IV International Conference of Unix at Uninet
  • Presentación
  • Registro
  • Programa
  • Comité Organizador
  • Lista de registrados
  • Equipo de traductores
Talk

jsolaresi think it would be a good idea to say on #linux that this
will be the translation to english of the conference
guugmembeOscar Peredo, from Chile is going to introduce the next
conference
guugmembeas usual we are going to use #qc for questions
guugmembeWelcome to the second talk of today
guugmembeOscar....
#redes
guugmembeIn this ocation we are going to introduce  Dr. Horst Von
Brand from the IT department
guugmembeof la Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria from Chile
guugmembehe is going to talk about "SCO contra linux"
* Didier is now known as SFC
guugmembe Dr. Von Brand has been a good help from our start in umeet
back in 2000 and 2001 when the first
guugmembetalks took place
guugmembehe is a really active person in th GNU/Linux atmosphere in
Chile
#redes
guugmembeand introduce this philosophy and architecture to the new
generations
guugmembehe also has been an active patricipant in the lists of
GNU/Linux, gcc and Kernel development
guugmembeand now with you Dr. Horst Von Brand
guugmembegood morning, afternoon, or night to all of you
* clsk|away (clsk@0-1pool72-218.nas15.fort-lauderdale1.fl.us.da.qwest.ne
guugmembethanks a lot for those words you said about me
timeout)
guugmembejust to make clear, the first 3 Linux meetings where
organized by German Poo, de la U del Bio-Bio, en Concecpcion.
guugmembewe are going to organize the 4th and 5th
guugmembewell, lets go to today's topic
* shadowtlx (shadowtlx@cpc1-norw1-3-0-cust121.pete.cable.ntl.com) has
joined #redes
guugmembeOn march of this year, SCO sue IBM, because, from the point
of view of SCO, linux without the help of IBM was a kids bicycle in
comparison with a UNIX, an F1 car
guugmembethat was, more or less, what they said
(Signed off)
guugmembein detaill, they claim that IBM ilegally took Unix code and
inserted in Linux
guugmembemaking linux a strong and solid alternative operative system
guugmembeas you could imagine, all the linux comunnity raised their
hands in protest against SCO
guugmembeand this are getting hot
guugmembeAfter talking about the legal aspect
guugmembeI am going to point out some important dates
* pask has left IRC
guugmembe1965: MULTICS work starts between MIT, General Electric,
and AT&T
guugmembethis system was stopped in  development in recent 2000
guugmembein 1969 AT&T steps out from the MULTICS project
guugmembeand two developers of that project, who didnt find anything
better to do with their free time, took a
guugmembePDP7 and starts writing an Operative System for it, Unics
guugmembe1978, first BSD Unix, at Berkeley California
guugmembewere doing a great deal of the job
guugmembeof the innovation of Unix
jsolares1979 -- AT&T announces it'll begin comercialization of Unix
guugmembe1979 AT&T announces that its going to make Unix commercail
horacio1991 - Unix System Labs starts as a bussiness unit of AT&T to
work on Unix. (Until that time, AT&T was a thelepony monopoly,
horaciothat can't do anything else because an restrictive judicial
order)
horacioTime before, AT&T was divided in a variety of minor
enterprises.
horacio1992-- USL starts a trial against BSDI (BSD Unix vendor) for
Unix licences violations.
* pask is on IRC
#redes
horacioCalifornia U (Berkeley) was involved, obiously. Meanwhile,
UCB suess USL for violations on AT&T licence code that was introduced to Unix.
horacioNote that BSD license on that time asks name the U and others
contributors. Nothing else, comercial use, derivated products, etc. was
alowed.
