"SCO Group has not yet publicly revealed the basis for any of its claims. OSDL is disseminating the position paper to address issues that may concern its members and industry Linux customers as a result of SCO Group's public threats. OSDL believes Moglen's analysis will help its members, the Linux development community and Linux users better understand potential legal issues.
"In his paper, Professor Moglen identifies some of the legal issues raised by the SCO Group's claims about Linux and users of the popular open source system. He does not offer legal advice, but rather frames some of the key questions that companies and developers should ask their own counsel about Linux. Moglen, a faculty member at Columbia University's Law School, presented his paper on July 24 in New York at the first meeting of OSDL's customer advisory council, comprised of CIOs and CTOs from Fortune 100 corporations.
"'It is the consensus among the end users with whom we've discussed SCO's claims that they are not slowing their Linux implementation plans,' said Stuart Cohen, OSDL CEO. 'As suggested by Moglen, absent clear, open and publicly available evidence that using Linux violates rights that SCO has not already conferred on users by freely distributing Linux over the course of several years, users see no need to purchase a license from SCO at present...'"
