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SGI's Letter to the Linux Community
_Upsilon_ writes "SGI has released a letter to the Linux community in response to SCO's recent threat to revoke the UNIX licence for Irix. The letter mentions that they inadvertently did submit some System V code into the Linux kernel, that has since been removed (and some more in the process of being removed). The article points out that the code fragments in question had already been released into the public domain as well."
SCO is quick with their reply to SGI.
SCO CEO Darl McBride remained true to form when he responded to the SGI letter, "IRIX infringes upon our IP, this means that motion pictures featuring graphics rendered on SGI is a derivative work of our UNIX SysV code. We are not just talking a couple in frames, we are talking entire movies here".
The film at 11 is now the intellectual property of the SCO group.
I hate karma whoring ACs...
serving text/plain is quite strenuous on those small servers
Not very well paraphrased... The letter was from SGI, not SCO. A more accurate paraphrasing: Dear SCO, Please go suck and egg. Thank you, and have a nice day. SGI. PS: We sent this to the Linux Community since you seem to have blocked our emails. I'm sure you'll get it either way.
Oh dear, if ranting makes a point void, the /. community is voiding an awful lot of points :)
Sarcasm and hyperbole are the final refuges for weak minds
I can't wait to see how they will spin this. "SGI ADMITS PLACING SCO CODE IN LINUX!" maybe time to day trade today.
-Nuke the moon
Prepare for more crazy ramblings from SCO in the immediate future. They will undoubtedly issue a press release claiming this is an admission of wrongdoing by SGI and play up the aspect of the letter that suggest missappropriated code, but of course this is not the message to be taken from the SGI letter.
You can almost write the SCO selective quotation press release yourself:
"SGI has released over a million lines of...System V code...in the Linux kernel."
P.S. Darl, print a copy of this letter, fold it sharp edges out and stuff it you know where. Best regards, Rich.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
Agreed. That 200 lines of atoi() code is definitely worth THREE BILLION DOLLARS. Once SGI took it from SCO and mixed it in with that cheap illegitimate kernel, it became soiled and worthless. Just because SGI gave the ruined, debased code back to SCO, it doesn't begin to redress SCO's loss of THREE BILLION DOLLARS.
If SGI had not destroyed SCO's THREE BILLION DOLLAR cash pile, SCO would be a major player in the Fortune 500 right now. Justice demands fair compensation, not just token actions.
well they're costing /. a lot of disk anyway.
I came to the datacenter drunk with a fake ID, don't you want to be just like me?
"found brief fragments of code matching System V code in three generic routines (ate_utils.c, the atoi function " they're complaining about copied atoi code?!?!?! exactly how many variations of converting ascii to integers could there be? And why would anyone care about something so simple? Unless it was a FUD screen...
Yeah but if SGI made a version of atoi, surely it exploits vector optimizations, runs in 64 bits of precision, exploits NUMA and uses OpenGL. It may be 10x the size of the kernel but whoa, it's gotta be cool.
Perhaps there is already a freely-available atoi(3) implementation that can be used by the Kernel? Yes, in fact there is! Even better, it coincides with the atoi(3) function that was removed! Woohoo! We are saved! There is not even eny need to look further afield, like the multitude of *other* free implementations around the place (say, glibc? BSD?), or (at last resort) actually finding a master C programmer to lock himself in a room for the long winter months in an effort to come up with an independent implementation.
The funniest thing is, that it probably WOULD take a huge effort by a master programmer to actually find an implementation of atoi(3) that was truely independent
I've got it! The real objective behind these ridiculous statements SCO is making: to consolidate and solidify support for the GPL and Linux by making large companies like IBM and SGI make public statements in support! Sure, contributing code to Linux is all very well, but until now the press releases had always been a little diffident and scattered. Now the industry is unified and strong in support of Linux and the GPL. Since the GPL hadn't been tested in court, what better way to help than by filing a completely ridiculous case against it? "The GPL is invalid because US Copyright Law only allows you to make one copy."
Unlimited growth == Cancer.
I don't think the ranting makes the point void. I think the ranter makes it void.
But i kick myself every time i think. instead of blasting SCO. i could have bought $2k of stock the day they sued IBM. sold a month ago, iand i would have a G5 a new powerbook and one of those athlon thingys.
DARN morals suxors.
They probably could have added a hearty "Kiss my ass and hug my nuts" to SCO in there, but they kept it pretty civil...
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
Who the FUCK is "Saddam Hussan" and why would he want to use stolen SCO code?
He's a terrorist. Only terrorists use stolen SCO code.
>GM should only sew Ford,
Its a stitchup.
Tomorrow's SCO press release will say:
What IS this anti-Sun thing on Slashdot??
Slashdot is populated by nerds that live in caves of steel, surrounded by nifty little electronic gadgets that never actually get used for their intended purpose. Slashdotters hate the sun because it hurts their eyes and tans their skin, but mostly they hate the sun because there are other people out there.
Like what I said? You might like my music
Hey, now there's an idea!
A new class of hated Slashdot readers: evil Karma Thieves who post an article as an Anonymous Coward, thus depriving all the good, honest, hard-working Karma Whores of their cheap-ass mod points.