* pask has left IRC
horacio1993-- Novell buy USL from AT&T
horacioOctober 193-- Trials against BSD get resolved by an
arrangement, most of that still remain confidential.
horacioWhat we know is:
#redes
horacio-BSD deleted 4 files and some hundreds of lines of the system
(around 17 thousand files ...)
horacio-USL add the copyright notes that they deleted from a _large_
list of files
horacio- Judge of the case says taht he doubt a lot that the Unix
code can be considered with copy rights
horacioNote: in USA exist the idea of "public domain"
horacioif is "public domain" doesn't belong anybody, you cant take
it if you want.
timeout)
#redes
horacioAccording to the USA legislation, untill 1976 or some, if
something was published (or distributed under copyright note) it couldn't be
considered confidential.
* pepita is on IRC
* pask is on IRC
horacioThat's why AT&T decides to _not_ add a Copyright note on the
code
horaciobut distributing code without that note they "published" it,
and probably put it on the public domain
horacioAt least that was the judge's opinion.
horacio[No, I don't understand more than you, this is a mess!! ]
jsolaresthe judge opinion was without a detail study, and would not
be considered a ruling.
jsolaresconsidering the judge's opinion, USL had to withdraw with
it's tail between its legs (see the practial result of the story).
timeout)
jsolaresthe result is that the *BSD's were free from needing a Unix
licence (originaly dummy for you, later it became very expensive...)
jsolaresnote that linux began in 1991, and had it not been for these
battles on the Unics wars, the penguin might've never took flight
jsolaresWell, lets get back to the subject.
(Signed off)
jsolaresNovember 1995 -- Novell sells UnixWare (their version of
Unix, and (parts) of their rights on Unix) to Santa Cruz Operation (old SCO)
jsolaresSCO was the company that ported Unix to the PC for
Microsoft, under the Xenix name, and then aquired the rights to this Unix
(very primitive) from MSFT when they decided to go with windows.
jsolaresThe idea SCO had was to complete their products, it was the
leading company in Unix for PCs for uses on cash register and similar devices
(McDonalds uses it).
jsolaresBy those times the oracles that look into their crystal
balls already announced that SCO was going to be the first casualty to
Linux...
jsolaresAugust 2000 -- SCO announces it selling thier Unix division
to Caldera.
timeout)
jsolaresCaldera was one of the companies distributing Linux.
tailored for "corporate use". the distribution was quite capable, it was just
that Caldera came up with a weird licensing per user program, that made it
quite umpopular.
exceeded)
jsolaresCaldera got it's hands on money in the dot com era, that
helped it finance the buying of several stuff, like SCO Unix division
jsolaresThe idea was to use the (highly developed) channels of
distribution of SCO for Caldera Linux.
jsolaresThey also lent a strong hand to help the development of
Linux ( they donated a Dual procecor PC to Alan Cox, whom was beginning to
work on SMP)
jsolaresThe problem was that they werent doing well with Linux, and
most of their income came from their SCO side... so they were in a bind
jsolaresSCO was going nowhere (they had two products, the one
descending from Xenix (usefull for cash registers...) and UnixWare (a full
grown Unix). the first one was obsolete, the second one was becoming
obsolte.) A Huge network for distribution, and a lot of clients with the idea
"if it aint broke, dont fix it", that had no intention of migrating towards
(the very expensive) UnixWare. $$$ went in $$$$ went out.
jsolaresThey never had a profit
jsolaresMarch 2003 -- Caldera starts a trial towards IBM "for have
taken Unix code and ilegally putting it on Linux", and for "Doing so
specifically to harm Unix"
couldnt have made such a serious operating system", etc.
jsolaresObviously this fired up quite a few people.
#redes
jsolaresThey staged a great scandal with the idea that Linux belongs
to them, y as such they'll begin charging a license fee for it (it's at US$
699. Hurry up that soon it'll be double!)
error: EOF from client)
jsolaresThe legal theory behind such story is that the original AT&T
license specified that anything developed under the Unix base "must be
considered the same as the original software product", it's worth to say,
it's confidential.
jsolaresIBM ported several of the things it had developed on AIX
before to Linux (JFS, of course this code has a very interesting story as
well).
