Linus Torvalds on SCO's latest claims

Posted Dec 23, 2003 3:42 UTC (Tue) by link (guest, #916) [Link]

This is yet another example where SCO is claiming ownership to code which is evidently NOT owned by them! They are threatening individuals and companies for using code which they own just as much as they own the texts of William Shakespeare [&hellip]

Funny you should use The Bard as an example, given there is some controversy over whether he actually wrote the plays he's credited with; the honor usually attributed to one of Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, William Stanley, or Edward de Vere. :-)

Of course, it may be partially appropriate given nobody seriously suggests William Shaespeare of Stratford plagiarized any of the above; rather one of the candidates used the name as a pseudonym (a nom de guerre, possibly, in this case) for publishing their own works. The Oxfordians in particular like to suggest Lord Oxford (Edward de Vere) published under the pseudonym because he as a courtier was forbidden to publish poetry.

[Source: Google & The Shakespeare Oxford Society's “A Beginner's Guide to the Shakespeare Authorship Problem”]

Posted Dec 23, 2003 8:18 UTC (Tue) by steven97 (guest, #2702) [Link]

Isn't it time to turn this case upside down?

These are the United States you are talking about. You are free to sue them, or anyone else, with ridiculous claims -- but can you afford that?

Posted Dec 23, 2003 20:34 UTC (Tue) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link]

An actual lawsuit is probably not worth the time and expense, but it
might be interesting for someone to set up a site which lists all of the
copyrighted works and their owners which SCO has claimed to own, with the
intent of having a class action lawsuit at some point if it becomes
economically reasonable. It would might make the press take notice if
there were periodic press releases accusing SCO of more and more
copyright infringement as they claim more things. This week, they seem to
have violated copyrights by J H Lu (the libc that Linus took his strings
and numbers from), Linus (who actually machine generated the file), and
various standards groups (who actually named these things). (Note that
it's perfectly legal to use, modify, and distribute these things, but you
can't claim to own the copyrights on them if you don't.)

I dream of SCO showing up in court without any evidence, and when asked
why they don't have any, being forced to admit that all their computers
and hard drives have been seized by federal marshalls as evidence against
them for software piracy. Having a centralized location which lists their
crimes seems like a good start.