[Talk] Re: [Linux-aus] SCO position, rationale and AUUG

[Jon maddog Hall]

Hi,

I have been watching your conversations.  I approve of your movement from
one of stark "Let's rip their eyes out" to one of calming the businesses
to let them know that "this too will pass".

Know that IF this legal battle in the US is won by SCO, it will be on nits and
examinations and on legal points of law.  By any other measure SCO will be
told to go pound sand.  Therefore you have to be careful about what you say to
the letter of the law.

For example (and I am not purposely pointing out one individual's words, just
giving an example):

> The co-incident annoucement of Microsoft licensing Unix from SCO,
> supposedly for improvement of its Unix Services for Windows product,
> becomes noteworthy in this context.

 Microsoft can not license Unix from SCO, because SCO does not own Unix.  SCO
 owns a code stream of licensed and sub-licensed code that came originally
 from AT&T.  The BRAND and Trademarked term Unix is owned by the Open Group,
 and is used for branding many code streams as Unix compatible.  The most that
 Microsoft could have licensed from SCO is insurance protection from SCO's patents and
 intellectual property that existed in that code stream, which is probably
 negligible or non-existent in Microsoft's code.

By loosely using the legal terms, you lend some credibility to SCO's claims
that the free software community does not (or can not) follow the rules.

State your case simply and clearly, without pretending to know what the other
person is thinking.

Warmest regards,

md
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux(R) International
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
Voice: +1.603.672.4557       Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
WWW: http://www.li.org

Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association

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