Torvalds, Linux users unfazed by SCO suits | ZDNet
Summary
Legal experts expect many Linux customers to grow more nervous as a result of SCOs suits against AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler, but Howard Feiock, systems administrator for Baraboo, Wis.-based dairy cooperative Foremost Farms USA, is not among them. SCO, which owns a disputed amount of Unix intellectual property, inherited the agreements by which inventor AT&T and its successors licensed the operating system to IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Silicon Graphics, numerous universities and others. Eric Raymond, an open-source software advocate and author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, said SCOs actions were without merit, adding that Linux enthusiasts already are "urging everybody to go buy something at AutoZone, even if its as trivial as an air freshener." Jeffrey Osterman of Weil, Gotshal & Manges said SCO no doubt will use the AutoZone case "to induce other commercial end users to take SCOs licenses at what Im sure will be characterized as very reasonable rates." Added David Byer of Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, "Its fair to say that most the world has been sitting on the sidelines watching the big fellas duke it out," not asking many questions about how the suit affects them.
