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The other important questionThe other important questionPosted Jun 6, 2003 17:01 UTC (Fri) by rknop (guest, #66)Parent article: Notes from the SCO conference call Is not just that the code moved from whatever SCO thinks they own to Linux (rather than the other way), but if possibly the two (where the code looks the same) have a common source. Spefically, it's very plausible that both originated with BSD. I really hope this is what happened, and that SCO comes out looking moronically stupid. I also won't be impressed by their under-NDA reviewers saying "yup, looks copied" until we know something about their credentials and what they saw. Unless it's substantial blocks of code, it's very easy to see the identical expression of small pieces of code written completely independently. E.g., if you're writing a for loop in C to sort an array using a basic selection sort algorithm, what are the chances that it will look identical to the code that I wrote to do the same thing, even if we never talked to each other? There's a non-trivial chance that we'll both use i and j as our index variables, for example, since so many people do that. -Rob
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The other important question Posted Jun 6, 2003 17:26 UTC (Fri) by tomansley (guest, #11682) [Link] http://www.cmpnetasia.com/ViewArt.cfm?Artid=20074&Catid=8&subcat=79The above link describes an NDA reviewer, Laura Didio who was noted as saying that "the source code and developer's comments in one operating system were the same as in the other operating system". To me this would suggest that something was copied. Whether it was from Linux to SCO or SCO to Linux is another question. The fact that the comments are identical makes things a little more interesting.
The other important question Posted Jun 6, 2003 18:12 UTC (Fri) by brugolsky (✭ supporter ✭, #28) [Link] Exactly. The two may have common code descended from BSD or other sources, such as hardware vendors.As I understand it, the settlement in the BSD case specifically precludes all successors in interest from re-litigating the BSD suite. That means that any code that is in 4.4BSD-lite *whether it originated at AT&T or UCB*, is exempt. So really, what does that leave, System V IPC, and perhaps a few userland utils? The same goes for concepts and methods -- if it is in 4.4BSD-lite, it ought to be exempt. The UNIX interface spec is owned, variously, by the federal government (FIPS), IEEE (POSIX), and The Open Group (Single Unix Spec). Perhaps the kernel contains some code lifted from elsewhere, but I think it unlikely that much, if any, is in the core, for two reasons: (1) the group of developers making changes to the core is generally small and have a proven track record; (2) Linus exercises much tighter control over the core design and aesthetics. In all likelihood, the worst outcome is that some important driver or filesystem (think SCSI, IDE, RAID, or NFS) has illicit code. [I'm not implying that any of these are suspect -- far from it!] My guess is that any offending code is minimal, and SCO won't release any details publicly because they expect it to be quickly rewritten, with vendors issuing updates within a few days.
The other important question Posted Jun 6, 2003 18:55 UTC (Fri) by p9ing (guest, #1561) [Link] They already seem to me to be moronically stupid.IANAL and it seems to me if they were serious, this whole thing wouldn't be so dragged out. The only real way for them to force the issue is to bring this into the courts. In the mean time it is arguable that they are encouraging a buyout (IMO, not that dissimilar from extortion). If they get bought out, presumably the execs can retire with more green in their pockets. Again, just my opinion.
The other important question Posted Jun 8, 2003 3:49 UTC (Sun) by Baylink (guest, #755) [Link] Yes, but that's not their goal.Their *goal* is to drive the stock price up as far as possible, so it's above the strike price of their options.
The other important question Posted Jun 7, 2003 4:23 UTC (Sat) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link] The SCO vs IBM trial is going to take place, aproximatily 2 years from now!"IBM immediately had the case transferred from state to federal court and asked for routine extensions in their response time. The case is now expected to go to trial in about 2 years. IBM could easily stretch the trial out for 3 to 5 years. SCO will be really lucky to live that long". From: http://www.aaxnet.com/editor/edit032.html So unless SCO is restrained , he are going to have 2 yers of FUD, in which no real evidence no details and no specifics about allegations are given;...and all this discussions are pointless, AND M$ WINS 2 YEARS
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