[ Thanks to Nathan
Hand for this link. ]
Dear Darl McBride,
Over the past 12 months The SCO Group’s lawsuit against IBM has
spilled over into new territory. What was initially a contract
dispute between IBM and The SCO Group has now mutated into a war of
words between The SCO Group and the Linux community. I am tired of
the conflict and I propose a truce; a way forward for both our
organisations.
Here are our terms of the truce:
- We fully recognise your right to defend your IP. We ask that
you recognise our right to defend our IP. This means obeying the
terms of our licenses. You must stop distributing Linux, Samba and
GCC unless you are willing to agree to the terms of our General
Public License (GPL). - You must stop attacking the General Public License (GPL). You
have spearheaded a massive publicity campaign to discredit our
software license. You have used all communication channels
available to you: the press, the media, private letters to American
senators, open letters to businesses, conference forums, financial
reports, etc. There is no justification for your behaviour. Your
actions are harmful to both our organisations and you must stop
immediately. - Please do not accuse us of trying to destroy the economy. We
are not anti-capitalist. We believe Linux and the GPL will drive
the next growth spurt for the world economy. By donating the tools
of software development and office automation to the entire
world–through software that we have written and freely
licensed–we believe there will be explosive growth in the quantity
and quality of software. Our software will be the enabling
technology to spur further growth in the industries where real
economic wealth is created. - Please do not use rhetoric to vilify our community. You have
claimed or implied that we are communists, terrorists, fanatical,
vandals, anti-American and opposed to intellectual property rights.
None of that rhetoric is true. Your defamation against us must stop
immediately. - Work with us to resolve the IP infringements you claim are in
Linux. It is counter-productive to allow any such problems to
continue. The way forward for both our organisations is for The SCO
Group’s IP to be removed from Linux, if there is truly an
infringement. - Limit your disputes with IBM, Novell and Red Hat to the court
room. You will receive fair compensation, if the courts graciously
rule in your favour. Do not try and extract compensation from the
users of Linux. We have done nothing wrong–the blame, if any, lies
squarely with IBM–so we do not deserve to be treated so
unfairly. - Stop telling the public that you can charge a fee for Linux.
You may charge whatever you like for your own intellectual
property, but you may not disobey the terms of the General Public
License that we have chosen for Linux. Our license specifically
requires no-fee licensing for our intellectual property. You are
violating our intellectual property rights by attempting to charge
a fee for the use of Linux. - You have stated many times that intellectual property is more
valuable when it can be protected and grown. We agree with that
statement. But we cannot protect and grow Linux–our intellectual
property–while it is contaminated with The SCO Group’s
intellectual property. You must immediately remove the obstacles
you have created to prevent us from protecting and growing our
intellectual property.
Though I might represent a vanishingly small percentage of the
Linux community, I still believe you are a reasonable man. You have
a valuable asset and you are seeking a return on investment for
your asset. We can appreciate that; we feel the same way about our
own intellectual property, though our ROI is more wide-reaching
than mere dollars and cents.
But it is not reasonable for you to make profit at our expense.
We have done nothing wrong. Punishing us for the alleged
wrongdoings of IBM is entirely unreasonable behaviour. You must
stop your efforts to decrease the intellectual property value in
Linux; software that we have spent the past 13 years creating.
Linux is not your software to control. Linux is our intellectual
property and we ask that you respect that.
Sincerely,
Nathan Hand
Linux Developer and Enthusiast
(This work is distributed under the Creative Commons
License.)