Obviously, just like the Self-Scan at grocery, there will be some common-sense checks, like 10 items in cart, 10 items on receipt.
But, you can't easily "burn out" an RFID tag anymore than you can "burn out" a cell phone. Just like ESD protection on USB memory sticks, RF chips have voltage spike protection on the antenna inputs, which would need a microwave to generate the RF energy to do damage. (Note: WalMart has microwaves you can plug in)
You could, however, use a mylar bag, or cut the antenna loops or metal traces (or conductive plastic which is more likely). But that is pretty much like ripping off the tag & putting it in your coat anyways.
Now you could get a reader and see what the barcode id is on the ROM... or maybe if they have write NVRAM you could change that.. but that is pretty useless.
That's the mistake people are making.. You are not saving anything. The grocery stores used to have sales before these shopper cards existed. This is what the shopper card gets you down to, the normal sale prices. If you didn't use the card, you'd be paying 50% more. It actually a punishment card. If you don't use it, you pay extra.
I don't think that argument works.. I've heard it a lot, but have you checked the receipts?! It is 20% to 60% savings with the extortion shopper card. Maybe if you were only saving 5%, I'd agree with you about it being a choice. Generally, the concept of capitalism is go to the cheapest, most convenient store for the equal value.
Do you send in double what you owe in taxes? That is a choice also. Do you pay full fare for all airline tickets? Again, your choice.
They are indeed coming and it really is just a matter of price..
WalMart, etc. cannot wait for these. And actually I think the military might be a prime driver of wide scale adoption. The real trick is to get the cost down to pennies.
The huge cost savings will be in inventory. Imagine either enough readers in your warehouse to scan every location, OR a robot that drives around at night pinging RFID tags. Imagine being able to just push your cart through a metal detector & have everything scanned in seconds.
Also some RFID will have non-volatile memory and be able to record events or travels or born-on dates. For an extra $5 you can have a tamper-proof record of a packages travel. Or for $20 maybe a gps chip on board to record the shipment so audit it when it gets to where it is going.
I think the first place we'll see them will be as a new shopper card. You'll get a keychain (like the gas pump thingy) that will identify you at upscale stores or maybe even print out a shopping list for you when you enter the grocery store. Stores will want this because they can secretly track who looks at what items and for how long. Then they sell that information back to producers and marketing folks.
This post IS WHAT THE RIAA is trying to convince you of. Heck, this trombone playing marine probably is a subcontractor of RIAA.
Why sue 15 yr olds & grandmothers & college kids?? ? Why keep going to court with supoenas in the 1000s??? They are hoping you think like this self-titled ranter. They are hoping you think, well $3000 just isn't worth it, I'll go to the store & give those bastards who charged me $22 for a CD for two decades even more money.
They all missed the paradigm shift. Digital content & easily available media is a disruptive technology. The shift has already happened and it already is the future of music, tv, movies. You can't sue people into going back to the old ways anymore than getting people to not use walkmans or personal computers or to google instead of using a phonebook.
Cassette tapes & VCRs came along and threatened everything once before. But, YES you were *eventually* (yes, even legally) allowed to RECORD the radio or RECORD the tv broadcast.. Oh, and replay it. And you could do it at your convenience and even fast forward through commercials. Digital just became too good at quality and portability and along with the internet, too easily reproduceable.
Imagine someone listening to an iPod-like device to some streaming digital broadcast who hears a new song they like & presses 'save'... later that same day, they beam the song to their friend to listen to. How is this such a threat? Compare this to your walkmans. This is exactly what took place in the 70s & 80s and they made millions & millions & millions.
Never forget that RIAA & MPAA & Clear Channel & studios are producing crap and have been for at least a decade. Music is really bad now. Go listen to how good indie music is. Go look at the fact that American Idol produces the new top of the billboards. This is why they are seeing massive losses in revenue. The only solution whether you p2p or not, is to NOT buy RIAA products or spend money at Clear Channel venues or listen to their stations.
