown coders, by the way. He might not know them, but the kernel maintainers do. And as for there being no process to police code, that's not true either. Even if there were no processes in place, which there are, the very nature of Open Source makes stealing code outright, as McBride alleges in the letter, unlikely to happen and impossible to conceal. It's all done in public, you know. You can't hide stolen code behind smoke and mirrors or under the bed or behind closed doors, the way proprietary companies often do. If there is any stolen code, it is *certain* to be found out, so no one would do that. It also goes against the whole point of FOSS, which is to provide something better than proprietary code.
You likely know this by now, but I wouldn't want to publish McBride's defamation without providing the truth right there on the same page. As for the "evidence" McBride claimed he had of copying, as you know no such evidence has ever shown up that we've seen yet, five years to the day from this letter's date. It's amazing that the letter worked, given it was so wrong on its facts, as it turned out, but it did. I had no idea it was so easy to hustle CEOs. Questar said at the time, as reported by CNET's Stephen Shankland, that it was just easier to pay than to fight about it, since they used very little Linux: Questar spokesman Chad Jones was one such person. "The rationale was that Linux is such a minor part of our operations and that our usage is so small and isolated, it made business sense to pay the license fee they were asking rather than risk potential litigation," Jones said. "This was purely a business decision to stay out of court."
But Jones said his company, in the oil and gas industry, didn't sign the agreement because it supported the legitimacy of SCO's claims. And it didn't pay much: Seven of the company's 100 servers run Linux, and Questar paid about $5,000, he said. Actually, it turns out it was nearly $20,000.
First, before I show you the letter, here's the exchange from the trial transcript about Questar's SCOsource license, Novell's attorney Eric Acker asking questions of Chris Sontag, who headed up SCOsource: Q. Take a look at the Exhibit 286. This is another SCO group intellectual property license, correct?
A. Yes.
Q. And this time it's entered into with Questar, correct?
A. Yes.
Q. And why don't we take a look at the definition section of this agreement. Here the definition was a little different as to what SCO IP rights were, correct?
A. Yes.
Q. And what was licensed to Questar was SCO IP rights, which shall mean SCO's intellectual property rights in any and all past, current or future versions of -- or portions of SCO's software products commonly known as UNIX System V and/or UnixWare correct?
A. Yes.
Q. That's what the license grant was, correct?
A. Yes.
Q. And if you take a look at paragraph 114 -- I'm sorry, 2.1 -- well, let's go back to -- if we could highlight 114. And, again, the definition of UNIX-based code there includes both UNIX System V or UnixWare, right?
A. Yes.
Q. And Questar paid SCO $19,125 for this license, correct?
A. Yes.
Q. And none of that money was remitted to Novell, correct?
A. No.
Q. And you didn't seek Novell's permission before entering into that license, right?
A. No.
So, at a minimum, we see that at least part of the license was for Unix System V. However, as you know, I've reached the hypothesis that there was basically one template for SCOsource for the little guys -- you see how little Questar paid -- and that UnixWare was thrown in more as an alibi than anything actually being licensed. And my hypothesis takes legs when you read the letter that was sent to Questar's CEO, which resulted in a SCOsource license. As you will see, nothing is said about UnixWare, and what is specifically mentioned is the Unix from AT&T, because at the time, SCO was telling the world that it owned all of that. Now, after learning from the court in Utah that it doesn't own System V from AT&T, now it talks about UnixWare. But read the letter, and you will see that is all just so much pudding.
Note that there is some handwritten notes on the exhibit, but I can't read them well enough to do reliable text, and so rather than guess, I'll direct you to the PDF. After the letter, I provide you with a 1991 press release announcing the formation of Univel, "a networking company", which was set up by USL and Novell to create and develop UnixWare, as you can see by this 1993 press release, which describes UnixWare and System V and announces Novell acquiring Univel. UnixWare can't be described as what AT&T originally licensed to 6,000 companies and universities, because, as you'll see, those licenses were in place long before UnixWare was born. UnixWare was a product developed by Univel, beginning in 1991. IBM's license agreement for UNIX from AT&T was in 1985. Obviously, it wasn't licensing UnixWare.
