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Australian Linux User Group Fights Back Against SCO
ashitaka writes "The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that an Open Source group has gone on the offensive in response to SCO's latest demands that Linux users must buy a Unixware license to avoid any possible future unpleasantries. 'Open Source Victoria today filed a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, asking it to investigate SCO's activities in light of 'unsubstantiated claims and extortive legal threats for money' against possibly hundreds of thousands of Australians.' I especially like the last bit: 'One feels that this whole fiasco is the IT industry equivalent of a Nigerian scam or internet extortion ploy.' Oh yeah.."
I especially like the last bit: 'One feels that this whole fiasco is the IT industry equivalent of a Nigerian scam or internet extortion ploy.' Oh yeah.."
It would almost be funny if this whole mess were not true. sigh
From the website:
"OSV is a marketing, advocacy and focus group, which aims to raise the profile of Open Source Software (OSS) in Victoria."
Ven. Jhanrato
You can file a complaint supporting OSV at http://www.accc.gov.au/about/fs-contact.htm - look for the complaint form.
Dear Sir / Madam
As the representative of a small business (XXXXXX) I am writing to support a recent complaint filed by the Open Source Victoria regarding the actions of the SCO Group.
SCO is making unspecific and unsubstantiated claims that it owns copyright pertaining to the Linux PC operating system. It is asking any companies using Linux to purchase licences or face the threat of legal action.
Would you please investigate the claims that SCO is making so that small businesses and other companies are not pressured into making unwarranted payments.
Sincerely,
:wq
In Germany, SCO was already stopped by a court to continue unproven claims about copyright violation in Linux - on the grounds of law against unfair/untruthful marketing.
If the Australians are successful with their complaints, then hopefully North Americans will be at last inspired to do similarly.
Because this is a battle of credibility at the moment. With no actual evidence on the loose, people will believe what appears to be the most credible information. The more people that fight and the fewer that roll over for SCO, the better it will be for the Linux community.
The more Linux groups fight back, the more the casual and business users will disregard the threats from SCO. The more dignified resistance we put forward, the more credibility the non-computer press will give us. I think this is great news coming in from Australia.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's about time someone called a spade a spade. Now to do the same thing in the US...
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Australia may have been a prison colony ... but atleast it was not founded by a bunch of 'wanna be' aristocrats who built there fortunes on the back of African slavery ...
As someone who works down the hall from the people at the ACCC who will end up handling these complaints, I should probably mention that they generally prefer contact by phone, rather than over the website's complaint form.
The number is 1300 302 502.
They'll want to ask you questions, and in theory they will just call you back if you put a complaint in through the web.
A sign that clearly shows how successful the legal action against SCO Germany was is SCO Germany's website.
And I can tell you, SCO is going to get even more big problems with the assertion that SCO will license Linux to companies. Since SCO doesn't own the complete copyright to Linux, licensing it under a different license than the GPL and earning money with these licenses is a crime in Germany and Europe. This can get the CEO of SCO Germany 2 years in prison.
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
You have already contributed and are continuing to contribute.
O! Canada. Thank you.
Remember guys, this is Amerika. Just because you have the most votes, doesn't mean you get to win.--Fox Mulder
In germany SCO is already under an injunction for anticomptetitive practices. All it takes now will be for Linuxtag to go into courts again and make it stick. 300000 per case will drain the SCO battle chest very very fast.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
I'm not much of a writer for this kind of stuff; but I hope this link will make others interested to the possebilities!
The ACCC has some serious teeth.
:
:
A few tech related things the ACCC has gotten into over the last 18 months
27 June 2003 ACCC Issues New Accounting Separation Rules for Telstra
26 March 2003 Consumers and Small Business Set to Gain from Lower Software Prices
21 February 2003 ACCC to Hold Public Inquiry into Internet Interconnection Services
20 December 2002 Full Federal Court Disapproves of Dell's Earlier Price Advertising
22 November 2002 ACCC Clears But Will Monitor Airline E-Commerce Joint Venture
17 October 2002 Internet Domain Name Resellers Warned Against Misleading, Deceptive Conduct
# 17 September 2002 ACCC Institutes Against Dodo Internet Pty Ltd
4 July 2002 Court Orders Dell to Publish Corrective Advertisements
I like the last three for some reason
29 July 2002 Game Over for Sony Playstation
19 April 2002 ACCC Leans Toward Intervention on Line Sharing, Tells Telstra to Get On With It
6 March 2002 Threats to C.D. Supplies Cost Record Companies $1M
Well , that's my link-whoring for today!
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
The German Web server of the SCO Group GmbH is not at present attainable.
And even if you don't know German, I believe Google language tools is available in America these days.
