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Author Topic: Open source is a threat to US  (Read 532 times)

Offline Fishu

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Open source is a threat to US
« on: January 24, 2004, 05:30:28 PM »
The SCO Group Inc. speaking about the dangers of open source: http://www.osaia.org/letters/sco_hill.pdf


Quote

I am writing to you to draw your attention to an important controversy that has become one of the dominant issues in the software industry. The way in which this issue is resolved will have very important ramifactions for

* our nation's economy
* our continued ability to lead the world in technological innovation
* our international competitive position in the global software industry, and even for
* our national security
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Offline Martlet

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Open source is a threat to US
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2004, 05:36:36 PM »
This is nothing new, and nothing to be alarmed about if you understand how our government works.  

Issues such as this are brought forth with more frequency than most people realize, by public servants that are acting in our representative government.   They rarely get very far.
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Offline FUNKED1

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Open source is a threat to US
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2004, 05:43:55 PM »
Sounds like they have a pretty good case.
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Offline miko2d

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Open source is a threat to US
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2004, 06:33:32 PM »
Their case is a BS. Just another capitalist that wants to use the power of the government to save them from competition instead of competing fairly on a free market.

 If some code was stolen from them, it's a separate matter that has to be proven, and if it ever is proven, all the proprietary code can be removed from Linux in a matter of weeks. I follow this issue and the only reason that the alleged proprietary "stolen" code is not removed from Linux already is that SCO refuses to identify it. They allege theft but would not say what is stolen.

 Open Software is developed by foreigners, as well as americans. Even if amerians were somehow forbidden to participate in writing free software - which would violete the 1st Amendment  and using it, the foreigners would do it anyway. Half of programmers in US are russians anyway and the rest are mostly indians and chinese. There are plenty left to continue. Linus Thorwalds is not american either.
 If the foreign companies can enjoy free quality software while americans are stuck with expensive crap, how would we benefit and how would our competitive position improve?

 miko
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Offline Pei

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Open source is a threat to US
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2004, 07:15:24 PM »
Just more crap associcated with their attempt to sue everyone who is using Linux.
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Offline GRUNHERZ

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Open source is a threat to US
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2004, 07:30:25 PM »
Im sorry, SCO is a well knowns BS artist.  They are "software" company wich makes nearly all its money on patent royalites, their software is that terrible (even more than usual). They claim that they own UNIX, which I understand linux is based on,  and demand that Linux developers pay them royalties...

That is why they are so upset about open source software...
« Last Edit: January 24, 2004, 07:32:27 PM by GRUNHERZ »
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Offline maslo

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Open source is a threat to US
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2004, 03:56:17 AM »
Did SCO made public code, whitch was supposed to be stollen from them ?

How is that case... btw thanks for link
untill second page o still trough it is new year troll....

:D
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Offline maslo

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Open source is a threat to US
« Reply #7 on: January 25, 2004, 04:04:29 AM »
anyway it apear to be just private problem of SCO :D

http://www-1.ibm.com/linux/news/migrate.shtml

even latest checkpoint run on linux
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Offline Pei

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Open source is a threat to US
« Reply #8 on: January 25, 2004, 05:15:09 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
They claim that they own UNIX, which I understand linux is based on,  and demand that Linux developers pay them royalties...

That is why they are so upset about open source software...



Linux was built to be a free unix-like operating system. The claim that it is based on UNIX source code is the hub of thier lawsuit, since SCO bought the rights to UNIX. It is interesting to note that the company now called SCO used to be Caldera, and under that name used to make money from open source software including Linux.
So far they have been unable to substantiate their claims (even though they can download the linux source from hundreds of places on the internet).
Since they can't make any money out of their own products the tactic is to threaten lawsuits which smaller companies can't afford to fight and claim license fees. Whether this is an effective business model is still up for debate, but they have certainly burnt their bridges with the rest of the industry.
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