Perens Talks About Open Source Risk Management

Big Sav writes "Here is a quick but good interview with Bruce Perens. It also raises the topic of indemnification vis a vis the SCO court case " Interesting interview - talks about Peren's new Open Source Risk Management company.

Comments

erm...

[mirko]

About the legal problems small users might face due to the SCO hype :

With small users, I don't think there's a problem. I don't think they're visible enough.

What if SCO choose to attack them like the ??AA went to war against p2p users ?
Small users cannot afford lawyers, after all...

Re:erm...

[baudilus]

Unless they go after users who register their software for support reasons (RedHat, Mandrake), I don't see this being a real possibility. Also, the RIAA sues people under the premise that they are "costing" them money by providing a way to get music for free, for which they would otherwise pay (a ridiculous as we all know this is). I don't think SCO could even find out who is using it, let alone be able to prove monetary damages of any amount. Even if a suit is successful, how could they prove how much money they "lost"? The legal process would cost more than it's worth.

I did RTFA you insensitive clod!

[gregarican]

That's a PR line. Lawspeak. It indeed is capitalizing on the FUD since any educated person in the technology industry knows that the SCO case doesn't have a leg to stand on. The only potential clients I can see are those who blindly fall for the FUD that SCO has perpetuated.

Just like those consulting companies that were around in 1999 to ensure that no Y2K disaster was going to hit clients. I know some companies would go into people's homes and ensure they were Y2K-compliant. What a freakin' joke! Remember folks stockpiling food and readying themselves for living in bomb shelters? Of course it's an extreme comparison, but the basis is the same. Capitalizing on more ignorant folks' fears.

Re:I did RTFA you insensitive clod!

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole point is that it's not just the SCO case. What if somebody who DID have a case turned up? What if somebody successfully sued a Linux distributor for patent infringement? Just because SCO's case has more holes than a colander doesn't mean that no case in the future can ever succeed.

Plus even if there is no case, it can still cost a lot in legal fees before resolution: how much have IBM already spent, with the case still ongoing?

Re:I did RTFA you insensitive clod!

[gregarican]

The last statement I personally am making about this story is that from a business standpoint they are putting all of their eggs in one basket. Clients will purchase insurance to alleviate legal fees of being taken to court over Open Source Software usage. If Bruce and the gang on the board of this company thought that SCO would take smaller companies to court en masse then they would be losing their shirts in selling this insurance and therefore it would be a bad business move.

If Bruce "is a pretty smart guy" then I can't see him risking losing his shirt. It would be like a large hurricane like Andrew back in the early 1990's. If it was forecasted to strike South Florida in short order and a start-up company started selling homeowners insurance for just the specific coverage of storm damage and that's it I would think that it would be a losing proposition from a business point of view. Make sense??

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

MS has had these problems as well. At least one patent holder has threatened to sue end users over database technology in Access. I hate to break this to you the Wet Blanket of Proprietary Wisdom but this is a universal problem for business. It isn't unique to OSS.

It seems that running proprietary software isn't a safe option either. I'd recommend going back to abacuses but someone probably has a patent on those as well.

Re:Is this a good thing?

[m00nun1t]

Likely or not, it is a risk and could happen. Many companies are risk averse, and look for ways to mitigate risk. This company is providing a way for them to mitigate risk. Pretty much a straight insurance job, although the downside is that their business is really all around one issue, rather than the normal diversified portfolio insurance companies have (betting that not all 100,000 clients will crash their cars in the same year, but all will pay their premiums).

Re:Self-promotion

[lukewarmfusion]

Note that I started my post with "I can't blame him" - Perens is doing what I would do in his place... but is it news for Slashdot?

Re:Extortion

[alex_tibbles]

Either I need indemnification, or I don't
I think you misunderstand insurance. Either I am going to crash my car, or I am not going to crash my car. If I won't crash my car, then I don't need insurance. You know that's not how it works. I just don't _know_ if I are going to crash my car or not. If we knew who was going to crash their cars, we would prevent it!
The point of insurance is that it spreads the cost of Bad Things (tm) over the whole population of people (and corporations) that are at risk of Bad Things, proportionately to the level of their risk.

Peren's Outlook

[Inhibit]

Having heard Bruce Peren's give a speech before and had a chance to hear some of his outlook on Linux and IP, he seems to have a fair handle on how it all works.

From the interview it seems that it's an effort to provide some indemnity while making people aware of the possible IP/Copyright issues inherent in coding software in the USA (and probably Europe soon). They're offering a service to assess risk of malicious lawsuits and possible IP violation. Doesn't sound like spreading Fear, Uncertainty, *or* Doubt to me.