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Red Hat Sues SCO, Sets Up Legal Fund

Posted by simoniker on from the the-saga-continues dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Red Hat has released a PR Newswire article stating that it intends to sue SCO Group to prove that it doesn't infringe any of SCO's intellectual property regarding the Red Hat Linux platform, and to hold it accountable for its actions and smear campaign. They've also announced the creation of a legal fund, to which they've pledged $1M US dollars to fight complaints such as these, called the 'Open Source Now' fund."

12 of 787 comments (clear)

  1. Is Red Hat big enough to fight? by mao+che+minh · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Awesome. Maybe after the trial Red Hat and SCO can rub both of their one-dollar bills together and split on a Big Mac.

    I'm sorry, but IBM (the company that has made billions in revenue off GNU/Linux) should be floating the bill. Red Hat is too poor to be getting into a legal slug fest with a company that has literally transformed themselves into a litigation firm. IBM has the money to fight, while Red Hat might end up getting dragged through the proverbial legal-mud, and never really get anywhere.

    What might serve Red Hat better is to send their customers information regarding how absurd SCOs claims are, complete with the opinions of legal experts on the matter, like the OSDLs terrific "position paper". The people, especially those in the corporate world, have to be clearly shown how absurd and evil SCOs actions have been. Litigation by a small company is going to be long, expensive, and perhaps in the end fruitless.

    Regarding the OSDL's paper, I personally like the analogy made concerning publishing houses:

    Imagine the literary equivalent of SCO's current bluster:
    Publishing house A alleges that the bestselling novel by Author X topping the charts from Publisher B plagiarizes its own more obscure novel by Author Y. "But," the chairman of Publisher A announces at a news conference, "we're not suing Author X or Publisher B; we're only suing all the people who bought X's book. They have to pay us for a license to read the book immediately, or we'll come after them." That doesn't happen, because that's not the law.

    1. Re:Is Red Hat big enough to fight? by Amiga+Trombone · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm sorry, but IBM (the company that has made billions in revenue off GNU/Linux) should be floating the bill. Red Hat is too poor to be getting into a legal slug fest with a company that has literally transformed themselves into a litigation firm. IBM has the money to fight, while Red Hat might end up getting dragged through the proverbial legal-mud, and never really get anywhere.

      Red Hat is a preferred Linux provider to IBM, in fact they support all of 4 of IBM's platforms. They have a pretty tight partnership.

      What's good for IBM's bottom line is good for Red Hat's bottom line. Ultimately, IBM will be footing the bill. One way or the other.

    2. Re:Is Red Hat big enough to fight? by cshark · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Here's an interesting thought:

      If SCO is being "guided" by Microsoft, perhaps Red Hat is being "guided" by IBM. It would be essentially the same tactic, and would ultimately fit IBM's interests, and those of the open source community.

      Something like this really puts the burden of proof on SCO, and decide the validity of an IP suit once and for all. I applaud it, whoever is pulling the strings...

      --

      This signature has Super Cow Powers

    3. Re:Is Red Hat big enough to fight? by mortonda · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I think it also works well to let Red Hat be the barking dog to distract them while IBM prepares the death blow. :)

    4. Re:Is Red Hat big enough to fight? by CleverFox · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It is not about winning. It is about preserving image. SCO's image was automatically weakened by this lawsuit and RHAT's strengthened. I don't believe they will have to spend much money on this. Already, SCO's stock has dropped 16% today after RHAT's lawsuit announcement. That is a good thing.

    5. Re:Is Red Hat big enough to fight? by Pharmboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In short: IBM will float the bill only if it is in their own interest.

      p.s. IBM pay my rent. They are ace. I love IBM. \0/

      I can't necessarily argue with your point, but I do remember the old joke "how do you make a penguin fly?" with the picture of a penguin (with the word "linux" on it) duct taped to a giant air plane (with the letters "IBM" on it)...

      Back when I first started messing with linux (redhat 4.2 days) it seems the best support for linux WAS IBM. I could be wrong, but either IBM was releasing enough info to write drivers or drivers, or all the hackers were using IBM servers. My experience was I could easily install an IBM box, but not so easy for other servers (think 5.2, 6.2 mainly) without patches.

