SCO Lobbying Congress Against Open Code

An anonymous reader writes "Along with suing Novell - it was announced today that SCO has been lobbying Congress about the horrifying ways that Linux and the rest of open source software saves users money, allows others to use the software anyway they see fit and 'gasp' causes SCO to not make as much money as they would like. Along with all of the usual FUD. OSAIA has the details (as well as a rebuke)." Darl's words will seem pretty transparent, even funny, to anyone aware of the widespread acceptance and use of Free / Open Source software (by individuals, governments, non-profits, and even companies like SCO) -- but you might have to point this out to your servants in Congress.

Comments

But ofcourse

[snofla]

SCO doesn't mind using Samba.

Darl caught lying in Salt Lake

[gnutechguy]

Here is an interesting article that is in the Salt Lake Weekly:

http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2004/feat_2004 -0 1-22.cfm

In this article, which is really above average, Darl McBride is quoted making the following interesting statement:

"McBride says SCO revealed the offending code last August at its Las Vegas SCOForum. "Truly, and then they just ignored it," he said."

Now, I must point out Bruce Perens put his analysis of the Las Vegas SCOforum with hours of it ending last August 18th.

Link to Perens analysis:

http://www.perens.org/SCO/SCOSlideShow.html

Also, Darl misquoted Perens' website so Darl knows it exists. Therefore, for Darl McBride to say that the Las Vegas SCOforum's showing of code "was ignored" is to make a lie that can be documented quite easily.

Darl McBride: documented liar

If you're going to write your CongressCritter

[Flower]

Some ideas to include:

1. Our latest encryption standard (AES) was not created in the US.
   
2. SCO is embroiled in multiple litigations and have yet to prove any misappropriations of copyrights that they might not even own.
   
3. Linux and OSS might be free for distribution but multi-billion dollar industries have developed for the deployment and support of these solutions.
   
4. The Copyright Code explictly allows for the trading of copyrighted works as an incentive. The GPL is essentially a license utilizing this incentive.
   
5. Owners of copyright can and do license their code under multiple licenses. GhostScript anyone?
   
6. For a small initial investment of money and greater investment of personal time OSS allows a self-motivated individual the opprotunity to improve their job prospects and station in life without resorting to software piracy - an excellent example of the proverbial American Dream.
   

This is obviously just the tip of the iceburg. Anyone have more?

Re:Lobbying Impact

[mclove]

The response to this is very simple: Linux is a largely international effort, without US help Linux would still continue on its merry way, and if we want to stay competitive in the global IT market the only option is for our software firms to embrace this movement that we can't stop anyway.

Or failing that, just point them to IBM and the enormous success they've enjoyed with Linux in spite of the fact that it's free. Microsoft and a couple of patent-mongering UNIX firms may be losing money from this, but everybody else is gaining from it.