On Tuesday 17 June 2003 07:26, Ben Rosenberg wrote:
* Fred A. Miller (fmiller@lightlink.com) [030616 22:59]: ->""So are you saying that the U.S. government might file a "Friend of the Court ->Brief" to support your case against IBM?" I blurted out. "Don't be surprised" ->was Sontag's answer." -> ->http://www.byte.com/documents/s=8276/byt1055784622054/0616_mars hall.html
Wow! I guess soon you'll have computer geeks taking out Mafia hits on SCO employee's.
I wish IBM could just buy them already and Open Source all the System V code.
Personally, I'd like this one to run and run - as long as, at the end of it, a tattered white flag is raised over the remnants of SCO's HQ. Firstly, I'd rather this sort of issue was sorted out once and for all. The last thing GNU/Linux needs is a queue of munchkin lawyers popping up to file suits on behalf of no-name companies who claim that their copyright has been infringed. If there's going to be a suit, let's get it over and done with now, before interested OS vendors can spread "GNU/Linux is tainted!" FUD throughout the commercial IT world. This case has raised questions that need to be answered emphatically. Secondly, I like to see SCO get the crap knocked out of them; to let them serve as an example of what not to do, and why spurious lawsuits are not a reliable source of income. Thirdly, the GPL has never really been tested in serious situations. If SCO were to succeed in their suit, the GPL would effectively be history. If IBM bought SCO, then the GPL remains untested. Only by fighting here does the GPL come out of this in a stronger position. Gideon.