Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S270519AbTGXOx4 (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Jul 2003 10:53:56 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S271156AbTGXOxz (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Jul 2003 10:53:55 -0400 Received: from smtp.bitmover.com ([192.132.92.12]:55741 "EHLO smtp.bitmover.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S270519AbTGXOxy (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Jul 2003 10:53:54 -0400 Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 08:08:41 -0700 From: Larry McVoy To: Felipe Alfaro Solana Cc: Diego Calleja Garc?a , Michael Bernstein , gmicsko@szintezis.hu, LKML Subject: Re: SCO offers UnixWare licenses for Linux Message-ID: <20030724150841.GA12647@work.bitmover.com> Mail-Followup-To: Larry McVoy , Felipe Alfaro Solana , Diego Calleja Garc?a , Michael Bernstein , gmicsko@szintezis.hu, LKML References: <1058807414.513.4.camel@sunshine> <141DFFFA-BBA4-11D7-A61F-000A95773C00@seven-angels.net> <20030721205940.7190f845.diegocg@teleline.es> <1059058329.957.11.camel@teapot.felipe-alfaro.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1059058329.957.11.camel@teapot.felipe-alfaro.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i X-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam (whitelisted), SpamAssassin (score=0.5, required 7, AWL, DATE_IN_PAST_06_12) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2568 Lines: 50 On Thu, Jul 24, 2003 at 04:52:09PM +0200, Felipe Alfaro Solana wrote: > On Mon, 2003-07-21 at 20:59, Diego Calleja Garc?a wrote: > > El Mon, 21 Jul 2003 13:52:21 -0400 Michael Bernstein escribi?: > > > > > To put it simply, just because they "may," - and I say may here simply > > > because we have no evidence to prove their claims but cannot flatly > > > deny them - own the rights to Sys V, does NOT mean they own the right > > > > So they want to sell us something that still hasn't proved....cool. > > And can be rewritten from scratch if necessary... They're crazy! There seems to be a prevailing opinion that if there is stolen code in Linux that came from SCO owned code that all that needs to be done is to remove it and everything is fine. I don't think it works that way. If code was stolen and the fact that it is in Linux helped destroy SCO's business then SCO has the right to try and get damages. I.e., Linux damaged SCO by using the code. It's also not a simple case of rewriting. _Assuming_ that there was something significant in Linux which came from SCO, i.e., they can make the case that the Linux community wouldn't have thought of it on their own, then you don't get to rewrite it because now you know how whatever "it" is works and you didn't before. The business world takes their IP seriously. If, and it is a big if, there is code in Linux from SCO, that's going to be a nasty mess to clean up and we had better all pray that IBM just buys them and puts Unix into the public domain. Otherwise I think SCO could force Linux backwards to whereever it was before the tainted code came in. If that happens, I (and I suspect a lot of you) will work to make sure that things which couldn't possibly be tainted (like drivers) do make it forward. If SCO prevails it won't be the end of the world. A lot of that scalability stuff is just a waste of time, IMO. 32 processor systems are dinosaurs that are going away and I'm not the only one who thinks so, Dell and IDC agree: http://news.com.com/2100-1010_3-1027556.html Don't get me wrong, there are some cool things in 2.5 that we all want but if SCO puts a dent in the works Linux will recover and maybe be better. -- --- Larry McVoy lm at bitmover.com http://www.bitmover.com/lm - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/