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SCO Preparing Linux Licensing Program

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the everyone-else-is-scoing-it-why-can't-we dept.

akorvemaker writes "OSNews is reporting about an article at InfoWorld that SCO's new Linux licensing program 'will allow users of the open-source operating system to run Linux without fear of litigation.'" This seems to be either the best business decision ever, or a nail in their coffin. One would think they'd wait before charging a license fee over what some would call shaky ground,

2 of 508 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha by a_n_d_e_r_s · · Score: 0, Troll
    ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I just want to know who'll be suckered into paying this license fee! ROFL!


    Microsoft of course!


    Probably twice too - they like to charge their customer that so why not pay it. SCO needs the money for the court battle.


    Then when they had set a preference they can buy SCO and collect tax on all computers.

    --
    Just saying it like it are.
  2. Wrong by RoLi · · Score: 1, Troll
    Whether the Linux kernel has any SCO I.P. in it has yet to be proven, but if it does then everyone is on pretty shaky ground.

    Only those who broke the copyright have anything to fear. FYI, downloading stuff from Napster/Kazaa/edonkey is not illegal, only uploading is. - Simply because the downloader is not made aware of any copyright.

    So IF SCO really shares some code with Linux and IF that code is really the IP of SCO (lots of their stuff is from BSD) and IF SCO can make the courts believe that they didn't realize for years that they were distributing by GPL the code which is worth (according to SCO) 3 billion dollars - funny, you have a 3-billion dollar feature and don't realize it's in Linux for years? Seems a little bit far-fetched for me - and IF the court rules that SCO's utter ignorance of what they distributed protect them from the GPL and IF the court orders the IP to be removed (which is not sure, they could also just request the offender - the one and only the one who has put the IP in there - to pay damages)

    ... then the Linux community will rewrite the code portions within a week, release a new kernel, distributors will use it in their new releases and the old "bad" kernel will be obsolete long before the court case ends.

    But even then you have nothing to fear for running an old Linux kernel.

    But anyway, there are so many IFs in that scenario that all this is purely speculative.