"As for the GPL, it's total war."

[Walter Dnes]

On Fri, Oct 31, 2003 at 01:08:11AM -0500, Marcus Brubaker wrote

> Honestly, the more I read about this case, the more I believe that
> SCO honestly doesn't expect to win.

  Here's my take on their strategy.  They plan to win big by losing big.
This will take some explaining.  SCO's benefactor, Microsoft, has an
absolutely crummy OS when it comes to security.  They would love to use
all that secure OSS stuff out there to fix up Windows, but using it
would require MS to distribute their source code under the GPL.  So how
does MS get rid of the GPL... simple, get IBM and SGI to defeat it in
court !!!

  IBM and SGI obviously won't do it willingly, so you need to use some
trickery along the lines of child-psychology.  First of all, ignore the
press releases, which are purely diversionary tactics.  Concentrate on
the lawsuits that SCO actually has filed...

  1) Sequent systems (later acquired by IBM) invented and patented NUMA.
They included NUMA in their proprietary Dynix, which used code licenced
from the old unix base.  SCO claims that the unix licence is viral and
therefore NUMA is now SCO's property.

  2) SGI developed a super-duper file system called XFS, and used it in
their licenced unix.  SCO claims that the unix licence is viral and
therefore XFS is now SCO's property.

  3) A US federal judge reads the claims, wets his pants laughing, and
throws the viral-licence claims out of court.

  4) SCO and/or MS start using GPL'd code without honouring the licence
terms about redistribution.  FSF takes them to court and claims that the
GPL licence is viral, and therefore MS/SCO must distribute the source of
the entire OS.

  5) MS/SCO point to SCO vs IBM and SCO vs SGI as legal precedent that
viral licences are invalid.  Oops.

  Yes, I realize that SCO's viral-licence claims are a gross parody of
GPL, but I think that's their game.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org>
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