We had a link to the press release about Univel's beginning on Grokline, but I notice today the press release has disappeared, so I'll put it here for convenience, and you can still find it on the Internet Archive. It will be obvious to you that UnixWare and Unix System V are not the same thing, despite SCO's attempts to conflate them, and they did not even originate from the same entity or at the same time or for the same purpose. Here is the McBride to Questar letter, then, followed by the two press releases after the double and then triple rows of stars. I've marked the most pertinent parts of in red text:
*************************
May 12, 2003
Mr. Keith O. Rattie
President & CEO
Questar Corporation
[address]
Dear Keith:
SCO holds the rights to the UNIX operating system software originally licensed by AT&T to approximately 6,000 companies and institutions worldwide (the "UNIX Licenses"). The vast majority of UNIX software used in enterprise applications today is a derivative work of the software originally distributed under our UNIX License. Like you, we have an obligation to our shareholders to protect our intellectual property and other valuable rights.
In recent years, a UNIX-like operating system has emerged and has been distributed in the enterprise by various software vendors. This system is called Linux. We believe that Linux is, in material part, an unauthorized derivative of UNIX.
As you may know, the development process for Linux has differed substantially from the development process for other enterprise operating systems. Commercial software is built by carefully selected and screened teams of programmers working to build proprietary, secure software. This process is designed to monitor the security and ownership of intellectual property rights associated with the code.
By contrast, much of Linux has been built from contributions by numerous unrelated and unknown software developers, each contributing a small section of code. There is no mechanism inherent in the Linux development process to assure that intellectual property rights, confidentiality or security are protected. The Linux process does not prevent inclusion of code that has been stolen outright, or developed by improper use of proprietary methods and concepts.
Many Linux contributors were originally UNIX developers who had access to UNIX source code distributed by AT&T and were subject to confidentiality agreements,
including confidentiality of the methods and concepts involved in software design. We have evidence that portions of UNIX System V software code have been copied into Linux and that additional other portions of UNIX System V software code have been modified and copied into Linux, seemingly for the purposes of obfuscating their original source.
2
As a consequence of Linux's unrestricted authoring process, it is not surprising that Linux distributors do not warrant the legal integrity of the Linux code provided to customers. Therefore legal liability that may arise from the Linux development process may also rest with the end user.
We believe that Linux infringes on our UNIX intellectual property and other rights. We intend to aggressively protect and enforce these rights. Consistent with this effort, on March 7, we initiated legal action against IBM for alleged unfair competition and breach of contract with respect to our UNIX rights. This case is pending in Utah Federal District Court. As you are aware, this case has been widely reported and commented upon in the press. If you would like additional information, a copy of the complaint and response may be viewed at our web site at www.sco.com/scosource.
Similar to analogous efforts underway in the music industry, we are prepared to take all actions necessary to stop the ongoing violation of our intellectual property or other rights.
SCO's actions may prove unpopular with those who wish to advance or otherwise benefit from Linux as a free software system for use in enterprise applications. However, our property and contract rights are important and valuable; not only to us, but to every individual and every company whose livelihood depends on the continued viability of intellectual and intangible property rights in a digital age.
THE SCO GROUP
By: __[signature]___
Darl McBride
President and CEO
****************************
****************************
Editor's note: UNIX System Labs was sold in 1993 and is not part of AT&T.
FOR RELEASE THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1991
Novell and Unix System Labs create Univel, a networking company
NEW YORK, N.Y. – Novell, Inc., developer of NetWare*
systems software, and UNIX System Laboratories (USL), Inc.,
developer of the UNIX* System V operating system, today
announced creation of Univel, a joint venture company formed to
accelerate the expanded use of easy-to-use UNIX systems in the
network computing marketplace.
"There are clear customer needs for a mature, stable, well
developed, general purpose applications platform like UNIX System
V that encompasses the desktop, applications servers on computer
networks, and host computer systems," said Raymond J. Noorda,
chairman, president and chief executive officer of Novell.
"Novell is committed to meeting this need. Through Univel,
Novell and USL will bring an end user customer focus to the UNIX
system, making it easier to use while significantly expanding its
availability throughout worldwide distribution channels."
Roel Pieper, president and chief executive officer of USL,
said, "Univel opens a new era in the growth of the UNIX system by
making its power and security accesssible and available on
market-leading microprocessor platforms.