You do read NYTimes online? Why shouldn't you be able to surf over to your favorite band's website and pay them $1 to download their new single? Ask yourself why you haven't downloaded an ISO's for a music CD? Ask yourself why video game makers have not supoena'ed anyone yet?
so the RIAA under normal circumstances cannot scan you. Admittedly it's not perfect
This is just wrong & irresponsible to say something like this. Most of the datamining (to select your IP address as the next lucky winner) is done by subcontractors or other goons of the RIAA. They all know about the IP block list. How hard is it to gather IP addresses from a new IP address?? How hard is it to order a cable modem?? Hypothetically, if enough people used the PG database, they'd HAVE to find a new IP address in order to look for victems.
First of all, the PeerGuardian method is just plain silly IF you are already running a firewall. Why not just import the list of blocked-IP into ZoneAlarm, etc? Why have this code built into KaZaA? Do you have a special eDonkey version with the same functionality? Trust me, your firewall is much more efficient at doing this.
I'd recommend getting a wireless AP & leaving it wide open & hope that's good enough to say you "didn't know"... better yet, fake a MAC address & record the log of that computer "wirelessly using all your bandwidth"... Maybe, if everyone used bittorrent, it would be too much work for them to gather all the torrents (which are time limited) then sit on all the trackers to record all the IP & then all they get from you is one FILE (or CD)... This is still a few $1000 per song though, but they have claimed not to go after the person who d/l's "just a few songs"
Ok I meant half of the US cities instead of most. I don't think GPRS phones work in Europe.
CDMA networks (like Sprint and Verizon)
GSM/GPRS networks (like T-Mobile and Cingular) Nort America Coverage Map
Typical US markets are a mix of the following: (800=800 MHz; 1900=1900 MHz)
Before this gets out of hand, most of the US is not on GSM. Two issues here:
* the frequency bands allocated (the 4 bands supported by these GSM phones) and
* the encoding (GSM, CDMA, TDMA)
GSM is gaussian shift keying (overlapping gaussian shaped pulses)
CDMA is code-division mux'ing (using the real & imaginary parts of the signal as bits)
TDMA is time-division mux'ing (splitting up the signals into time slots)
And the comments reflect the trolling nature of the story. I don't think there has been one supporting post or anyone who really is worried about toxic leaks on a moon of a distant frozen planet that may or may not contain liquid water let alone life.
This should be more obvious what is going on here.. There is no stronger lobby (maybe tobacco) than the American tradition of the automobile, if Congress passes anything it will be with their approval. These are the same people that passed DMCA & Patriot, don't be fooled into thinking they are EVER going to do anything that large, rich corporations wouldn't approve of.
US Airline industry
failing miserably..
terrorists..
Congress bails out whole industry..
Industry still hasn't fixed business model
MPAA / RIAA
financially in trouble..
blame pirates, hackers, p2p..
Lawmakers pass all sorts of laws, Judges pass all sorts of sentences..
I think the fact that the DVD is pure information and a car is a physical object, not subject to casual duplication, might be a difference, but who knows?
Obviously not you. The issue is the interfaces, busses, software codes, ROMs, etc. This is the crap which you have to go to a dealer to fix. In most cases, you can't even diagnose what is wrong without proprietary tools. That's pretty similar to using DeCSS to be able to view the "information" on your DVD.
Start viewing live performances as your bread and butter and your only means of actually, you know, making money within the industry.
Do you know who controls most music venues? Do you know who owns the most radio markets and controls the playlists? Do you know who earns the majority of the money from your concert performances? The answer is Clear Channel.. and no that's not tin-foil goodness, that sadly is true.
Corporate influence bought deregulation resulting from the Telecommunication Act of 1996 and the whole MPAA issue is probably small peanuts relative to Clear Channel's influence.
