Interview: Linux usage raises big legal concerns (Gulf News)

Posted Sep 14, 2003 19:09 UTC (Sun) by gadeiros (guest, #3929) [Link]

I don't know about the US, but in Germany there are ways to stop somebody telling lies about somebody else in public.

If I was a Linux developer, I would sue the ass out of this guy and M$.

In German we call this "ehrabschneidend" of which slander(ing) is not the full translation.

This issue MUST be solved once and forever, I think.

Posted Sep 15, 2003 8:15 UTC (Mon) by leonbrooks (guest, #1494) [Link]

Yer durn tootin' it's lies. This email got positive reviews from the Emirate LUGs, let's
see if I survive it:

----------------8<--------cut-here--------8<---------------------
From: Leon Brooks <leon[at]cyberknights.com.au>
Organization: CyberKnights - modern tools, traditional dedication
To: yousefk[at]microsoft.com, mohammedk[at]microsoft.com, editor[at]gulfnews.com
Cc: letters[at]lwn.net
Bcc: [Emirate LUGs]
Subject: Mohammed Kateeb, you have been telling lies!
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 10:39:27 +0800
User-Agent: KMail/1.5
Message-Id: <200309151039.27329.leon[at]cyberknights.com.au>

Here...

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=97436

...you say:

> Linux people don't believe in Intellectual Property Rights.

That's a direct lie, one you need to retract. Linux is licenced under
the GNU GPL, General Public Licence, which _depends_ on copyright law
for its operation. And see below.

> How can one be sure that the code of software that has been
> contributed by programmers across the world to create this
> Linux software is unique and is not lifted from somewhere
> else? This is a big legal concern.

This is chutzpah (no, I'm not Jewish but it's a singularly appropriate
word). Would you care to explain how Microsoft's SQL Server developers
were exposed to suit from TimeLine over improper dealing with imported
IP if Microsoft's own source control is so good?

> That is what the latest SCO-Linux lawsuit is all about. Now
> SCO is suing every single user of Linux because they believe
> parts of their UNIX code is being used in Linux.

No, they don't. This is a stock "pump-and-dump" operation, they say
these things primarily to inflate their stock value - and one of the
companies assisting with the pumping has Melinda Gates (yes, the wife
of William Henry "Trey" Gates III) on its board. Can you explain her
involvement?

*ALL* of the supposed evidence from The SCO Group so far revealed has
been either a false match (the Linux programmers rewrote it from
scratch "clean room" style so the code really is de novo) or a false
ownership claim (the code is BSD licenced or Public Domain and so
legitimately available for relicencing under the GPL).

It seems fairly obvious from what has been revealed that The SCO Group
have been stripping BSD licence headers from code and illegally
incorporating it into their own UnixWare without attribution.

Worse than that, practically all of UnixWare's latest drivers are
version-number and spelling-error compatible with the drivers shipped
in SuSE's Enterprise Linux 8, so it looks very much like The SCO Group
have been stealing Linux code only available through the GPL.

All of this eventually spells jail time for the officers of The SCO
Group, and massive losses for the stock speculators involved.

Finally, you really shouldn't go shooting off your mouth about purported
risks in the GPL when Microsoft themselves sell product under a GPL
licence, notably the majority of your SFU (Services For Unix) package.

On top of all of this, you've told many other half-truths in your
interview, and made much unfair and misleading innuendo. You may regard
this as valid competitive behaviour, but that doesn't stop it from
being false and misleading. If you live in ignorance of the conditions
surrounding your business, then you are delinquent in your obligation
to stay informed. None of this is up to the standards proclaimed by the
Emirates.

I write only for myself when I ask that you publish a retraction, at
least of your most blatantly errant statements. Bear in mind when
formulating an answer that as you gave the interview to be published,
so you are giving your answer to be published.

Cheers; Leon


PS, Note to the Editor, Gulf News: feel free to publish this in your
Letters section. Could you publish an interview with a suitable
candidate from a local Open Source group? Perhaps the organisations at
http://goldensun.com/linux/ or http://geocities.com/dubailug can supply
an interviewee.

--
http://cyberknights.com.au/ Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/ Committee Member, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/ Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/ Committee Member, Linux Australia

Posted Sep 15, 2003 13:10 UTC (Mon) by echodots (guest, #15103) [Link]

Yeah, we don't believe in proprietary code, I guess what oracle and redhat or HP and suse or what peoplesoft porting all their software to linux, doesn't count. MS is mad we're not wanting to use their crappy software... haters!

Posted Sep 16, 2003 4:00 UTC (Tue) by anuradha (guest, #12061) [Link]

Lies, lies and more lies. The more they are repeated the more they are beleived.

"What I tell you three times is true" -- Lewis Carroll