Univel products will set the standard for the UNIX System at
the desktop and will help attract thousands of additional
applications to 32-bit operating system environments, including
those built around the Intel ix86 chip architecture."
Novell and USL are contributing cash and technology rights to
Univel. Novell holds a 55 percent share in the new company.
Although specific financial terms of the joint venture were not
disclosed, the companies acknowledged that Univel has been
underwritten with $30 million cash and other assets.
In addition, the joint venture will have access to technical
resources and the education, training, sales, marketing and
distribution capabilities of the parent companies.
Novell and USL expect Univel to respond to customer needs
with streamlined UNIX System V Release 4.1 operating system
products. The companies anticipate that Univel's products will
enable computer users to run UNIX applications on standard
hardware and utilize the UNIX system as a scalable applications
environment across computer networks.
Product development is intended to tightly integrate NetWare
network services from Novell with the UNIX SVR4 applications platform.
Novell's NetWare provides network services that integrate
DOS, OS/2, Macintosh and UNIX desktop computers with each other
and with host computer systems from leading UNIX system vendors,
and from other companies including Digital Equipment Corp.,
Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
UNIX SVR4 unites all major UNIX system derivatives into a
single, standard product that supports all major system
integration standards, including POSIX, IEEE, X/Open's
Portability Guide Issue 3, the System V Interface Definition,
the Intel SVR4 Application Binary Interface and the Intel Binary
Compatibility Specification, Edition 2.
Univel's initial products will be announced and begin
shipping to computer users in 1992. They will be available
through computer product distributors, systems integrators and
resellers worldwide.
They will also be made available from computer manufacturers
under OEM agreements. The new company will be headquartered in
San Jose, Calif.
The appointment of three key Univel executives was announced.
Joel A. Appelbaum has been named president and chief executive
officer of Univel. Grover P. Righter has been named vice
president product group. Gregory R. Fallon has been named vice
president sales and channel management.
Appelbaum previously had been executive vice president, Open
Solution Software, at USL. Before joining USL in 1990, he was
vice president for AT&T's network computing product line and
director, Venture Technologies at AT&T Corporate. He served at
Bell Laboratories for more than 16 years in both research and
management positions, including director, Strategic Planning.
Righter formerly headed UNIX system efforts within Novell's
Interoperability Systems Group. He joined Novell in 1988 and has
held software engineering and product development management
positions at the company, including director of NetWare
development and director UNIX system products.
Fallon was formerly channel marketing director for
International Operations at Novell. He joined Novell in 1989
through the Novell/Excelan merger. He had been business
development group manager at Kinetics, a wholly owned subsidiary
of Excelan. Prior to joining Kinetics, Fallon had fifteen years
of sales experience in the computer industry.
Univel will be overseen by a five person board that includes
Appelbaum, two additional nominees from Novell and two nominees from USL.
UNIX System Laboratories, Inc., headquartered in Summit,
N.J., develops and markets the UNIX System V operating system and
other Open Systems software, including the TUXEDO* Enterprise
Transaction Processing System, Open Networking Platform* OSI
technology, and the C++ Programming Language System, to the
worldwide computer industry.
Novell, Inc., (NASDAQ: NOVL) is an operating system software
company, the developer of network-services and specialized and
general purpose operating system software products including
NetWare, DR DOS, DR Multiuser DOS, and Flex OS. Novell's NetWare
network computing products manage and control the sharing of
services, data and applications among computer workgroups,
departmental networks and business-wide information systems.
* UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and elsewhere,
licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd.
NetWare is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc.
TUXEDO and Open Networking Platform are registered
trademarks of Novell, Inc.
Note: In June 1993, Novell Inc. acquired UNIX System
Laboratories, Inc. For more details, see
our news
release. For information about UNIX system, visit Novell's website
http://www.novell.com/.
******************************
******************************
******************************
Peter Troop - Novell Inc.
[phone] (office)
Larry Lytle - UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.
[phone] (office)
FOR RELEASE MONDAY, JUNE 14, 1993
Novell completes acquisition of UNIX System Laboratories
PROVO, Utah -- Novell Inc. the computer networking company
announced the completion of its acquisition of UNIX System
Laboratories following a vote of approval Monday by the
shareholders of USL.
Novell will exchange 11.1 million shares of its common stock
for the outstanding shares of USL stock it does not already own.