The same has happened in Ohio
(here and here) where a new bill has been signed and is now law (thank you MPAA & Gov. Taft) directly written and influenced by big-cinema. When the public (and media) starting questioning the bill and the stealthy way it was snuck through -- also the nagging fact that a cell-phone that takes video snippets can now make you a felon if you bring it to a movie theatre.. (ok, I am exagerating, the first offense is a misdemeanor; the next one is a felony)
The MPAA responded to the effect of "just pass the law like it is written and you can always go back and amend it". And, YES, in Ohio you are now a criminal if you press record on any electronic recording device in any public place that has a movie being played (ie. Walmart or BestBuy).
MPAA is also trying to sneak one through in Hartford and probably also your own state legislatures. (A similar law took effect Jan. 1 in California. Michigan lawmakers introduced legislation in December, and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania passed equivalent bills in 1999)
And you truely are a fool if you are one of those who say, well even though *technically* it is the law, they'll never *really* enforce it that way. Forget police state. Just go look at EFF, I'm starting to be worried we'll all soon be living in a corporate state.
Why doesn't some of the more contraversial scientists (human-cloning, clone-of-clone cloners, Clone-Aid wackos) take some other mammals (dogs or chimpanzees) and re-create these dozen or so mutations?!
The implication are staggering. Now that people are buying glow-in-the-dark fish I would really think there would be a market for these mutants. I just hope they don't start with mice, rats, or squirrels.
The only saving grace of this article it that even the most intelligent person would have trouble following the Computurs-Fer-Nascar-Dads style instructions. From the article:
Do not try to delete both partitions on the drive so you can create one large partition. This will not work. (this is because they are overlapping and you won't see 'extra' space if you delete the overlap)
You have to leave the two partitions separate in order to use them. Windows disk management will have erroneous data (again alluding to the error in reporting space)
in that it will say drive size = manus stated drive size and then available size will equal ALL the available space with recovered partitions included....
It has worked completely fine with no loss before and it has also lost the data on the drive before. (so it obviously WILL 'lost' your data)
for the benefit of spooks who want the device to maintain a rolling log of disk data for some period of time
It's true, the Feds have been after Batboy and Sasquatch for some time. This way they can possibly intercept email from aliens and Michael Jackson and the great frozen north.
Since SCO has publicly stated they plan to follow RIAA's examples, this is a good sign that SCO won't be able to blanket the courts with thousands of lawsuits.
This article talks more about Questar and confirms our worst fears! It's pretty clear to me that thanks to RIAA, people can sued into submission. I think there will be many other smaller companies who just pay a few $thousand to make it all go away.
"Questar whom reports quote as claiming their use of Linux to be so light that the trifling cost of paying off SCO was the better option to the likelihood of meeting the ever-more litigious SCO in court."
Since the site is horribly slow and I haven't seen the news about Leggett & Platt anywhere else, here's the text:
05 March 2004 Two of four SCO licensees deny their purchase
Linux licence? What Linux licence?
By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service and Kieren McCarthy, Techworld
Two of the four companies that SCO has publicly named as having bought a licence from it to use Linux, have denied doing anything of the sort.
Both Computer Associates and Leggett & Platt have been held up by SCO as purchasing a $699 (384) licence to cover the alleged SCO copyrights in the open-source operating system. But both have publicly stated that they have done no such thing.
The chief architect of CA's Linux Technology Group, Sam Greenblatt, admitted the company had struck a deal with an investor in SCO over UnixWare licences and said that for each UnixWare licence bought, it was indemnified against a Linux box but he denied outright that the company had bought a licence specifically dealing with Linux.
Leggett & Platt was even clearer. "I have now talked to our people who handle our Linux systems and, at least at a corporate level, we have not bought such a licence from SCO Group," said the company's VP of human resources, John Hale. "To their knowledge they would not have an interest in doing so."
The denials come the same day that SCO was forced to admit an email appearing to demonstrate that Microsoft had helped fund the group to the tune of $86 million was real. But, the company claims, the email does not show what people claim it does.
