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Re: What if it were you instead of Linus?

by monsieur_champs (Curate)
on Mar 11, 2004 at 12:55 UTC ( [id://335790]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to What if it were you instead of Linus?

Maybe I'm wrong, and someone will gentle point me where. But this is what I think about the IBM's caution:
If its Open Source, or Free Software (in the GPL sense), why bother asking all that questions? I can't understand why the SCO's nonsense should negatively influence the (?:Open Source|Free Software) development efforts arround the world. They shouldn't just "Keep It Simple", and use the software as I do (on a commercial solution, BTW)?

On the other hand, about any IP disclaimer from whoever you works for, if it exists, should be respected. If it doesn't, what your employer or any other person can do against your IP rights?


"In few words, translating PerlMonks documentation and best articles to other languages is like building a bridge to join other Perl communities into PerlMonks family. This makes the family bigger, the knowledge greater, the parties better and the life easier." -- monsieur_champs

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Re: Re: What if it were you instead of Linus?
by hardburn (Abbot) on Mar 11, 2004 at 15:48 UTC

    It could very well be that IBM would have asked with or without SCO making a fool of itself. Remember: IBM is huge and have been in business longer than pretty much any other "high tech" company. They have a very well-defined way of doing business. Checking on the copyright status of Free Software projects before they write significant code based on it seems a reasonable thing for them to do, even if SCO wasn't making noise.

    ----
    : () { :|:& };:

    Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated

Re: Re: What if it were you instead of Linus?
by tilly (Archbishop) on Mar 11, 2004 at 23:22 UTC
    It is very easy for someone to think that they own IP rights that they do not, in fact, possess. As a result the copyright statement that you see often is written by someone with no legal authority to grant the permissions that that statement grants.

    If you are a company with deep pockets, like IBM, you are a more natural target for copyright infringement lawsuits than the person who made the mistake.

    IBM knows this, and learned a long time ago to be careful about copyright issues. SCO is a non-issue for this. They were careful before SCO hit the radar, and will be careful after SCO becomes the crater that it so richly deserves to be.

    Furthermore IBM far from alone. Go check out what is required to sign copyright over to the FSF. That isn't paranoia. That is just the necessary due diligence to be sure that you actually own the copyright that you think you own.

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