jsolaresBesides, IBM bought Sequent, from where it ported the NUMA
technology (Non Uniform Memory Access, basically built a machines with quite
a few CPU's each with ti's own local bank of memory (fast access) so that it
can access the memory of the other CPU's (slow access))
timeout)
jsolaresAlso, Sequent brought a patent for a concurrent access
scheme without locks (locks are _very expensive_ en machines with a lot of
CPU;s, since it requires that they all syncronize) called RCU
jsolaresWell this was developed for Unix/on Unix, and as such
"confidential, under SCO's control"
* guba is now known as GuBA
jsolaresThe problem is that IBM (and many others) had negotiated
aggregates to the license that would release them from this conditions
(Sequent didnt do it, so there is doubt if IBM's conditions are valid for it
or not), besides during the setback to BSD, AT&T indicated that the license
was _not_ to control third party work)
jsolaresThere was also a proyect with IBM and SCO to port Unix to
IA64 (Itanic^Hum). when IBM realized IA64 wasnt going anywhere, they ditched
the project.
jsolaresThe idea was to take the best of IBM and SCO, and integrate
it in a common product. According to anonymous sources, the better part of
the "best" was put by IBM
jsolaresWell, when this fiasco began, Caldera stock was at around
US$ 0.70 (70 cents).
jsolaresCrying before all the media that "Linux is ours!" their
sell serveral important licenses, to MSFT, Sun Microsystem and other lesser
ones
jsolaresThe stock went through the roof (at the moment they are at
around US$ 16.something, they got to US$ 23).
jsolaresWeird case.. they start trail vs. IBM, acuse the open source
comunity of piracy, they demand pay for licenses to use linux (which is not
compatible with the terms of the GPL!), they claim the GPL is ilegall and
antiamerican, ...
jsolaresSo far they havent showed even the slightest ammount of
credible evidence of the stolen code. Meanwhile they claim that "around a
million lines of code in linux is stolen/missapropiated"
jsolaresWhat they showed was a function, malloc, introduced by SGI
for a machine based on (surprise) IA64, that was never went on sale. the code
in case was eliminated a while ago, beacuse it was ugly. the rest of it is an
implementation of an algorithm published by D.E. Knuth in his "Art of
Computer Programming" circa '69, and that appears almost the same on
Kernighan & Ritche 's "The C Programming Language".. probably of public
domain, not from SCO in any case
jsolaresThey showed more code "copied and modified to hide it's
origin", that was developed independently for Linux based on the
especification of BPF (BSD's firewall system) by Lawrence Berkeley National
Lab, and the original code being under the BSD license... and as such Linux
could have taken it without a second doubt (SCO also had the right to do so,
of course). That they had shown it as their code shows that they dont have a
clear idea what is theirs.
error: Connection reset by peer)
jsolaresThe current trial situation is that IBM started one against
Caldera for breaking 4 patents and violating the GPL in the code delivered by
IBM to Linux.
jsolaresAt the same time, Red Hat (mad beacuse they were being
accused of piracy) asked the court to stop SCO from continuing with their
attacks, since it was damaging their business.
(Signed off)
jsolaresOther minor moves was a request in Germany that SCO showed
the evidency of the pirated code, or to stop from their public acusations.
SCO didnt provide evidence, it also eliminated the references on their
webpages as requested. But they were careless and a few were left... they had
to pay a fine.
jsolaresaround may of the same year, Caldera changed it's named to
"SCO Group"
jsolaresthe latest novelties on the case (december 5) is that before
a hearing with the jugde, he asked SCO that they should deliver in detail
their rights over Linux, indicating exactly where they are and what they're
basing their claims on.
jsolaresThe request by SCO that IBM give them info was denied, as
long as SCO didnt deliver as requested.
jsolaresSCO is a small company (when it all began it's market value
was at around 70 million USD). IBM is a huge company (at around 155 billion
(thousands of millions) USD)
#redes
jsolaresSCO wants to obtain around 3 billion dollars for "damages
and losses"... in something that Novell bought at a calculated 220 million
dolars, and Caldera got for around 60, which shows how much the code has lost
its value due to no maintenance)
error: Connection reset by peer)
jsolaresIBM business is "Intelectual Property", it's the company
with the biggest patent portfolio in the world. Their business depends
critically on the rigorous respect of many others (its clients).
