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Open Source: Article

SCO Writes Another Letter

SCO Writes Another Letter
By Maureen O'Gara
Article Rating:
January 23, 2004 12:00 AM EST
Reads:
 10,912
SCO Group CEO Darl McBride has been writing letters again. This time he's taken his case to Washington and written to all the senators and congressmen warning them about the threat of open source and the GPL, which he calls "a much more serious threat to our capitalist system than US corporations realize."

McBride's letter, which voices SCO's claim that its code is illicitly in Linux, says that open source could destroy the US computer industry (and take with it a mountain of taxes), threatens America's competitive position internationally and endangers our national security by providing our enemies with export-restricted computer capabilities.

McBride is trying to step between Linux and government accounts. "The open source community now includes several major corporations," he writes. "These companies have been lobbying for increased government support of open source software. Some want government RFPs to specify open source software. I urge you to consider the other side because I believe that open source, as it is currently constituted, is a slippery slope. It undermines our basic system of intellectual property rights, and it destroys the economic reasons for innovation."

According to the letter, SCO has met with several government agencies, which the letter claims "understand the implications of SCO's case."

The Open Source and Industry Alliance (OSAIA), an arm of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, got a hold of a copy of the letter and posted it.

Published January 23, 2004 – Reads 10,912
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Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025.

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