Is there anything we can do as a group about SCO ?

[Vaughn Treude]

You make a good point, though I don't feel that all closed-source software is 
evil, having created a fair bit of it myself.  :-)  What I'm opposed to is 
the kind of anti-competitive, underhanded tactics SCO is resorting to, 
apparently with Microsoft's collusion.  I used to say that Microsoft is not 
evil, it just needs honest competition.  Part of the reason I got into Linux 
was to further that competition, plus the fact that Linux is superior in many 
ways to MS products.  But I may be changing my mind on MS.  Though some of 
their old tactics (that spawned the Netscape-sponsored antitrust suit) were 
in my view unethical, I didn't view them as intolerable, because it was legal 
to resist them.  Now I see a number of legal challenges to the open software 
movement such as the DMCA, that digital rights management crapola, and now 
this SCO lawsuit, that threaten to make resistance to the Microsoft Borg a 
federal offense.  Another seldom-recognized threat is the movement to 
"license" software engineers.  Occupational licensing is always the first 
step to bringing a profession under government control (note that most 
dictatorships license journalists.)  I can imagine programs containing code 
written by students, amateurs, and refuseniks such as myself becoming illegal 
to distribute under the guise of "consumer protection."   And I do recall 
seeing an article on the Microsoft web site bemoaning the lack of standards 
for software professionals . . .

Anyway, for the first time I'm considering attempting to boycott MS  products,
though it may not be feasible yet in this slow economy, with good software 
projects being difficult to find.  Another thing I haven't yet done is try to 
convince the non-geek types I know to switch to Linux, because of the 
difficulty of setup and the relative shortage of good applications.  But now 
there are some very user-friendly distros out there and Windows emulation is 
getting better.  If I do enough research I can probably find solutions that 
would suit a lot of the people I know.

Vaughn


 encourage others to do the same.  It may not be possible considering my line 
of work

On Tuesday 20 May 2003 11:12, you wrote:
> Sadly your loudest vote is with your wallet.  Refuse to use non-free
> software.  Refuse to do businesses that require you to use non-free
> software.  Explain to people every chance you get why proprietary
> software is hurtful to society. (Note discussing copyright in general is
> useful)
>
> The problem is this notion of "intellectual property" and "control".  It
> is killing the commons and hurting society (development) on the whole.
> While it happens in music, movies etc... Those are 'entertainment' so
> one could argue does it really hurt humanity to stifle them.  However,
> science (technology) really does advance humanity so acting in ways that
> stifle innovation (rather than encourage it) really are damaging.
>
> Anyhow....
>
> On Tue, 2003-05-20 at 04:36, Entelin wrote:
> > This intellectual property issue SCO is stirring up is out of line. I
> > don't know what long term goals they think they are going to gain or how
> > much money Microsoft has bribed them with. However they are slandering
> > Linux and threating thousands of business's who are expanding this
> > movement. As someone who tries to keep up to date about issues that
> > surround our freedoms on the Internet, and ability to create truly free
> > software I have become accustomed to the occasional and continuing
> > assaults that we face from various groups such as Microsoft, DMCA, Music
> > / video Companies and the like. However a company such as SCO who has
> > put some effort into linux suddenly turning their back 180 degrees only
> > to threaten everyone from IBM to the distributors and home users really
> > makes me mad.
> >
> > Although I believe this will turn out to be a very self destructive move
> > on their part I really want to do something to aid in that end.

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