SCO has valid case

[Keith Mastin]

> I was at SCO Forum this week and viewed some of the disputed code and
> SCO's explanations both without and with NDA. They have a valid case.

.. so you are stating that the court has accepted their prima facie case?
(A valid case is not necessarily a winning one, only one that should be
heard. Until a court of valid jurisdiction rules otherwise, SCO's case
does appear to be valid insofar as valid means that it should be heard.)
Winning it is a completely different matter...

> Linux kernel 2.4 to 2.6 contains AIX code which allows scalability
> beyond that which would have been available in a "regular development
> timeframe". Anyone interested in a copy of the non-nda PPT let me know
> and I'll email you a copy. I've tried several postings to the list
> server  but it does'nt seem to be working.

This is a great ploy on SCO's behalf, trying the case in the court of
public opinion with a jury that is uninstructed on interpreting the
applied laws by a judge from a qualified bench. One of the tenets of law
is the "Appearance of Justice"... not that justice can be proven to be
done, but that it appears to have been done. Every case has at least one
loser.

That said, the impact of the case so far is that it is bringing a whole
bunch of previously unframed questions about the opensource model that
haven't really been addressed by opensource advocacy hype. How strong is
the GPL and just how flexible is the code?

SCO still has their work cut out for them to get anywhere noteworthy
within the legal system with this case. Filing a case <> winning a case.
IMHO this case in more noteworthy in how it will set precedence in law
about the interpretation and application of the copyright legislation to
the specific points of the case rather than the outcome, and how the
application of the final judgement will affect future code revisions.

I suspect that the basis of the core kernel code is strong enough to
survive an unfavorable ruling. The question in my mind is, is the
opensource community strong enough to survive the courtcase, winning or
losing notwithstanding?



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