This same misunderstanding approach was used by SCO to explain CA's statement. SCO spokesman Blake Stowell said that CA had indeed obtained an IP licence for Linux in an email. "UnixWare licences allow SCO customers to run UnixWare and the SCO Intellectual Property Licence allows Linux end users to run our Unix intellectual property in binary form in Linux. Today, CA has a licence in place to run our Unix IP in binary form in Linux without fear that they may be infringing on our intellectual property."
This hazy distinction angered CA's Greenblatt, who strongly objected to the portrayal of CA as a IP licensee for Linux. "To represent us as having supported the SCO thing is totally wrong," he said, before accusing the company's tactics as "intended to intimidate and threaten customers". "We totally disagree with [Darl McBride's, SCO CEO] approach, his tactics and the way he's going about this," Greenblatt added.
SCO claims to have copyrighted material within the Linux open-source operating system and has embarked on a dramatic legal battle to enforce them. Earlier this week, it expanded its lawsuits to include one of its own customers and a company using the Linux software and warned that it "will take and continue to take" legal action against Linux end users. The company sees itself as educating people about its rights in the same way that the RIAA - the US music industry body - has sued individuals in an attempt to prevent the free trade in copyrighted music.
However, one financial analyst said that the conditions surrounding the CA licence did not cast a favorable light on SCO. "I think it just speaks to the weakness of their case. Why could CA have not been convinced to take a licence without legal action," said Dion Cornett, managing director with Decatur Jones Equity Partners.
The other two companies that have been named as IP Licence for Linux customers are EV1 Servers.Net and Salt Questar. Both have confirmed that they did purchase SCO's licence.
Slashdot Mirror
Obviously, just like the Self-Scan at grocery, there will be some common-sense checks, like 10 items in cart, 10 items on receipt.
But, you can't easily "burn out" an RFID tag anymore than you can "burn out" a cell phone. Just like ESD protection on USB memory sticks, RF chips have voltage spike protection on the antenna inputs, which would need a microwave to generate the RF energy to do damage. (Note: WalMart has microwaves you can plug in)
You could, however, use a mylar bag, or cut the antenna loops or metal traces (or conductive plastic which is more likely). But that is pretty much like ripping off the tag & putting it in your coat anyways.
Now you could get a reader and see what the barcode id is on the ROM... or maybe if they have write NVRAM you could change that.. but that is pretty useless.
Mr. Rivera slipped on a yogurt spill and shattered his kneecap at a Von's Supermarket. The injury required surgery and ten days of hospitalization, keeping him out of work for an extended period of time. "Von's representatives threatened to reveal records about my alcohol purchases at the store. .. "
That's the mistake people are making.. You are not saving anything. The grocery stores used to have sales before these shopper cards existed. This is what the shopper card gets you down to, the normal sale prices. If you didn't use the card, you'd be paying 50% more. It actually a punishment card. If you don't use it, you pay extra.
if everyone filled out a new card every week, they would end the program in a month.
I don't think that argument works.. I've heard it a lot, but have you checked the receipts?! It is 20% to 60% savings with the extortion shopper card. Maybe if you were only saving 5%, I'd agree with you about it being a choice. Generally, the concept of capitalism is go to the cheapest, most convenient store for the equal value.
Do you send in double what you owe in taxes? That is a choice also.
Do you pay full fare for all airline tickets? Again, your choice.
They are indeed coming and it really is just a matter of price..
WalMart, etc. cannot wait for these. And actually I think the military might be a prime driver of wide scale adoption. The real trick is to get the cost down to pennies.
The huge cost savings will be in inventory. Imagine either enough readers in your warehouse to scan every location, OR a robot that drives around at night pinging RFID tags. Imagine being able to just push your cart through a metal detector & have everything scanned in seconds.
Also some RFID will have non-volatile memory and be able to record events or travels or born-on dates. For an extra $5 you can have a tamper-proof record of a packages travel. Or for $20 maybe a gps chip on board to record the shipment so audit it when it gets to where it is going.
I think the first place we'll see them will be as a new shopper card. You'll get a keychain (like the gas pump thingy) that will identify you at upscale stores or maybe even print out a shopping list for you when you enter the grocery store. Stores will want this because they can secretly track who looks at what items and for how long. Then they sell that information back to producers and marketing folks.
