I just read Eric Raymond's response to the SCO lawsuit. It seems every time he writes these days, he needs to get a dig in about the "free-software" community:
It's also smart to accuse the "free-software" community. SCO knows as well as Microsoft did in 2000 that the term "free software" is likely to sound suspicious to anyone who is not already immersed in the open-source community...
(Read the article, and note the veiled reference to communism.. subliminal propaganda at it's finest, remember you're reading the works of a self-claimed "social hacker")
What a marked difference from Free Software Leaders Stand Together (which ESR put his name to) - how out of touch. Yes, the problem with "open source"/Free Software is probably never going to go away, the phrases represent different communities. But that is no impediment to us acting together when it makes sense to do so - as Stand Together shows us.
SCO have filed against IBM - for what yet, we don't know. Eric hints at the ELF binary format, we know SCO also believe that Linux is a derivative of Unix, and that therefore they think Linux infringes on their copyright/whatever. SCO find themselves in the position that their revenue streams are dying and they need to find new ones - what easier pickings, than becoming an "intellectual property" firm?! You don't even need engineers or sales people for that; you just sit on a pile of patents and the money appears to come rolling in. This is what we should be highlighting - the fact that this suit is going to be baseless in any kind of fact, and that the community doesn't require business to stand on it's own. Not firing cheap shots at each other.
Journalists, maybe if you're reading this and interested in the whole SCO thing, go speak to Bruce Perens, he's available for comment...
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