[R] SCO & R

[Roger D. Peng]

I've never understood why people think that proprietary software 
is somehow immune from copyright violation.  Or that corporations 
are somehow less likely to steal code.

If I were working for SAS, i'd steal all the R code I could. 
Besides, who's going to catch me?

-roger

Greg Tarpinian wrote:

> 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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