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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."
SGI is not powerful enough to fight SCO at this point. They will probably perish. We can only count on IBM to make SCO perish.
As I have stated previously, SCO may have a case here. Spewing vitrol against SCO won't reveal the truth any faster.
Now SGI is ADMITTING that they put SYSV code in the Linux codebase. Whether or not it has been removed is IMMATERIAL for purposes of this case. SGI caveats that the code had "been previously released into the public domain" though. However, that may just be wishful thinking on their part.
Informative, my ass. If you can
What your /. subscription buys you:
The letter mentions that they did inadvertantly did [sic] submit some System V code into the Linux kernel.
this sure stinks :(
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
and I mean that.
11A2B
1B2B3
000, DESTRUCT 0
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Sounds like SGI is spinning it: "well there was SCO owned code in there, but we didn't need it and we took it out already so, um, lets just forget the whole thing, OK"?
Yes. The most rational response to SCO was an admission of guilt.
What a spin job.
Only on Slashdot is it somehow a good thing when SGI admits to having put SysV code into Linux. Of course they'll claim it was public domain. But all it shows is that, yes, that stuff can easily end up in the kernel. What else is there that we DON'T know about?
Maybe SCO really does know.
"Sufferin' succotash."
The court would see that I performed due diligence to detect and fix the problem.
Sorry, but its hardly 'due diligenge' to ignore the problem until you have it pointed out to you explicitly.
If I said you have copyright code in your app, would you a) ignore me, b) ask which bits, c) look yourself.
a) not due diligence, especially if I was right.
b) if I don't tell you, you have choices of a) or c).
c) fix it. congratulations. you win a get out of jail free card!
You see, SCO is not going to tell you which code is offending if that means you can fix it and everything is back to no-litigation sweetness. They'd be extremely stupid to do so. So, now the onus is on the OSS community to fix the alleged problems. However, most of what I've seen is more akin to option a), but with insults.
Many Linux bigots have criticized the involvment of American companies in the development of Linux because, according to the bigots, the companies will end up in controlling the development of Linux.
This is complete astroturfing. I HAVE seen closed source supporters call Linux and other OSS projects "foreign software", but I have never seen that logic flipped by the OSS guys. Your a troll and your simply attempting to cause an emotional reaction in people based on their patriotism.
--fatboy