[Am-info] Intel, IBM Backing New Fund to Defend Linux Users

[Gene Gaines]

See SCO story below.

It is my suspicion that SCO is funded and motivated by
Microsoft.  It is consistent with the rather stupid and
decidedly arrogant and irresponsible efforts by the Gates
crew in the past to kill people and companies it sees
as possible competition.

In coming years, as the truth about Microsoft's efforts
in this regard come to light, I expect that the beatings
and deaths by the monopolist robber barons in America's
past will be surpassed by what Microsoft has done.



Gene Gaines

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=4114385&section=news

Intel, IBM Backing New Fund to Defend Linux Users
Mon 12 January, 2004 23:41

By Reed Stevenson

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Two of the largest backers of Linux, the
fast-growing operating system popular with businesses, are
contributing to a new fund that will defend Linux users against
copyright infringement lawsuits threatened by SCO Group Inc. .

An industry group formed to promote Linux -- an operating system
that provides an alternative to Unix and to Microsoft's dominant
Windows software -- said on Monday it has formed a "Linux legal
defense fund" and that the No. 1 computer company and No.1
semiconductor company have agreed to help fund it.

International Business Machines Corp., which has adopted Linux as
a competitive tool to sell more hardware and services, and Intel
Corp., which makes the chips that Linux runs on, are contributing
to the fund, although they haven't specified how much.

SCO shares fell more than 9 percent on the announcement.

Open Source Development Labs, or OSDL, a nonprofit industry
consortium based in Beaverton, Oregon, that is working to promote
further adoption of Linux, said in a statement on Monday that it
created the fund, which so far has attracted pledges of $3
million. OSDL said it is aiming for $10 million.

Linux, a variant of the widely used Unix operating system which
can be copied and modified freely, emerged a decade ago and is
being used to run the Internet, handle financial transactions and
even manage the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

"The threats from SCO were becoming louder and more frequent that
they are going to sue an end user," Stuart Cohen, chief executive
of OSDL, told Reuters. "We don't want the Linux community to have
this cloud over their head ... or to see the momentum or
deployment of Linux slowed down."

Concerns over the legality of Linux were raised last year after
SCO, which came to own the rights to Unix, sued IBM for billions
of dollars. SCO also warned companies that they must pay to use
Linux or face litigation.

IBM, which won't be tapping into the defense fund for its own
legal battles, was accused by SCO of embedding parts of SCO's Unix
software code in versions of the freely available Linux operating
system.

IBM, which has an OSDL board seat, refuted the claims and
counter-sued SCO, saying that SCO had infringed on its patents and
breached the general public license for Linux.

"By refusing to give the basis of their claims, what they're doing
is preventing the Linux community from resolving any potential
intellectual property issues," Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said.

Intel, also an OSDL member with a board seat, has also been one of
the biggest beneficiaries of the Linux, since the software is
designed to run primarily on its chips. Intel became the world's
largest semiconductor company by selling chips for personal
computers running Microsoft Corp.'s software, and the Linux
operating system is proving to be a formidable competitor to
Microsoft.

LAWSUIT IMMINENT?

"If they (OSDL) feel strong in their legal defense then they
should set up to indemnify end-users," SCO chief executive Darl
McBride told Reuters.

McBride said SCO would make good on its threat to sue a "large
Linux end user" within a month, adding "I think it's time to face
this thing head on."

Other Linux advocates, including Hewlett-Packard Co. and Red Hat
Inc., have also taken similar measures to protect themselves and
their customers against lawsuits.

(With additional reporting by Daniel Sorid in San Francisco)