Slashdot Mirror
IBM Moves To Enforce GPL By Summary Judgement
gvc writes "So much for the GPL 'never being tested in court.' IBM, in its third motion for summary judgement against SCO, is seeking a permanent injunction against SCO's distribution of Linux, on the grounds that SCO has renounced and violated the GPL, and therefore has no right to distribute the 700,000 lines of IBM-copyrighted code therein. As usual, Groklaw broke the story." We previously reported on another IBM summary judgement from earlier this week.
A major corporation using the legal system to enforce copyrights involved in a license the OSS movement agrees with?
What to do, what to DO...
"The penguins are stealing my Sanity one piece at a time." -Bill Gates
...I was reading this thing we had called slashdot, as was the style of the time, when we heard that the GPL was gonna get tested in court...
Hell reported unusually warm weather patterns emerging from the Upper North-West (aka Lindon Utah) where it's rumored Lucifer SoT Morning was last seen residing...
Well, it looks like SCO has really messed up now. "Hey, everybody! The license that let's us use your code isn't valid!" What on earth were they thinking? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot...
Looks like even Wall Street sees where this is headed: SCOX
Speak before you think
IBM (the big evil, the microsoft of the 80's) defending the GPL (the move started to combat proprietary lockin like IBM's). Richard Stallman must be turning in his... oh, wait.
" Man, this just isn't SCO's week. "
Amen.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
But SCO can produce something IBM can't - bullshit, and truckloads of it
Business Voyeur
I don't know why but seen IBM doing this stuff kinds of reminds me of Darth Vader changing camp after having been in the wrong one for most of is existence. :)
Yahh, hiii haaaaa! -Major Kong, from Dr. Strangelove
Don't you know? The USA is the only country that matters. All the rest are there to serve our whim.
And if you get too uppity, we'll come bomb your ass and take out your government. Because we know all you stinky foreign-language speaking terrorists are hiding weapons of mass distruction under your matresses. But don't worry, when we've finally gotten rid of all the terrorists and made your country happy and peaceful, we'll give you a new government with sovereignty. I promise, you'll really like it!
And I know we're in the right because the one and only true God talks to George Bush and tells him what to do.
So much for the GPL 'never being tested in court.'
Welcome to the club, glad you could make it.
Sincerely, BSD License
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Something old, something new,
something Big, something Blue
I think we should all get behind IBM and support them. Does anyone know if they have a pay-pal account where we can make donations?
..than the slashdot article (a previous article had the groklaw link). Read the pdf (it's pretty clear even though IANAL).
:
I do hope groklaw posts SCO's reply to this. It should be an entertaining read...
To sum up for the lazy
if gpl_invalid():
scoHasViolatedIBMCopyright = True
else:
scoHasViolatedGPL = True
if scoHas... OR scoHas..(elided):
HeadExplodes()
Since they're doing it because they see a buck in OSS, they can amend the tattoo to read "MOSTLY EVIL" or "NO QUITE EVIL". (If there's room, "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT EVIL"...)
So, do you mean that now IBM will remove its evil looking mask to reveal its ugly face and then die silent yet glorious death on Linus' lap?
Raf
operating system software should be like the sewage system
Expensive to fix and full of crap?
Whatever man. It's a license. If the GPL is invalid then all software licenses are invalid including the EULAS.
*Picks up bat* WHAM!
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
WHAM!WHAM!WHAM!
WHAM!
Hey, put yourself in the shoes of a low-level manager at IBM:
New PHB: (pokes head into mid-level boss' office) Psst! Hey Boss! Gotta minute?
Old PHB: Yeah, what is it?
New PHB: Uh, you know how other companies have problems with employees surfing Fark.com, porn, eBay, et al? Well, I've discovered that our employees are goofing off by... (looks left, looks right, whispers)... developing that free Linux operating system during work hours, when they don't think I'm looking!
Old PHB: Hmmm... well, if we discipline them, we'll have a morale problem... if we fire them, they'll take our secrets to the competitors... tell you what, why don't you look into this Linux thing, see if we can make some money with it.
"He who throws mud, loses ground." - proverb
I'm just re-stating SCOs argument. I'm not agreeing with it for one moment, they seem to base their business decisions on the effects of magic mushrooms.
Did you read Neil Gaiman's Sandman? Do you remember the bit when, in Dream's mansion, a guest renounced Dream's hospitality and protection? You remember how Dream then kicked the ex-guest's sorry insubstantial derriere all over the place?
So does IBM.
Because they wouldn't be legally allowed to. Only the copyright holder is allowed to sue, and for GNU projects, the FSF is the only copyright holder.
IBM: "Good morning, Mr Stallman. We understand SCO is violating the GPL on your software. Would you like to borrow a couple hundred lawyers, or shall we just write you a blank check?"
I don't see copyright law getting in the way of IBM hurting SCO in that scenario...
Please take notes. This is how real lawyers do it.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
This obviously means that IBM is Linus' father...
IBM spent millions (at least) for the code that IBM contributed to Linux. IBM has spent millions more defending Linux in court.
So what if IBM manages to make some money from their investment/contributions?
It's only good when it's dirty. REALLY dirty. And the faster you can get it really dirty, the better it will be for everyone involved; including the neighbors who are listening.
What we need, now, is more internal e-mails. Those are always dirty. And we need to find some kind of a link to one of Dary Mcbride's other wives, and get polygamy into the case. Also, we need to find some links to terrorists and Colombian drug cartels.
And then we need some racism. Racism always helps things. It's like the icing on the cake.
You know, that blond kid from the IBM Linux commercials does look a little bit like Luke Skywalker...
... remember when SCO claimed Linux violated their IP citing millions of LOCs "stolen" from their code that was licensed to IBM? Actually they claimed that the stuff IBM wrote for AIX wasn't really IBM's but SCO's under SCO's (viral) licence. I don't remember where this spectacular claim was driven to the ground but anyway here IBM is basing their undisputed facts on Copyright statements filed and assigned to them (legally approved and therefore factual proof)
Well, IBM is thowing at SCO the same argument: there's our code in your product, you claim it's yours where in fact it's ours.
SCO claimed IBM wasn't allowed to leak their AIX code to Linux because of some ridiculous viral license and breached.
Now IBM says SCO is distributing some IBM Linux code they aren't allowed to because they're breaching the license (GPL) under which it was released.
There's even a summary of all the evidence complete of line counts and package names (unlike SCO's mistery NDA'd evidence).
Gawd, I never thought lawyers could have a sense of humor!
Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio - Altan
Somewhere, deep in the bowels of the SCO battlecruiser, the SCO equivalent of Admiral Akbar is yelling, "It's a trap!" as the now fully-operational IBM LawyerStar looms in the background.
Weirdly, I'm cheering for the Evil Empire this time.
I don't know why but seen IBM doing this stuff kinds of reminds me of Darth Vader changing camp after having been in the wrong one for most of is existence. :)
But IBM *lost* the Clone Wars. Or is this saying something I didn't know about Episode III?