James, I agree, if Caldera had gone after these 'issues' from the start they might have a case. If I am not mistaken, for a patent one must challenge any and all infringements or your rights are pretty much not existent. With all the $$$ that companies like IBM have in LINUX, it would not surprise me if the figure it is cheaper to buy Caldera outright, rather than litigate , and turn around and close the doors after the make ALL THE CODE available for GUN public lisc. I mean the good will alone and savings of 'fear of extra charges' to their customers would be worth millions. Abraham James Mohr wrote:
On Friday 21 February 2003 22:58, Fred A. Miller wrote:
http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_09/b3822601_tc102.htm
Now that was definately a fun read. What I hit on was this:
Frustrations, though, run high. One Microsoft executive, chief strategist Craig Mundie, even calls Linux unhealthy for the technology industry. "It ultimately is a question about whether societies are going to value intellectual property or not," he says.
It's like saying that taxi drivers are economically unhealthy because the are using the "intellectual property" of those who developed the internal combustion engine. All Linux means is a shift in "the technology industry". Instead of making money through executable programs or lawyers, companies will make the money through competence is other areas, such as implementation and administration.
As for the SCO Group (was Caldera) tying to bully other Linux companies, I am not surprised at all. They are obviously not in it for the love of Linux, but solely as a quick way of making money. I have seen some very unpeleasant changes in them over the years. Rather than investing money to improve their version of Linux to give it a better edge, they invest money in places where they can use litigation to force money out of people (directly or indirectly). Sounds kinda like Microsoft doesn't it?
I am also curious if Caldera (it's too painful for me to call them SCO), has patent rights and not just copyright. There is a huge difference there. With a patent, your "idea" is protected, but a copyright protects the actual contents. If Linux code implements the same ideas/concepts as the copyrighted UNIX source code, then I doubt Caldera has a leg to stand on. My opinion is that they are cutting their own throats with this.
Regards,
jimmo
-- Abraham Bloom, CISSP | The New Testament offers the basis for modern abrahambloom@comcast.net | computer coding theory, in the form of an X/motif/c/shell/perl | affirmation of the binary number system. Sys V/BSD/Linux/Sco | | But let your communication be Yea, yea; nay, | nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh | of evil. -- Matthew 5:37