Impacts of the SCO Case Outside of the US?

Pecisk asks: "Maybe lot of you have already tired of discussing this, but I would like to know opinions (professional one would be very good) how much this case can have *legal* impact to Linux users/businesses in other regions like EU, Russia, Eastern Asia. I know that in many cases there's no effect of US court decisions to other countries, but how (for example) the EU patent law will take this, and in generally how much and do we have to be really worried about this case? This question is very important to me, and I guess, for other guys from non-US countries too. I want to know this also because when I have to speak about the using of Linux and free software in IT solutions and if someone argues about this case and it's impact to us, I would like to know what to answer (I'm from Latvia, Eastern Europe, we are going to vote for EU membership in September)."

Re:Copyright law, not patent law

[Twanfox]

I am nitpicking. What's an intellectual property law? Or, better yet, what exactally is 'intellectual property'? Is it anything like an idea? As of yet, I don't think we have any laws that apply to ideas.

Copyright law is one thing. Intellectual Property seems to be the latest 'buzz word', right alongside Synergy.

Re:It's bogus

[belroth]

It's even more fun if you read the Register - IBM is giving a copy of SuSE Enterprise Linux with some Power4 pSeries machines - One to Four way SMP boxes.
It's a nice gentle way of IBM to play down the Itanium in favour of their own processor, and subtly flipping SCO the bird.

Impact outside USA

[Eivind]

..will be exactly the same as inside the USA.

That is, zero. SCO does not have a leg to stand on, and they know it. It's the only reasonable explanation why we STILL haven't even been told exactly what we're supposed to have done wrong.

It MIGTH have the impact of scaring some people, if they are sufficiently easily scared that they wet their pants when faced with a near-bankrupt desperate firm, and a 800 pound gorilla is figthing on your side.

Patent law is irrelevant, SCO has not even claimed that they own patents on anything in Linux (they couldn't, patents are public). Nor have they claimed to have copyrigth on anything in Linux. They do however claim to have a contract with IBM that prevents IBM from doing some things (unspecified ones!) that IBM then went ahead and did anyway.

They're bogus. Ignore them. Sleep calmly.

Germany already downsmacked SCO

[Rares Marian]

I really doubt they'll have any luck overseas.

Germany fined SCO $10000 for making threatening statements.

How about the GPL?

[xyrw]

I think that the more significant war is with the credibility of the GPL. The repercussions of this case will probably not be about specific companies, but Linux adoption in general. If IBM crushes SCO in court, then the GPL *may* in the process be strangthened. But if IBM loses and has to buy out SCO, the strength of the GPL as a legally recognised license will be weakened.

Even if this weakening or strengthening is only in the US, other countries' IT industries will be influenced in a similar way, since the nature of open source is that national boundaries cannot (totally) insulate effects in one country from another.