SCO Has "Made No Decision" On Linux IP Claims

Earlier today, a Slashdot post reported the possibility that SCO would attempt to collect royalty payments for intellectual property that SCO (according to that story) claims would make other Linux vendors liable to the tune of nearly $100 per Linux-running CPU. This report on NewsForge reports that SCO has issued a statement "disputing the claims in the story, but confirming that it does have significant asset claims in Unix IP and it is discussing 'possible strategies.'" Awfully ambiguous on SCO's part; I'd feel better about a straight denial.

Comments

This is what's wrong with Open Source.

[_Sambo]

It's like a game of Counter-Strike where everyone agrees to knife only. Then some anonymous asshole starts shooting. (Cough)Lawsuits, Royalties, Blah... (Cough)

Then everyone gets pissed and starts shooting, and soon, there is no knife fight.

My brainy friend Uhh_Duh has posted a blog on the problems with open source here.

Re:Until we dissolve the regimes we will be slaves

[Xerithane]

OK, so from your comments I assume that you've done an economics or maybe business ethics course. Nice. Well done. Now go and look at the real world.

Never, I'm self taught. Programmer by career, businessman by turn of events. So be it. I study business and economics more than software development at this point in my life.

You can hide your head in the sand as much as you want but this is how the system works. As the original poster put it; little kids in the playground screaming 'but I thought of that first, you can't use it'.
That is the idiots approach to patents. It's not about lack of sharing. Patents are designed to continue shared knowledge. Patents are documented fully, design documents are also publicly available. You can get licenses, often times royalty free, to work with patents. Look at the vast armada of IBM patents that they allow people ot use for free. But no, patents are bad because you fail to understand how the real world works.

News flash: Without patents, the big companies will fuck you. End of story. Nothing you can do about it, you don't have the money to stop them.

Any larger company will be able to find a ton of patents that the smaller guy has infringed, and will offer to 'waive' them in exchange for free licensing rights to the little guys invention.

This is a bit wrong. A big company that wants the little guys invention will often times not find patent infringement. If there is, there is a precedent setup for those patents being royalty free. What happens is the big companies try to buy exclusive rights to market and use that patent, there by allowing the little guy to make money and the big company still makes money.

This is far more common than the little guy getting screwed, you really need to start paying attention in the world of business. The only little guys who get squashed are those trying to take too big of a bite out of the big companies. When you sleep with a bear, don't kick it in the nuts.

Re:Until we dissolve the regimes we will be slaves

[Gothmolly]

This is the classic looter stance - seize property in the name of the people, with the assumption that the sucker^H^H^H^H^H^Hproducers will keep producing.
You know what? People won't produce under your system - they have no rights to the product of their own efforts. You contribute nothing to the equation except consuming their product. You need them. They don't need you.
To paraphrase you, your post deserves a -5,Statist, and you should re-examine your thoughts on the matter.