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SCO Caught Copying
linuxwrangler writes "While accusing everyone else of copying "their" code, SCO has meanwhile been caught copying documentation. In fact they copied several chapters of the Book of Webmin directly into their online documentation. While the book is available online, it is not licensed for redistribution. Details are sparse but it appears that SCO had to pay the publisher for using the material."
They only paid after they were caught.
its not that uncommon for a slimeball to go around and accuse others of doing what they themselves are doing. Thats the first sign of a cheating husband, he starts accusing his wife of running around.
Are we really shocked that SCO was stealing someone elses IP?
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Quite interesting.
As to this infringement, I demand RIAA-style copyright sentencing. For each possible infringement SCO should have to pay the maximum fine, multiplied by the total possible number of people who had access to the material. Given that it's posted online on a public site, and not in a limited user base network (ala p2p) this means the entire world population had access and SCO should be fined roughly the total value of all money produced in the world from 1972 to present.
If our justice system is going to let all these companies warp the law as they do it seems only fair they should fall prey to their own tactics.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
After all, if SCO does it, gets sued, and settles, it's funny and bad and an illustration of how evil SCO is.
But when a pirate does it, gets sued, and settles, somehow it's evil that the RIAA sued in the first place and the pirate is the good guy martyr.
If he did, that might also ensure a trip to Club Fed.
GreyPoopon
--
Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
How else would a customer know that their business wasn't using some illegal components that they couldn't depend on in the future because their vendor might have to remove them.
Just think if SCO or some other OS you might be using might be dependant on an illegally-copied component. Your business would be SOL if they had to remove it and couldn't find a replacement. Yipes. I think we should be insisting on audits of the commmercial packages we buy.
The book of Webmin is a great reference for a great tool. I've used both to take the initial fear of Linux out of newbie admins. Once I show them how frigging easy even SENDMAIL config is under webmin, they jump right in.
You are not the customer.
Two more points down, and SCOX will be back where it was before all the lawsuits, down around 3. That level looks likely within a month.
FYI... There is a new article at groklaw describing a ruling in the Canopy vs. Novell case.
For those who don't know, this is yet another case where Canopy (parent company of SCO) says that what is written in the contract isn't as important as the oral agreements they made, and that what the parties agreed to is the opposite of what the written contract says they agreed to.
The price of freedom is eternal litigation.
Yep. In fact, I think the second meaning listed -- "Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs" -- is actually the original one, and the linguistic usage of "irony" is a later construction.
Alanis Morisette's stupid song has created a generation of wannabe language Nazis who jump on any perceived misuse of the word, and often embarrass themselves in the process. They're not language Nazis at all; they're not competent enough to be Nazis. They're language Italian Fascists!
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
They copied text, waited for someone to notice, then paid up without a court order.
I love that logic. It's okay for SCO to knowingly infringe on others' IP as long as they pony up when they get caught.
That's pretty much the way most businesses work.
What company do you work for? The company I work for would be very upset about unknowingly infringing someone's copyright. If it wasn't an accident, the person responsible would be fired -- well, as long as it wasn't one of the CxOs, of course (then they'd find ten real workers to blame and fire).