      Also, I have only had to call IBM twice for parts for their boxes. Both times they were cheap boxes, and needed parts out of warranty. Both times they sent them free, including postage. Maybe it was in their interest somehow, I don't know, I wasn't anyone on their radar at all. But I still have several of their servers NOW, and can't wait for 4x 970cpu boxes to come out. First because they treated a guy with a crappy 386/ps1 pretty nice. Second, every IBM I ever owned, workstation or server installed linux really nice and easy. Third, they embraced Linux with more than words (to the tune of $1billion). And they have done a few other things, like contribute code to the GPL, which is more than any other company I have seen. (Compaq? HP? Sun? Dell?) Perhaps the anti-trust background and lawsuits of IBM's past made them wake up, and turn into a responsible company. I also like the fact that they make damn good equipment. (still drooling over 970s)

      Yes, they are another company out to make a buck, but my experience has shown they made it with ME by holding my hand, rather than walking on my back.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    6. Re:Is Red Hat big enough to fight? by MrResistor · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Microsoft is fundamentally anticapitalist

      I'm not sure I would say that. Anti Free Market, sure, but not anticapitalist. In many ways I would say Microsoft is the pinnacle of capitalism.

      Funny how capitalism and communism in their purest forms are basically indistinguishable...

      --
      Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
  2. Went out and bought Redhat + sent in $10 by kenp2002 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Went out and bought anoter copy of Red Hat at lunch and mail Red Hat $10 for the legal fund. If only 5% of slashdot readers followed suit :)

    --
    -=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
  3. OSNF Non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation? by David+Hume · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They've also announced the creation of a legal fund, to which they've pledged $1M US dollars to fight complaints such as these, called the 'Open Source Now' fund."


    If wonder whether the OSNF (Open Source Now Fund) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation? Should it be? If so, should Red Hat's contributions to it be tax deductible? While others will benefit from the fund, so of course will Red Hat.

    Also, who will be administering the OSNF? Will they work for or be connected to Red Hat? Who will make the decisions regarding the disbursement of funds, etc.?

    --
    Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
  4. Re:SCO stock (SCOX) down 15% on the news by dmaxwell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As seen on Yahoo Finance. Time to buy? :)

    I know you're joking but from a strictly speculator point of view, it might not be a bad idea. I've been watching the SCOX price for a few months and have noticed a tendency of SCO's PR. Whenever the price drops or plateau's, you can count on yet another outrageous PR release from SCO to pump it back up. Before the week is out, expect SCO to make some sort of apocalyptic statement in regard to RedHat.

  5. Open Source Now Fund by trisweb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "To further protect the integrity of Open Source software and the Open Source community, Red Hat has established the Open Source Now Fund. The purpose of the fund will be to cover legal expenses associated with infringement claims brought against companies developing software under the GPL license"

    I think the SCO suit is great for Redhat, but even better for the community is this legal fund. I don't know if it's non-profit, or how it works exactly, but ideally it would (and should) be a fund to help take care of any OSS-movement threatening lawsuits or legal issues. This is something Open Source has never had before, and that large corporations have always had. This may give OSS the support it needs to grow without threats from any company out to stop it -- like SCO. The way they describe it, it seems like something meant to be a "legal department" for Open Source.

    It may just be me, but I think that's the bigger picture here.

    --
    "!"
  6. Redhat couldn't wait any longer by ukalum · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I used to work at FedEx and still have some friends there. One of them told me that FedEx wants to sign a huge contract with Redhat for a bunch of servers, but the FedEx legal department wants Redhat to indemnify FedEx against damages if SCO wins, which of course Redhat refuses to do.

    Consequently, FedEx has been talking to HP about buying the software through them rather than RedHat.

    I'm sure that there are other instances of Redhat's getting hurt by all of the garbage SCO is spewing. I would guess that at least one reason they're doing this is they can't afford to wait any longer for someone else (IBM) to.