Enforcement of the existing copyright laws in protecting software is pretty much a bad joke. It will be interesting to see if SCO can prevail against IBM.
This issue, IMO is bigger than infringement cases. The pharmeceutical industry has been able, through lobbying and legislation to delay the release of generics for 7 years after patent approval. I'm not sure why generics don't violate patent, but they are close enough to the original to cause problems for the companies that have invented them.
Is that fair?? It's debateable. Hence Hatch-Waxman. The argument could easily be made that human suffering is at stake with expensive patent medicines. In fact, there is great public pressure to get generics on the market sooner rather than later. Nevertheless, Capital prevails.
No money, no new R&D, no new wonder drugs. The public is being forced to pay for drug company R&D. They don't like it, but they pay it nonetheless.
There is a lesson here for the computer business.
I don't think anyone cares if grep, awk, sed, perl, tcsh etc. are passed around for free. An OS is another story, however.
The key here is not an unknown "amount" of code, it's functionality. If Linux winds up with the look and feel of Solaris because it has enough Solaris code in it to do that, IT shops will begin to prefer Linux because of the price.
I will say this: if SCO is able to get an injunction against the distribution and sale of Linux *because* of IP violations, great. I have my doubts that it will happen. I am in favor of whatever it takes to get Linux off the commercial market and back into the lab/university/hobbyist environment where it belongs. |
