Originally posted by: miniMUNCH
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
The BSD developers lived up to their end of the bargain. I wonder if System V developers lived up to the BSD license...
...not a chance in hell.
First of all, I don't know how anyone who knows the facts of the case could honestly believe SCO has a case...I don't think SCO even believes they have a case at this point (but that is speculation on my part).
My Dad has been involved in Unix application development since Unix's inception and knows several folks who pioneered BSD and were deeply involved in the court case...the rumor (and it is just a rumor) I have heard concerning the BSD / AT&T settlement is that the court found that since the majority of software methods and algorithms contained within UNIX were the work of so many people completely unassociated with AT&T (Bell Labs) that UNIX methods and algorithms are public domain (much in the same way math is public domai), except for the stuff developed on AT&T's dollar. Well, AT&T/Bell Labs knew that they didn't keep rigorous records of what algorithms came from Bell Labs staff and what stuff came from outside sources like professors, IBM, etc. (which was well over half the code ideas) So AT&T said "sh!t, we can't show was ours and what was theirs and, truth be told, the lines between Bell lab and outside contributions are really muddled now...we'll have to public domain the whole thing."
Furthermore, the case was compounded by the fact that Unix contained copyrighted BSD original code with proper copyright, which was going to dump the whole case anyhow...So At&T settled to protect the revenue stream of "their" UNIX code base.
Short story: If SCO opens the BSD case back up...they are going to lose any and all rights get liscense money from System V code because the Unix methods and algorithms are going to be public domained...the "public domain" clause will invalidate all of their liscensing contracts.
I want to repeat that the above is simply an explanation that I have heard from people who are in place to know what is/was up with the BSD case. But it is rumor...not fact at this point.
Aside from this...the BSD case is still an iron wall and SCO has come up with dick on the Linux side of things. Did anyone see the list of files they gave to IBM as "possibly infringing"...all they did was do a "grep" of the linux source code for RCU, NUMA, SMP, and JFS...noticably leaving out the files from that search that had Caldera/SCO employee's names all over them...but forgot a few.
Honestly, what SCO is doing now should be illegal...there needs to a check in place (like systems in the UK and Germany, among others) to ensure that a company actually has real evidence supporting their case before allowing them to parade down media main st. and threaten law suit against end users, etc.
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