Salut,
>My German is a little rusty.
>Can someone help me with this.
It just says that:
'The german web server of SCO Group GmbH
is currentently not available'.
'GmbH' is a limited liability company.
Actually it's not available for quiet a while
now.
Best wishes,
Peter
Seeing as how I don't know of any area of the world where pengiuns and bears would interact. . . no. I really suggest you watch more discovery channel before using these comparisons. They're insulting to penguins.
Find out about my new childrens book: SS Death Camp Criminal Batallion Go To Monte Carlo For The Massacre
Many lawyers do pro bono work, but you have to ask around to find who can help. Most areas have legal defence groups that work for very little. Don't confuse cheap legal advice for bad advice nor expensive advice with good council.
Advice should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
Indeed. SCO decided to more or less stop all business in Germany rather than show evidence for their claims against Linux.
Complete translation of all site content:
The German web server of the SCO Group is currently not reachable.
To answer you questions we are pleasantly available for you at any time. Please contact us directly at:
The SCO Group GmbH
Norsk-Data-Strasse 3
61352 Bad Homburg v.d.H.
Telefon: 06172 4867-0
Fax: 06172 4867-12
E-Mail: infod@sco.com
We thank you for your understanding.
Business manager: Hans Bayer, Robert Kirby Bench, Mike Olsen * location Bad Homburg * trade register HRB 4841 * tax number: DE 114 220272
"The german Web Server of SCO Group is presently not available."
LOL!!
(The German suffix -bar is very similar to the English suffix -able. Erreichbar means available here.)
The ACCC, should they choose to follow through, are one of the better government funded Consumer/competition watchdogs. They have an almost free reign on who they investigate. A year or two back, they placed so much pressure on some major petroleum companies that the same companies were screaming for them to stop. They went through all the paperwork more thoroughly than a dose of the salts.
If SCO are bending the truth, this organization has the power to force them to submit all relevent documentation to prove their case without NDA, or alternatively they can forget about pressuring Australian Businesses into the licencing agreements. If the latter happens, it won't look too good for SCO elsewhere.
I hope they still have the teeth they had when Professor Allen Fels was in charge.
Yes. A court ordered SCO not to make these claims against Linux until they could be proven in a full court case. To avoid a public court case in Germany, SCO signed a contract saying that they will pay 250.000 Euro if they continue such claims and took their German web site off-line.
A German article with Babelfish translation, another English article.
Several people submitted this story at the time, but somehow it got rejected.
Only in Disney cartoons do polar bears (Arctic) meet penguins (Antarctic). (There are penguin colonies in southern Australia and Africa, but no bears there either.)
Until they became extinct in about 1850, there were Great Auks in the North Atlantic. They might have had problems with bears.
I am not referencing IBM, I know that they've got to keep quite until their day in court.
In a way IBM already has told SCO to bugger off.
"GNU's not Unix....it's Linux" / Kami "kokamomi" Petersen
As soon as they start offering licenses for the Linux kernel, and they don't have an agreement from you that SCO is allowed to license your code (as you are co-author) under another license than the GPL, you can sue them. For more information about this, write to ffs@ffs.or.at. Although we (the FFS) are the Austrian Associate of the FSF Europe, we have a very good jurist in our team, who should be able to help you out. Just write that Andreas Krennmair told you about this.
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
Are you in Las Vegas on the 17th-19th August?
Make you feelings known, drop in at the SCO Forum 2003.
I'm sure SCO representatives will be very happy to answer all of your licensing questions or maybe you just want to hand over your cash in person.
Actually, no he's not.
Chris Raehl is the President of the NCPA, the National Collegiate Paintball Association. His bio on that site says he attended the University of Illinois.
Incidentally, the paintball industry is in the middle of a very similar case of SCO-ism. The company "Smart Parts" recently got an old patent broadened to cover basically all guns that are electronic, which includes just about anything you see on the tourney circuit. They want to license their 'innovation' to all the other manufacturers now. Sound Familiar?
The owners of this company have gotten in trouble with the FTC for patent scams in the past, and there is plenty of prior art out there, but who has any confidence that a judge is going to make a sane decision about this given their track record lately.
The best place for up to date info on all this is http://www.automags.org
See you on the field!
The Better Business Bureau is a scam all by itself. They're very useless. Don't bother. Go to the FTC and REAL trade groups instead.
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
It would be nice is someone put up a letter and an automated way to send it to state's attorney general and secretary of state. I'm sure thousands of linux users would sign it. You know, ask them to make them shut up until they can sustain their claims. Like they did in germany. It would also be nice if it showed in the main page at ./ so that it would really get reader's attention.