Impacts of the SCO Case Outside of the US? 46
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)."
If you are worried... (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:If you are worried... (Score:1)
...or FreeBSD [freebsd.org]
Re:If you are worried... (Score:2)
Re:If you are worried... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:If you are worried... (Score:2)
Re:If you are worried... (Score:2)
Copyright law, not patent law (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Copyright law, not patent law (Score:3, Interesting)
Copyright law is one thing. Intellectual Property seems to be the latest 'buzz word', right alongside Synergy.
Re:Copyright law, not patent law (Score:1)
There is a big difference between patents and copyrights, however, which is what I was attempting to point out.
{Insert obligatory IANAL statement here}
Re:Copyright law, not patent law (Score:2)
1) Patents, a patent is a way of saying Hey i have this cool idea. You then tell everyone what it is and the government gives you a monopoly on it for a set period of time (17 years in most cases). The upshot of it is that you have to tell everyone how it works so after those 17 years everyone can work with it.
2) Copyright, litterally the right to
Re:Copyright law, not patent law (Score:2)
It's bogus (Score:4, Informative)
IBM is sure it won't stand the test of a real trial, and they are putting all their eggs in that basket, so they are pretty sure about it. Even if they aren't, and SCO wins, they'll just buy SCO out; that way, they'd only lose the real battle, that's about whether you can make money by forcing a bigger company to buy you by becoming enough of a hassle.
Got it? They got no case. Even if they did, it'd be solved by IBM buying them out.
Then again - like someone already pointed out
Even if there were some patented or otherwise somehow restricted code in some version of Linux, it doesn't hinder development at all. It'd be just dropped out and a new version without it released immediately. It's functionality would be reimplemented in other ways, pretty soon, and with pretty big wheels behind it, now that IBM et al are playing along.
s/It's functionality/Its functionality/ (Score:1)
Re:It's bogus (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
SCO discussions (Score:5, Funny)
Although I don't have an opinion on this specific question, I for one think that the SCO discussions are the best thing
It is starting to sound like a soap opera. For those who haven't been paying attention here are the players:
1. SCO. The bad guys. Think Alan Rickman in Die Hard. Smart, but really, really bad. Also they think they own UNIX.
2. IBM. The strong silent type. Well, they are silent, at least. They are just standing around with a big stick, not saying much. Hopefully we'll get to see some stick, before this is over.
3. Microsoft. The secret funders of SCO's evil.
4. Novell the previous *real* owner of UNIX.
5. AT+T the current *real* owner of UNIX. You would think that with something this valuable, these companies would actually know who owns it.
6. Linus. The copyright holder of the Linux name. Seems not to be either worried or interested in this debate.
6. RMS. He is the clueless wildcard. So far the only statement from his camp has been a bumbling, "It's GNU/Linux!" Nobody seems to have listened. He is definately the Ozzy of these Osbournes.
7. CmdrTaco. The guy with the gas and the matches.
8. The GPL. That horrid group of words that makes this all really interesting. Its effects are somewhere between smallpox and cholera.
8. The
Re:SCO discussions (Score:2)
5. AT+T the current *real* owner of UNIX. You would think that with something this valuable, these companies would actually know who owns it.
Yeah, *real* until they sold their rights to SCO ages ago.
8. The GPL. That horrid group of words that makes this all really interesting. Its effects are somewhere between smallpox and cholera.
Where a BSD license couldn't go wrong.
Re:SCO discussions (Score:2)
Re:SCO discussions (Score:2)
The FSF response to the SCO lawsuit was written by Eben Moglen. Also, after you get past the "It's GNU/Linux", they open up a barrage of incredible logic and common-sense, making the over-all release a good read.
releasing linux doesn't hurt trade-secret case. (Score:2)
It's incorrect to a degree, however interesting it may be. FSF forgot to consider how harms are evaluated in a trade-secret case. The fact that SCO distributed linux isn't relevant to that (though it is relevant to SCO's copyright attack on linux users). They could make a strong case that their
RMS = Ozzy Osbourne? (Score:2)
In fact, if there's an Ozzy in the bunch it's Steve Jobs - they both like to think different. Although Jobs would probably prefer being compared to David Bowie.
New acronym needed (Score:1, Funny)
Sorry, IANALL.
Erm... (Score:2)
Impact outside USA (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Impact outside USA (Score:2)
Don't you mean
that IBM then allegedly went ahead and did anyway
I could NOT agree more.
Re:Impact outside USA (Score:1)
Germany already downsmacked SCO (Score:4, Interesting)
Germany fined SCO $10000 for making threatening statements.
Lets see if I can answer for the /. crowd (Score:4)
I do not live in your country
I would have a hard time pointing to your country on a map
I do know however everything there is to know about those dirtbags at SCO
I do know everything about how Intellectual Property should work in the real world
You have nothing to worry about of course because SCO will fail in court, all though I have not signed the NDA so have no idea what evidence SCO can present, or if I have signed an NDA, couldn't tell you about it anyway
Does that just about cover it ?
Welcome to Australia, D'ohl... (Score:2)
I'll ask (Score:2)
So....do you sound like Latka Gravas?
I'm from Canada (Score:1)
Courts in Asia (Score:2, Informative)
In h
In South Africa........ (Score:1)
How about the GPL? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
The View From Hungary (Score:1)
Even if US law applied in the E.U. this would not affect us for a number of years as no evidence has been presented and, in all certainty, whoever won the cas