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RedHat Starts "Open Source Now" Fund
celston23 writes "According to this article (near bottom), RedHat is intending to use their Open Source Now Fund to support open-source (GPL) developers who are sued for copyright infringement. Might be used during the SCO legal battle."
who keeps the interest earned from the fund?
get nemulator
Wow. So RedHat gets free karma for creating an ostensibly altruistic fund to defend developers who release GPL software, then they turn around and say "Well, we release GPL code. We'll be taking our money back now, KTHXBYE"
Very interesting...
Why is this necessary when we have the EFF?
I may have missed this on the home page, but is OSN a 503C non-profit?
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
I don't think it will be needed in the main case as IBM will pull SCO under with the length of the trial. They have much deeper pockets. However for the little folks that will be good. Also hope they EFF get in on it and all works out nicely
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Well, in SCO's terms, there is NO point to the GPL. So if they play by those rules, they must pay by those rules. I disagree with doing this since all of these steps are absurd and anti-cooperative, but in the anal-retentive legal world of SCO IP, they would have to comply.
But do Red Hat know something that possibly the greater community do not?
If there has been no infringement then logically there would be no need for this fund as, again logically, it could be demonstrated in every court that Linux doesn't contain any SCO material.
I guess that this is not just for the SCO charges, but maybe for other similar charges from other companies who may, sometime in the future, level the same accusations.
Maybe I am well off track here, but surely it would be of better use to the community for SuSE, IBM etc to also put into the pot.... I guess the interest gained alone from such a pot would be huge if it is to protect people from charges similar to SCO which I will guess will end up costing millions.
I really hope this can be finally be put to rest sometime soon, as this kind of 'war chest building' does not inspire confidence. I have said before that whilst these charges, counter charges and now this warchest it is going to make those who are looking at migrating someway towards Linux a little concerned.
Help support your favorite charity or donate to the anti-sco fund to help others protect the open source.
www.antitshirts.com
Though it's great that somebody is willing to step up and offer legal protection to Linux, the kind that Microsoft are readily willing for the lack thereof. How will this help?
Take a look at SCO. For the last couple of months they have been spouting nonsense, slander and let's be honest FUD. In fact, in the face of the current IBM countersuit, they have the gall (read: stupidity) to launch another claim.
Now, all this is quite illegal, as IBM's lawyers have pointed out, but has it stopped SCO? No, not until 2005, at least. Until that time, SCO can say and do as it more-or-less pleases, until an injunction anyways. They will nodoubt reep the rewards for there behaviour, but that doesn't stop the damage they're causing in the meantime, until the courts get around to dealing with it.
Reason, let alone a cadre of Open Source Funded lawyers won't stop SCO. That's just the way it is.
Linus owns the copyright to the word "Linux", right? Could he revoke their right to use the word "Linux" in any of their products?
I apologize if this is already well-known information.
I don't care if they use my donations to counter sue SCO. The Open SOurce Now fund is a charity, and they can help Red Hat if they please.
Is not the point of this whole issue fight against the FUDfest from SCO? And who are the ones that have _legally_ answered. There are the folks from Germany and Australia, but from the big folks (who will ultimately be the ones that can solve this whole issue, as has been said before, this is not a matter of justice but of money) we only have RedHat and IBM (for now) taking our side (their motives are part of another discussion since a lot of people disagrees with the angle IBM choose to atack).
IBM can fight all the way to the end of days in courts and will still have a lot of money in the bank, but Red Hat can't. If you feel uncomfortable with Red Hat using the donations to fight SCO then save your money, I'm puting my money where my mouth is and givin all I can spare to the fund.
BTW, I DO believe this whole issue has the potential to make a lot of damage to Linux, just see the parties involved (SCO, IBM, Microsoft, Sun, etc) and you will realize they have crushed more than one company/movement in the past.
Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
GPL is Free Software(R) -- Open source is a conciderably wider target than that. A quick look over the site doesn't show anything GPL-specific, just Linux-specific. BSDers need love too!
I agree with you. I have tried to send money for a while, but no luck. Maybe the third time Slashdot posts this story RH will have a Donation link ready.
Help fight continental drift.
Does Linus have any control over the hundereds of other trademarks that have Linux in their name?
ie
Is a fund to help open source developers get a lawyer and go after people who are infringing on their copyrights.
It's high time (the SCO case should have made this obvious) that we in the OS community quit acting like laws only work for companies and start going on the offensive against companies that are infringing on our copyrights. The fact that SCO continues to distribute the Linux kernel even though they've rejected the GPL, for example, means that they're violating copyright law. There is talk of Linux code in SCO's operating system.
We need to start defending our IP. Perhaps the fund could specify that when you win, a percentage of the winnings go back into the fund.
Michael
Do you have ESP?