...and if SCO is right...?

Posted May 18, 2003 14:17 UTC (Sun) by flux (guest, #7502) [Link]

I agree with the point that one of the advantages of Linux is that the source code is easily available, this leads to a collaborative and open development. However, some of the implied questions from my original post are:
(1)If SCO wins and then succeeds in demanding royalties from all distributions of the GNU/Linux OS, based on the inclusion of a small amount of code which is simialar to code that is also present in thier own OS, what measures have the other OS's taken to review all submitted code for Trade Secret and or Patent violation i.e. the *BSD code bases have changed since the original ATT court case and all code included since must therefore also be liable to a similar legal attack?
(2) On a wider issue, as already pointed out in an earlier post, this could persuade some business people that releasing source code in to the open will increase the risk of an IP attack.
The point often made by closed source proponents is that the it's not worth a business expense to fund open source solutions. Just pay the software vendor for a liscence to run propriety software. If this is enforced in law my argument would be that it is depriving people of the right of choice. If the software used by a business is ancilary to the main function, e.g. a hotel chain, then they should have the right to employ a consultant who creates a solution with open source software. A significant problem it seems to me is when trivial patents are awarded such that no software can be created with out falling foul of some patent.It is my opinion that if software patents are going to be awarded they should be for non-trivial innovations i.e. it would not be obvious to a tallented programmer.
(3) (semi-seriously) In order to level the playing field between open source and closed solutions, perhaps if a company is not willing to release the source code for a propriety program then there ought to be an independant review body which will review the code from both closed and open source enviroments. Perhaps the BSA could fund this such that if code is blieved to have been taken without permission from open source programs then the author is properly recompenced. You never know closed source authors/companies may also ask for each others code to be reviewed as well for patent/trade secret violations:-)

Hope the above rambling makes some sense, hopefully the SCO problem and other situations in future will be resolved such that collaboration on open source software is still viable and vibrant.