The tax-free exchange of shares is being accounted for as a purchase. As indicated in December 1992 when the transaction was
first announced, Novell expects to incur a one-time write-off of
purchased research and development of approximately $270 million,
based on the valuation of the transaction.
This write-off will be reflected in Novell's financial
results for its third fiscal quarter ending July 31, 1993. On
a per share basis, this purchased R&D will represent a charge
against Novell earnings of up to 85 cents in its third fiscal
quarter.
USL has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Novell. Roel
Pieper continues as president and chief executive officer of the
USL subsidiary, reporting to Raymond J. Noorda chairman of
Novell. Pieper also becomes an executive vice president at
Novell. The Univel company, formed as a partnership between
Novell and USL in December 1991, continues to operate from its
headquarters in San Jose, California.
Completion of the acquisition follows the signing of a
letter of intent between Novell and AT&T on Dec. 20, 1992. The
companies reached a definitive agreement for the transaction on
Feb. 16, 1993.
AT&T now holds approximately 9 million shares of Novell common stock, or three percent of the outstanding shares, after exchanging their 77 percent interest in USL for Novell stock. AT&T
has indicated its intention to hold its shares of Novell as an
investment.
USL, based in Summit, N.J., develops and markets the UNIX
System V operating system, the TUXEDO Enterprise Transaction
Processing System, the C++ Programming Language System and other
standards-based system software products to the worldwide com-
puter industry. USL also provides education and management con-
sulting for UNIX systems and related technologies.
Univel develops and markets UnixWare, an easy-to-use UNIX
system that is tightly linked to network services provided by
Novell's NetWare system software. UnixWare is an advanced 32-bit
operating system for computers using industry standard Intel
microprocessors.
Novell Inc. is the computer networking company, developer of
network services and specialized and general purpose operating
system products, including NetWare, UnixWare and Novell DOS.
Novell's NetWare network computing products manage and control
the sharing of services, data and applications among computer
workgroups, departmental networks and across enterprise-wide in-
formation systems.
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Authored by: Darkside on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 03:54 AM EDT |
N/T [ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Darkside on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 03:56 AM EDT |
N/T [ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Darkside on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 03:57 AM EDT |
N/T [ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 04:56 AM EDT |
In recent news some 400 CEO's responded to phishing
emails that were asking for response to subpoenas.
They got key loggers instead.[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 05:06 AM EDT |
"... If there is any stolen code, it is *certain* to be found out,
so no one would do that. It also goes against the whole point of FOSS,
which is to provide something better than proprietary
code."
This is simply wrong! That open source software
is 'better than proprietary' software is a completely unfounded claim
by some proponents of 'open source' software.
I know ... maybe PJ is really
ESR!
(Yes, that's a joke).
[ Reply to This | # ]
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- 'better' depends on what you are measuring - Authored by: yscydion on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 05:30 AM EDT
- It also goes against the whole point of FOSS ... - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 05:33 AM EDT
- *Massive troll alert* - Authored by: NigelWhitley on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 05:43 AM EDT
- How abou tbugs ber kLoC? - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 06:21 AM EDT
- Not entirely unfounded - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 07:47 AM EDT
- It also goes against the whole point of FOSS ... - Authored by: Peter H. Salus on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 08:04 AM EDT
- Point of FOSS/FLOSS - Authored by: Kanth on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 11:05 AM EDT
- It also goes against the whole point of FOSS ... - Authored by: PJ on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 12:47 PM EDT
- It also goes against the whole point of FOSS ... - Authored by: Ninthwave on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 01:54 PM EDT
- You need standards to measure quality - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 06:39 PM EDT
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Authored by: NigelWhitley on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 05:38 AM EDT |
I hate to raise a note of dissent, PJ, especially about something you mention in
passing. However, I must take issue with "It also goes against the whole
point of FOSS, which is to provide something better than proprietary code".
Assuming that you used "better" to refer to higher quality code rather
than a greater guarantee of rights, you have conflated two movements with
different prime directives (oh wait, that's a TV show). Apologies if you did not
intend that, and given the ethical context that's a good possibility, because
I've turned on rant mode.
"Open Source" is touted as a better development model which will
result in better code than that developed in a more proprietary fashion. It's
about the benefits of the Bazaar versus the Cathedral.