This post IS WHAT THE RIAA is trying to convince you of. Heck, this trombone playing marine probably is a subcontractor of RIAA.
Why sue 15 yr olds & grandmothers & college kids?? ? Why keep going to court with supoenas in the 1000s??? They are hoping you think like this self-titled ranter. They are hoping you think, well $3000 just isn't worth it, I'll go to the store & give those bastards who charged me $22 for a CD for two decades even more money.
They all missed the paradigm shift. Digital content & easily available media is a disruptive technology. The shift has already happened and it already is the future of music, tv, movies. You can't sue people into going back to the old ways anymore than getting people to not use walkmans or personal computers or to google instead of using a phonebook.
Cassette tapes & VCRs came along and threatened everything once before. But, YES you were *eventually* (yes, even legally) allowed to RECORD the radio or RECORD the tv broadcast.. Oh, and replay it. And you could do it at your convenience and even fast forward through commercials. Digital just became too good at quality and portability and along with the internet, too easily reproduceable.
Imagine someone listening to an iPod-like device to some streaming digital broadcast who hears a new song they like & presses 'save'... later that same day, they beam the song to their friend to listen to. How is this such a threat? Compare this to your walkmans. This is exactly what took place in the 70s & 80s and they made millions & millions & millions.
Never forget that RIAA & MPAA & Clear Channel & studios are producing crap and have been for at least a decade. Music is really bad now. Go listen to how good indie music is. Go look at the fact that American Idol produces the new top of the billboards. This is why they are seeing massive losses in revenue. The only solution whether you p2p or not, is to NOT buy RIAA products or spend money at Clear Channel venues or listen to their stations.
You do read NYTimes online? Why shouldn't you be able to surf over to your favorite band's website and pay them $1 to download their new single? Ask yourself why you haven't downloaded an ISO's for a music CD? Ask yourself why video game makers have not supoena'ed anyone yet?
I am confused, how is this Unbalanced?! How are you Insightful?!
(bold is submitter and italics for the article)
the RIAA will be
the record industry will soon
subpoenaing the University of Michigan
subpoena the University
for the names of nine students
for the names of students
suspected of
allegedly
file-sharing.
sharing music illegally.
so the RIAA under normal circumstances cannot scan you. Admittedly it's not perfect
This is just wrong & irresponsible to say something like this. Most of the datamining (to select your IP address as the next lucky winner) is done by subcontractors or other goons of the RIAA. They all know about the IP block list. How hard is it to gather IP addresses from a new IP address?? How hard is it to order a cable modem?? Hypothetically, if enough people used the PG database, they'd HAVE to find a new IP address in order to look for victems.
First of all, the PeerGuardian method is just plain silly IF you are already running a firewall. Why not just import the list of blocked-IP into ZoneAlarm, etc? Why have this code built into KaZaA? Do you have a special eDonkey version with the same functionality? Trust me, your firewall is much more efficient at doing this.
I'd recommend getting a wireless AP & leaving it wide open & hope that's good enough to say you "didn't know"... better yet, fake a MAC address & record the log of that computer "wirelessly using all your bandwidth"... Maybe, if everyone used bittorrent, it would be too much work for them to gather all the torrents (which are time limited) then sit on all the trackers to record all the IP & then all they get from you is one FILE (or CD)... This is still a few $1000 per song though, but they have claimed not to go after the person who d/l's "just a few songs"
co-eds
CDMA networks (like Sprint and Verizon)
GSM/GPRS networks (like T-Mobile and Cingular)
Nort America Coverage Map
Typical US markets are a mix of the following: (800=800 MHz; 1900=1900 MHz)
800 AMPS
800 TDMA
800 CDMA (verizon)
800 iDen (nextel)
1900 CDMA (sprint pcs)
1900 GSM (at&t, cingular, t-mobile)
1900 TDMA (at&t)
Before this gets out of hand, most of the US is not on GSM. Two issues here:
* the frequency bands allocated (the 4 bands supported by these GSM phones) and
* the encoding (GSM, CDMA, TDMA)
GSM is gaussian shift keying (overlapping gaussian shaped pulses)
CDMA is code-division mux'ing (using the real & imaginary parts of the signal as bits)
TDMA is time-division mux'ing (splitting up the signals into time slots)
I was thinking his new business cards will read "World's Fastest Computer as Reviewed on Tom's Hardware Guide"
And the comments reflect the trolling nature of the story. I don't think there has been one supporting post or anyone who really is worried about toxic leaks on a moon of a distant frozen planet that may or may not contain liquid water let alone life.
