[R] SCO & R

[Greg Tarpinian]

Actually, it was very recent.  I pulled the electronic
version of the article from the Forbes website:

"Has SCO's Stance Slowed Linux's Momentum?
Arik Hesseldahl, 04.20.04, 3:00 PM ET

NEW YORK - The open-source Linux operating system may
be mostly free, but there is company that thinks that
if you use Linux, you owe it money. That company is
SCO (nasdaq: SCOX - news - people ), based in Lindon,
Utah. SCO has sued IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ),
asserting that Big Blue took code from Unix, on which
SCO has some copyrights, and inserted that code into
Linux, which is given away for free.

Recently, SCO has taken to suing high-profile
corporate Linux users, among them AutoZone (nyse: AZO
- news - people ) and DaimlerChrysler (nyse: DCX -
news - people ), claiming they're infringing on SCO
copyrights. SCO's aggressive legal stance, which is
controversial among Linux backers, may exert a
chilling effect on the migration toward open-source
software...."

The full article was much longer, of course.  I have
also been seeing ads for Linux versions (like SuSE)
where the distributor is now indemnifying the buyers
against lawsuits.  The unfortunate part is that to be
indemnified, you have to agree not to modify the 
distribution, which eliminates one of the major
benefits of using Linux in the first place.  I think
the key point is that corporations are going to be
more leery of Linux until this plays out.  And even
if SCO loses, the trend toward using R instead of
(say)
SAS may be blunted or halted due to legal concerns.

Thanks for pointing out SCO's racketeering invest-
igation, that was news to me.

Best,

    Greg


	
		
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