[NTLUG:Discuss] SCO, IBM, MS, Linux

[Steve Baker]

Darin W. Smith wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-05-27 at 17:55, Steve Baker wrote:
> 
> 
>>I read someplace that they claim the infringement happened BEFORE
>>they shipped copied of Linux under GPL and that they were (at that
>>time) unaware that illegal copies of their code were in Linux.  Had
>>they known, they would not have GPL'ed it - so (in effect) they were
>>tricked into GPL'ing their own code.
>>
> 
> 
> No.  Ignorance is not the same as being "tricked."  Nobody was tricked. 
> If you are shipping a product, it is *your responsibility* to make sure
> that you are not revealing your own trade secrets. 

Right - I was only paraphrasing what SCO said - I don't recall where - probably
something on Slashdot.

> That is what M$
> wants to come out of this case, because they will be able to spread more
> FUD about open-source software leaving you open to revealing your own
> trade secrets.  Thus M$'s investment in SCO.

Yep.

> *If* there was infringement, then SCO must show that it happened before
> they began shipping it *in order to have ANY case*.

Yep - that's what they are saying they'll do.

But as ESR so eloquently explained, the history of the original UNIX
code is such a tangled mess of changes of ownership, lawsuits and ad'hoc
contributions WITHOUT a clear CVS paper-trail, it's hard to definitely
attribute any of the code to any particular individual or company.

If some piece of "UNIX" (whatever that means) ended up in Linux, it
would be impossible to trace whether that code was owned by SCO or not.

What makes it especially messy is that the UNIX v6 and v7 source code
was handed out for free to educational establishments by Bell Labs. Many students
back in the mid 1970's (myself included) hacked on that source code
on cheap PDP-11's when we were learning OS design.  Who knows who added
code, copied code, subconsciously 'absorbed' the design only to reproduce
it 30 years later...nobody signed NDA's back then and people swapped source
code (without any knowledge of "Software Licenses") just as we do with
OpenSource code today.

Back in those days, people bought software for their expensive Mainframes
and Minicomputers - and the source code just "came with it".  IP rights
were simply not on the radar back then.

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
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