"Free Software", of course, is primarily intended to ensure the
availability of software. This software tends to be of better quality over time
because of the development model which the "Open Source" movement
chose to separate from the principles of freedom. RMS himself has stated that he
would always use inferior Free software rather than proprietary code.
With Free Software, freedom comes first and better software is a beneficial
consequence. With Open Source, better software is the boon and freedom is a
nice-to-have.
I use both btw (and proprietary stuff too, for my sins) so this is not about one
being good and the other bad, just that they have different aims and audiences.
The practical differences between the two for many licences is non-existent :
the GPL fits either, for example. But the "point" of the two is
different so I'm whining about it :-).
With respect, freedom should not be quietly ignored like an embarrassing
relative at a wedding (that's directed at the whole "Open Source"
thing, not you PJ).
Rant mode off.
-----------------------
Nigel Whitley[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 08:44 AM EDT |
Sandy wondered if you would resumee this - I also put one in your office that
was addreesed to 66M.
Glenn - This is the copy that K/R received - I kept the copy that ?ur to Gary
Michael -
Ceran H
-- Needs some polishing.[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 09:21 AM EDT |
I had no idea it was so easy to hustle
CEOs.
Really? Just look at all of the CEO driven bank losses
going on right now because of the mindless buyout of mortgages - 70 billion and
counting (in one single year).
Those bank CEOs have caused a world wide
recession. Hustle?..... hahaha [ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 09:48 AM EDT |
Darl wrote: "As a consequence of Linux's unrestricted authoring process, it
is not surprising that Linux distributors do not warrant the legal integrity of
the Linux code provided to customers. Therefore legal liability that may arise
from the Linux development process may also rest with the end user."
He continues many years later: 'therefore I have taken legal steps to prove
their validity'[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: DodgeRules on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 09:53 AM EDT |
I was reading the above selection that PJ highlighted and noticed that one of
the answers that Chris Sontag gave cannot be interpreted correctly because of
the poorly worded question. Let's look at properly worded
question:
Q. And Questar paid SCO $19,125 for this license,
correct?
A. Yes.
This question makes a statement ("And
Questar paid SCO $19,125 for this license") and then asks if that
statement is correct. Chris answers "Yes" which can be interpreted as,
"Yes, Questar paid SCO $19,125 for this license." or "Yes, that statement is
correct." Both interpretations carry the same meaning and intent of the person
answering.
Let's look at the very next question, which is poorly
worded:
Q. And none of that money was remitted to Novell,
correct?
A. No.
This question also make a statement
("And none of that money was remitted to Novell" and then asks if that
statement is correct. Chris answers "No" which can be interpreted as
"No, none of that money was remitted to Novell" or "No, that statement is not
correct." Everyone here is quite sure that he meant that none of the money was
remitted to Novell, but Chris can argue that he was asked if that statement was
correct and he responded No, it was not correct.
I have been deposed
before and have noticed questions that were poorly worded. Instead of answering
Yes or No, I would say "Correct" or "That is incorrect" to be sure that my
answers were understood the way I meant them. At times, the lawyers were
annoyed that I would not simply say Yes or No, and I would have to explain that
if I did that, there were two possible interpretations to my answer and I wanted
to make sure my words could not be twisted to mean something else. After a few
times, the lawyers caught on and when I would answer "Correct" or "That is
incorrect", they would rephrase the question so that I could give a Yes or No
answer.
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Authored by: gard on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 10:22 AM EDT |
Hi,
PJ said:
Even if there were no processes in
place, which there are, the very nature of Open Source makes stealing code
outright, as McBride alleges in the letter, unlikely to happen and impossible to
conceal. It's all done in public, you know. You can't hide stolen code behind
smoke and mirrors or under the bed or behind closed doors, the way proprietary
companies often do. If there is any stolen code, it is *certain* to be found
out, so no one would do that.
We've talked about the
possibility of FOSS code being in various closed source products that have not
been opened up for scrutiny (besides the ones gplviolations.org manages to
find). When a corporation misuses GPL or other FOSS code in violation of the
license, and does not disclose it as a potential liability, does it violate the
executives' obligations under Sarbanes-Oxley in the US?
gard
[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: kawabago on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 12:29 PM EDT |
SCOsource was based upon 2 lies. 1.) SCO owns UNIX. 2.) UNIX is in Linux.