US Airline industry
failing miserably ..
terrorists ..
Congress bails out whole industry ..
Industry still hasn't fixed business model
MPAA / RIAA
financially in trouble ..
blame pirates, hackers, p2p..
Lawmakers pass all sorts of laws, Judges pass all sorts of sentences..
Industry still hasn't fixed business model
US Automakers
future seems uncertain ... floating 0% financing schemes
blame the forced opening of proprietary interfaces, blame car-computer hackers
Congress soon to bail out troubling industry ?? (or at least the retirement funds)??
Industry still hasn't fixed business model
I think the fact that the DVD is pure information and a car is a physical object, not subject to casual duplication, might be a difference, but who knows?
Obviously not you. The issue is the interfaces, busses, software codes, ROMs, etc. This is the crap which you have to go to a dealer to fix. In most cases, you can't even diagnose what is wrong without proprietary tools. That's pretty similar to using DeCSS to be able to view the "information" on your DVD.
Start viewing live performances as your bread and butter and your only means of actually, you know, making money within the industry.
Do you know who controls most music venues? Do you know who owns the most radio markets and controls the playlists? Do you know who earns the majority of the money from your concert performances? The answer is Clear Channel.. and no that's not tin-foil goodness, that sadly is true.
Corporate influence bought deregulation resulting from the Telecommunication Act of 1996 and the whole MPAA issue is probably small peanuts relative to Clear Channel's influence.
The same has happened in Ohio (here and here) where a new bill has been signed and is now law (thank you MPAA & Gov. Taft) directly written and influenced by big-cinema. When the public (and media) starting questioning the bill and the stealthy way it was snuck through -- also the nagging fact that a cell-phone that takes video snippets can now make you a felon if you bring it to a movie theatre.. (ok, I am exagerating, the first offense is a misdemeanor; the next one is a felony) The MPAA responded to the effect of "just pass the law like it is written and you can always go back and amend it". And, YES, in Ohio you are now a criminal if you press record on any electronic recording device in any public place that has a movie being played (ie. Walmart or BestBuy).
MPAA is also trying to sneak one through in Hartford and probably also your own state legislatures. (A similar law took effect Jan. 1 in California. Michigan lawmakers introduced legislation in December, and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania passed equivalent bills in 1999)
And you truely are a fool if you are one of those who say, well even though *technically* it is the law, they'll never *really* enforce it that way. Forget police state. Just go look at EFF, I'm starting to be worried we'll all soon be living in a corporate state.
Why doesn't some of the more contraversial scientists (human-cloning, clone-of-clone cloners, Clone-Aid wackos) take some other mammals (dogs or chimpanzees) and re-create these dozen or so mutations?!
The implication are staggering. Now that people are buying glow-in-the-dark fish I would really think there would be a market for these mutants. I just hope they don't start with mice, rats, or squirrels.
The only saving grace of this article it that even the most intelligent person would have trouble following the Computurs-Fer-Nascar-Dads style instructions. From the article:
...
