[lug] Organizing against SCO?

[Sean Reifschneider]

Some folks from down under have filed a complaint with the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission against SCO asking that the ACCC
investigate SCO for "unsubstantiated claims and extortive legal threats
for money".

   http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/23/1058853121030.html

You know, I'm all for protecting your intellectual property and all, but
the way SCO is approaching it just seems wrong.  It's all about Fear,
Uncertainty, and Doubt...  To me it seems much more like what a company
that had no legitimate claims would do, as a way of trying to stifle the
competition while a lengthy legal battle goes on.

Now, before SCO has even provided any evidence to support it, they are
claiming that current Linux users need to purchase a Unixware license to
make it legitimate to use Linux:

   http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1200014,00.asp

This particularly makes it seem like they are promoting unbased claims
because from what I've heard they're complaint rests on features added
to the 2.5 kernel, which nearly nobody is currently using in
production.

I think that many of us are just sitting back and assuming that SCOs
claims will either get specific enough that we'll be able to at least
address them, or that they will be proven baseless.  However, while we
wait, SCO is doing harm to Linux with it's claims.

I think that the Austrailians have take a good step forward with this,
and wonder what would be the appropriate way to proceed with something
similar in the US.  Pushing them to either prove their claims, or stop
promoting fear among Linux users, and more importantly POTENTIAL Linux
users.

Is anyone interested in working to find out what the appropriate way for
the Linux community to respond, and then working to get participation
from the Linux community to make it happen?

Sean
-- 
 Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.
Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com, ltd. - Linux Consulting since 1995.  Qmail, Python, SysAdmin
      Back off man. I'm a scientist.   http://HackingSociety.org/