Darl knew both foundations for SCOscource were not true before he wrote the
first letter. It boggles the mind that anyone would look at the SCOsource plan
of attack, knowing it's based on lies, and think it could possibly succeed. The
village idiot could have predicted how this was going to turn out.[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: josmith42 on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 12:50 PM EDT |
Darl said:
By contrast, much of Linux has been built from
contributions by numerous unrelated and unknown software developers, each
contributing a small section of code. There is no mechanism inherent in the
Linux development process to assure that intellectual property rights,
confidentiality or security are protected.
This little
excerpt makes it ubundantly clear that Darl has no clue about how software
development works, open source or otherwise. If it were unknown (and no one
cared to know) who contributed what, Linux would be about as stable as a
one-legged elephant on ice skates. The Linux people (and just about every other
FLOSS project, for that matter) carefully review every contribution before
including it. Otherwise, there would be dire consequences from a
technical standpoint, not just a legal standpoint.
--- This
comment was typed using the Dvorak keyboard layout. :-) [ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 01:13 PM EDT |
Uhhhmmmmm ... First: IANAL.
Second, to the untrained, like me, I see a class action lawsuit based on fraud.
Would it possible, if SCO had any money to recover, for all those who were
bullied into signing up for an SCO Source License, to sue collectively to
recover what they paid with recovery in proportion to how much was paid to SCO?
Would such a lawsuit be possible, reasonable, likely to win?
Did SCO know or should they have known that they really, really didn't have the
rights to the intellectual property they were purporting to own? If this is the
case, is this covered under Civil RICO? Would a suit based on Civil RICO be
reasonable?
Was this really extortion? Nothing more, nothing less. Given the assertions
above, would the officers and directors of SCO be subject to criminal
prosecution and imprisonment for criminal RICO, fraud, extortion? How would a
district attorney (or whatever venue, State, Federal?) that has jurisdiction go
about proving these things? Can you get Republican administration to pursue it?
If a prosecutor follows the money, paper trail and it leads to Microsoft, then
what? What is the penalty for RICO?
Just curious.
[ Reply to This | # ]
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- if you own SCO stock after groklaw was invented YOU LOSE - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 01:40 PM EDT
- Darl's 2003 Letter to Questar: Proof SCOsource was about AT&T's System V, not UnixWare - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 02:00 PM EDT
- Not SCO, but Darl and company - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 02:16 PM EDT
- Darl's 2003 Letter to Questar: Proof SCOsource was about AT&T's System V, not UnixWare - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 02:40 PM EDT
- Darl's 2003 Letter to Questar: Proof SCOsource was about AT&T's System V, not UnixWare - Authored by: JamesK on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 03:43 PM EDT
- Darl's 2003 Letter to Questar: Proof SCOsource was about AT&T's System V, not UnixWare - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 03:50 PM EDT
- Darl's 2003 Letter to Questar: Proof SCOsource was about AT&T's System V, not UnixWare - Authored by: Steve Martin on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 04:17 PM EDT
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Authored by: nsomos on Monday, May 12 2008 @ 04:35 PM EDT |
Darl wrote
"Many Linux contributors were originally UNIX developers who
had access to UNIX source code distributed by AT&T and were
subject to confidentiality agreements"
I am somewhat skeptical of this claim of Darls. I know that
I had access to various Unix source code and I signed the
confidentiality agreement, and I took it quite seriously.
I studiously avoided contributing to Linux thinking my
'exposure' to Unix would potentially put anything I might
contribute in question. I would not at all be surprised
if many of the others who signed such agreements, would
similarly be quite careful.
I am curious, how many UNIX developers actually HAVE
contributed to Linux, and what small percentage of
Linux contributors does this actually amount to?
Based on his track record, I would guess that Darl
would be as far off the mark on this claim, as he
has been on everything else. (Pretty far that is ...)[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: ewe2 on Tuesday, May 13 2008 @ 01:53 AM EDT |
I think PJ is on the money here, it's actually quite subtle for SCO.
Unfortunately you have to erase your traces if you want to sell this kind of
snake-oil, so not so subtle, Darl.[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: vortex on Tuesday, May 13 2008 @ 05:05 PM EDT |
As you may know, the development process for Linux has differed
substantially from the development process for other enterprise operating
systems. Commercial software is built by carefully selected and screened teams
of programmers working to build proprietary, secure software. This process is
designed to monitor the security and ownership of intellectual property rights
associated with the code.