#redes
jsolaresIBM is immensely carefull with the handling of source code
et al. Comments from inside indicate that any code liberated into OSS goes
through various stages of legal revisions.
jsolaresIBM is huge, they have separate groups working on more or
less the same thing for various clients, Where this happens, it's strictly
forbidden to have any kind of contact with the other groups.
jsolaresIBM has on hand the best lawyers concerning IP
jsolaresIn view of this, and considering that the standard
recomendation from a lawyer to someone in a trial is to keep their mouth
shut, while SCO makes a fool of itself publicly, we can speculate on the
motive and results.
jsolaresIt seems that Caldera/SCO wanted to make a huge scandal,
with the purpose of "someone" (IBM?) bought them up to shut them up.
(Signed off)
host)
jsolaresThe unexpected rise of their share (SCO) favors it's
executives. But the public scandal only harms their judicial case...
jsolaresFor IBM it's important to smash all accusations of
dishonesty. everything depends on it. After, they dont intend to buy SCO, but
to leave a crater where it used to be (Curiusly, "Caldera" is the geological
name for a kind of volcano crater ;-))
jsolaresMSFT is obviously happy with anything that harms it's
arch-rival Linux.
#redes
jsolaresin what will it all end?
jsolaresThere's no evidence that indicates that SCO is right. IBM is
a meat grinding machine, and it's been set into motion. All tells me that SCO
will be erased from the map.
jsolaresBut is this good for Linux, GPL and OSS in general?
error: Connection reset by peer)
jsolaresOf course this result will be the best. but lest we forget
that IBM is a money making oriented business, they arent doing this beacuse
of anice heart, but out of convenience. Mainly we have common goals.
jsolaresAnd if SCO wins?
jsolaresI highly doubt that the code in the case is "more than a
million lines" like they claim. if there is any ilegall code in Linux, it'll
be removed fairly quickly. and if that's not posible, there's the *BSD or the
(mythological) HURD. SCO wont get a penny out of this.
jsolaresFor the rest, if IBM pays for thir bad actions (if there's
any), they have no right to charge the users as well.
jsolaresSCO claims that they apropiated and relased "technical
secrets", and if that's true, they are no longer secrets and have no legal
protection.
jsolaresThey are now talking about reopening the BSD cases, and
although they've said many things. As long as we dont see any document in
court, there is no need to believe it.
jsolaresWell, to close up, a few URL's for whomever is _still_ not
up to date on the subject.
jsolaresDetails of the legal aspects: <http://www.groklaw.net>
jsolaresA Summary, which is more or less up to date (and organized)
<http://sco.iwethey.org>
(Signed off)
jsolaresRelevant News, week after week, as usual in
<http://www.lwn.net> (Yes, you have to pay subscription, but it's highly woth
it).
jsolaresThanks for your attention.
jsolares[How do i ring the bell of your terminals to awake you?]
guugmembeclap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap para
jsolares
horacioi'm awake !!
horaciobravo !!
horacioclap clap clap clap !!!
Geryonthx for the translation :)
guugmembeexcelente chema, muy buena traduccion
guugmembemost of the translation was done in Guatemala
jsolareswell and a lot of claps for Mr. von Brand :)
guugmembedefenetlly
> clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap
> clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap
> clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap
> clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap
> clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap
> clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap
> clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap
> clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap
SFCGood work shinta :)
jsolaresthanks dutchie
End of #redes buffer Tue Dec 16 01:03:56 2003

Generated by irclog2html.pl by Jeff Waugh - find it at freshmeat.net!

Email UsMás información


© 2003 - www.uninet.edu - Contact Organizing Comittee - Valid XHTML - Valid CSS - Design by Raul Pérez Justicia