It has worked completely fine with no loss before and it has also lost the data on the drive before. (so it obviously WILL 'lost' your data)
Do not try to delete both partitions on the drive so you can create one large partition. This will not work. (this is because they are overlapping and you won't see 'extra' space if you delete the overlap)
You have to leave the two partitions separate in order to use them. Windows disk management will have erroneous data (again alluding to the error in reporting space)
in that it will say drive size = manus stated drive size and then available size will equal ALL the available space with recovered partitions included.
for the benefit of spooks who want the device to maintain a rolling log of disk data for some period of time
It's true, the Feds have been after Batboy and Sasquatch for some time. This way they can possibly intercept email from aliens and Michael Jackson and the great frozen north.
Since SCO has publicly stated they plan to follow RIAA's examples, this is a good sign that SCO won't be able to blanket the courts with thousands of lawsuits.
This article talks more about Questar and confirms our worst fears! It's pretty clear to me that thanks to RIAA, people can sued into submission. I think there will be many other smaller companies who just pay a few $thousand to make it all go away.
"Questar whom reports quote as claiming their use of Linux to be so light that the trifling cost of paying off SCO was the better option to the likelihood of meeting the ever-more litigious SCO in court."
(Disclaimer: I don't think Nasa Lewis should have been changed Nasa Glenn)
Isn't it obvious why $800billion of stuff sitting on the moon is better than $800billion of stuff sitting on Mars?
Since the site is horribly slow and I haven't seen the news about Leggett & Platt anywhere else, here's the text:
05 March 2004
Two of four SCO licensees deny their purchase Linux licence? What Linux licence?
By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service and Kieren McCarthy, Techworld
Two of the four companies that SCO has publicly named as having bought a licence from it to use Linux, have denied doing anything of the sort.
Both Computer Associates and Leggett & Platt have been held up by SCO as purchasing a $699 (384) licence to cover the alleged SCO copyrights in the open-source operating system. But both have publicly stated that they have done no such thing.
The chief architect of CA's Linux Technology Group, Sam Greenblatt, admitted the company had struck a deal with an investor in SCO over UnixWare licences and said that for each UnixWare licence bought, it was indemnified against a Linux box but he denied outright that the company had bought a licence specifically dealing with Linux.
Leggett & Platt was even clearer. "I have now talked to our people who handle our Linux systems and, at least at a corporate level, we have not bought such a licence from SCO Group," said the company's VP of human resources, John Hale. "To their knowledge they would not have an interest in doing so."
The denials come the same day that SCO was forced to admit an email appearing to demonstrate that Microsoft had helped fund the group to the tune of $86 million was real. But, the company claims, the email does not show what people claim it does.
This same misunderstanding approach was used by SCO to explain CA's statement. SCO spokesman Blake Stowell said that CA had indeed obtained an IP licence for Linux in an email. "UnixWare licences allow SCO customers to run UnixWare and the SCO Intellectual Property Licence allows Linux end users to run our Unix intellectual property in binary form in Linux. Today, CA has a licence in place to run our Unix IP in binary form in Linux without fear that they may be infringing on our intellectual property."
This hazy distinction angered CA's Greenblatt, who strongly objected to the portrayal of CA as a IP licensee for Linux. "To represent us as having supported the SCO thing is totally wrong," he said, before accusing the company's tactics as "intended to intimidate and threaten customers". "We totally disagree with [Darl McBride's, SCO CEO] approach, his tactics and the way he's going about this," Greenblatt added.
SCO claims to have copyrighted material within the Linux open-source operating system and has embarked on a dramatic legal battle to enforce them. Earlier this week, it expanded its lawsuits to include one of its own customers and a company using the Linux software and warned that it "will take and continue to take" legal action against Linux end users. The company sees itself as educating people about its rights in the same way that the RIAA - the US music industry body - has sued individuals in an attempt to prevent the free trade in copyrighted music.
However, one financial analyst said that the conditions surrounding the CA licence did not cast a favorable light on SCO. "I think it just speaks to the weakness of their case. Why could CA have not been convinced to take a licence without legal action," said Dion Cornett, managing director with Decatur Jones Equity Partners.
The other two companies that have been named as IP Licence for Linux customers are EV1 Servers.Net and Salt Questar. Both have confirmed that they did purchase SCO's licence.