Hilarity. Some software teams
do select their programmers with some care; others I've seen will hire whoever
they can get, so the good ones leave because they spent too much time fixing
what was written by the rest – "carefully selected" indeed. Even those
who select with care are usually short-handed; so they can't afford to have the
work of each reviewed by others – instead, each is given some work to do
and what they do ends up used out of necessity.
The process that's
actually "designed to monitor" security and ownership of information
privileges is the use of NDA and contracts of employment to give substance to a
threat of legal prosecution. Oversight to avoid unlawful inclusion of
third-party code has traditionally been non-existent, although some businesses
are waking up; if a problem arose, the corporation would sue the perpetrator
(for breach of some term from contract) in order to establish to their insurer's
satisfaction that it wasn't their fault, so that the insurer would end up paying
the costs arising from the problem (that the perpetrator is brankrupted as part
of the process makes little difference here, as the perpetrator's total wealth
is insignificant on the scale of such lawsuits).
Still, the funny part
is really that Darl's stressing the importance of oversight as to who provides
the code, rather than the importance of oversight of the code itself.
By contrast, much of Linux has been built from
contributions by numerous unrelated and unknown software developers, each
contributing a small section of code. There is no mechanism inherent in the
Linux development process to assure that intellectual property rights,
confidentiality or security are protected. The Linux process does not prevent
inclusion of code that has been stolen outright, or developed by improper use of
proprietary methods and concepts.
Most proprietary
software has been written by unknown programmers, who aren't credited anywhere
in the proprietor's provision of the software. Free projects, on the other
hand, do tend to give credit to those who've contributed. So I might not know
who all those people are, that the credits list mentions, but they are at least
credited – which is less unknown than the proprietary programmer.
In any case, the free world looks not to the man but to his work
– what matters is emphatically not who wrote it but what the code is
that's being submitted for inclusion. Even if the maintainer trusts the
submitter so surely as to take in a patch without review, which is rare, the
patch is still going to be reviewed by others, at least if it's in the Linux
kernel (which is the project Darl addressed); and any issues are going to be
noticed and raised. Which, indeed, is exactly the "mechanism inherent in the
Linux development process" that does assure that the project is protected from
contamination from unsuitable code. As usual, Darl's claims about free software
are not only wrong about free software but actually true about the proprietary
software he holds up as exemplary.
As for preventing "inclusion of
code that has been stolen outright, or developed by improper use of proprietary
methods and concepts", with Darl's broad conception of what that can mean, no
proprietary company has any mechanism in place which would prevent a developer
writing code that does the job in a way that involves deploying ideas they've
seen in prior jobs. Quite the contrary, every proprietary company is more eager
to hire programmers with prior experience and hence more ideas from prior jobs
that they can rework to fit the new job's needs. The way they protect
themselves from a Darl-suit is by not showing anyone the code, so no-one can
speculate wildly and publicly about how they came up with the code, alleging it
to be based on someone else's.
Darl marvelously illustrates how the
corporate world builds hierarchies of blame – with contracts and NDAs to
ensure a law-suit can send the damage to a definite party; and insurance to
ensure you can cover the cost if that's you – and totally fails to
understand the networks of trust that the free world builds. In a hierarchy of
blame, once someone's signed up to their binding legal documents, they're
trusted; and their work is accepted with little further scrutiny, safe in the
knowledge that you can go to court if there's a problem. In a network of trust,
you are judged by your works, not the promises to which you have bound yourself;
and your work is judged on its merits, not by who it came from.
--- Finally – the SCO group saga's end game.
Break out the pop-corn, sit back and watch the fire-works.
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Authored by: dwheeler on Wednesday, May 14 2008 @ 06:01 PM EDT |
You might want to take a look at this cartoon:
The
Bizarre Cathedral - 3, in the Free Software Magazine.
[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Darigaaz on Thursday, May 15 2008 @ 02:48 PM EDT |
Similar to analogous efforts underway in the music
industry
For once, Darl actually spoke the truth. More so than
he intended, I'm sure.--- Many eyes make all bugs shallow - not just in
software, but journalism and law as well. [ Reply to This | # ]
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