Re: [debian-knoppix] Software patent?
On Thu, Aug 28, 2003 at 02:08:28AM +0200, Kai Lahmann wrote:
>
> Am Donnerstag, 28. August 2003 01:46 schrieb John Culleton:
> > Does this closure affect the availability of Knoppix?
>
> well, yes (and way more). Every OpenSource-Software will be illegal and even
> MS needs to pay a lot of Money, to legalize their Software (if they get the
> licences).
I believe this is not true. My understanding is that SCO's legal action
against IBM is with regard to "misappropriation of trade secrets", and
its warnings to the rest of the Linux-using world is that further legal
action may be taken with regard to "intellectual property violations".
I see nothing pointing at open source in general. There is no mention
of FreeBSD, or anything else that is not specifically Linux. Much as it
may surprise some folks, Linux is *not* the total extent of the world of
open source.
>Online-Shops will die at all, maybe email too. All this is
> currently patented, but those patents aren't legal in europe.
> ...ok, that was the worst case, but close to truth - so just hope, that it
> won't happen and explain as much people as you can, why this is the worst
> which could happen for the whole IT world.
This is merely inflammatory bovine excrement. Worst case, IBM will be
forced to edit out and rewrite the parts of Linux which SCO claims is in
violation of their copyright or patent, and further source updates will
follow for the rest of the Linux world.
Email will not go down. Online shops will not "die". Perhaps some
additional bandwidth will be wasted by folks too quick to believe the
sky is falling, but the lasting effects even of that will be minimal.
--
Paul Chvostek <paul@it.ca>
Operations / Abuse / Whatever
it.canada, hosting and development http://www.it.ca/
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