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Linus Speaks Out, Calls SCO 'Cornered Rat'
dexterpexter writes "In an interview with Business Week, Linux founder and guardian Linus Torvalds had, in his usual brand of blunt humor, the following to say about SCO: 'They're a cornered rat, and quite frankly, I think they have rabies to boot. I'd rather not get too close to them,' and 'There are literally several levels of SCO being wrong. And even if we were to live in that alternate universe where SCO would be right, they'd still be wrong.'" In the same issue, there's also an interview with Darl McBride where he admits that the company was failing and the Linux-related lawsuits were a last-ditch effort to prevent bankruptcy.
...for all this SCO vs. Linux. Horray!
To celebrate this first stone of truth, I hereby name this day, January the 27th, Linux independensday.
Back me up! >:)
CNN is reporting that the latest Novarg worm is launching a DOS attack against SCO websites. There is justice in the world after all.
signature pending slashdot approval
Search results.
Someone set them up the Google bomb.
Ah...IP...The geeks Vietnam. Until we can understand that the world won't end if we abolish the concept, we will remain in this quagmire(sp) for a long time to come.
What?
Linus Torvalds: SCO Is "Just Too Wrong"
The originator of the Linux OS has sharp words for SCO's "cornered rat" claims of intellectual-property infringement
If anyone knows what's in Linux, it's Linus Torvalds. He did the first work on the open-source operating system while a student at the University of Helsinki, and he managed the often chaotic process of building it with other programmers. Now, SCO Group (SCOX ), a small Utah software company, claims Linux is trampling on intellectual property rights it inherited from Novell (NOVL ), which got them from AT&T (T ). In an e-mail interview with BusinessWeek Correspondent Jim Kerstetter, Torvalds explains why he thinks SCO is wrong. The following are edited excerpts from that interview:
Q: SCO claims that old Unix files it says it owns are now in Linux. Can you explain to me why you think that's wrong?
A: [A number of files SCO claims to own] were written from scratch for Linux.... SCO also doesn't hold any copyrights to the BSD code [software developed at the University of California at Berkeley that SCO says contained copyrighted material that was passed on to Linux], nor is it actually in [SCO's version of Unix]. So SCO is wrong.
Also, SCO has apparently several times mentioned how copyright notices have been removed. Just for the record: Original Unix doesn't have any copyright notices to remove. They were added after a lawsuit [between the Berkeley developers and AT&T, which was settled]. So SCO would be wrong again.
So basically SCO's arguments are just too wrong to even discuss rationally. SCO doesn't own the copyright on the files they are talking about -- the University of California at Berkeley does. But even if they did, the Linux files weren't even copied in the first place. And even if they had been copied, no copyright notices would have been removed, since they didn't exist in the original. There are literally several levels of SCO being wrong. And even if we were to live in that alternate universe where SCO would be right, they'd still be wrong.
Q: In fact, I saw in a recent interview that you chided yourself for the quality of some of those files. Why so?
A: Hey, for some of the files they claim copyright ownership on I went back 12 years in the archives to see their original form, and the fact is, I was a young guy at university in '91, and I [made] mistakes that I simply wouldn't [make] anymore, and that are clear signs of beginner [programming].
And those mistakes show how the code wasn't copied -- it's a bit like how map makers used to introduce small errors in maps on purpose, so that if somebody copied them but claimed to have made their own, the original map maker could point to the error and say, "Well, how did you have exactly the same error, too?"
Except I can definitely state that I didn't make those mistakes on purpose. As a young student at the University of Helsinki, I definitely didn't have the kind of forethought required to foresee a company claiming my code as theirs 12 years later. If I had those kinds of powers, I'd never have gone into programming, I'd just play the stock market.
Q: Do you think that any copyright or patent-protected Unix code has actually found its way into Linux?
A: Unlikely. There are now a number of people who have access to both Unix sources and Linux code, and literally written automated tools to find similarities. They found something like 30 lines from [Silicon Graphics, SGI ] that were dubious and that had been removed already. SGI wrote an open letter about their mistake. You can find it if you look for it.
As to patented algorithms, yes, there are a few examples of that -- IBM (IBM ) actually explicitly licensed some to Linux. That was a requirement on our side for even accepting the code in the first place. SCO doesn't own any patents, so they certainly can't be claiming ownership.
Q: If there is protected code in Linux, is there a solution?
A: Oh, the solution to any patent/copyright dispute is licensing
At what point should we all write to the SEC and request an investigation? Maybe Darl and Martha can share a cell. (Yes, for the purposes of humor I am assuming Martha is guilty; I have no questions about Darl.)