[ILUG] ``IBM [ Linux ] group hug'' (patents) and ``... smoking [ AIX ] e-mail'' (SCO)

[Justin Mason]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


Brian Foster writes:
> Good Morning Silicon Valley
>  Published: Thursday August 5, 2004
> 
>     IBM exec's LinuxWorld keynote concludes with group hug
>       By John Paczkowski
> 
>  In 2001, IBM spent untold millions plastering city
>  sidewalks with its "Peace. Love. Linux" graffiti.  So it
>  came as little surprise to learn that the company has no
>  plans to use its formidable patent portfolio to mount a
>  legal offensive against the open-source operating system.
>  In his keynote address on Wednesday at LinuxWorld, IBM
>  Senior Vice President of Technology and Marketing Nick
>  Donofrio assured the Linux community that the company has
>  no intention of bringing its patents to bear against the
>  Linux kernel.  "As an ally that believes in the positive
>  power that the Linux community is having on collaborative
>  innovation, I can assure you we have no intention of
>  asserting our patents against the Linux kernel -- unless,
>  of course, we are forced to defend ourselves," Donofrio
>  said, 

Great. 

    - (a) exemption for the kernel only
    - (b) "unless we have to defend ourselves"
    - (c) verbal, not worth the paper it's written on

I'm sure the attendees are feeling the love ;)

- --j.

> noting that legal action against a movement that
>  has done so much to encourage and support innovation
>  would be foolhardy.  "When more people have access to the
>  building blocks of innovation, it can inject a richer
>  perspective to the creative process.  When you combine all
>  the diversity of the world in the open environments, it's
>  a rather humbling thought.  ...  The open movement forces
>  people to rethink their intellectual property models, to
>  rethink where they can offer the most value to their
>  customers and what really creates competitive advantages.
>  Over the next decade, you will see the open movement
>  spread.  The creation and value of intellectual property
>  will be dramatically transformed." Donofrio's remarks
>  follow the release of a study that identified 283 patents
>  that threaten the Linux OS, among them more than 60 held
>  by IBM and 27 held by Microsoft.  Hopefully word of IBM's
>  stance will make it over to Munich, where city officials
>  have delayed what would have been the largest-ever
>  Windows-to-Linux migration because of concerns over
>  software patents.
> [ ... ]
> 
>     Encyclopedia McBride and the case of the smoking e-mail
> 
>  When SCO CEO Darl McBride pledged to continue the
>  company's ill-starred legal battle against IBM, he seemed
>  quite sure of himself -- a little too sure, perhaps (see
>  "SCO chief winning his battle with reality" [ yesterday ]).
>  Now we know why.  SCO claims to have found "smoking gun" e-mail
>  messages in which IBM employees acknowledge that IBM used SCO
>  code in its Unix-based AIX operating system without a proper
>  license.  Given SCO's penchant for stock-pumping PR ploys
>  [ ... ],  its tough to take the company at its word on this
>  point.  But if these e-mails do exist, and SCO isn't
>  misrepresenting them, it may be onto something.
> [ ... ]
>  Good Morning Silicon Valley is written and edited with
>  the able assistance of John Murrell.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Exmh CVS

iD8DBQFBErG/QTcbUG5Y7woRAk2NAJ9KY8ACYHge3qWXN2mGooAAn2PIKwCgmgcq
4VIbix27lvsjkFbTIQQBLyk=
=rezI
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----