Open source trashes SCO’s ‘peace’ moves

BANGALORE: SCO’s CEO Darl Mc Bride, wrote an open letter to the open source community that "points out the obvious intellectual property problems that exist in the current Linux software development model" and invites the open source community for negotiation. In his letter, Mc Bride calls for the community to "follow the rules and procedures that govern mainstream society". He says, "This is what global corporations will require. And it is these customers who will determine the ultimate fate of Open Source -- not SCO, not IBM, and not Open Source leaders."

He invites the Open source to work together with SCO on IP issues and build a new Open Source model for Linux. "It is easier for some in the Open Source community to fire off a "rant" than to sit across a negotiation table. But if the Open Source community is to become a software developer for global corporations, respect for intellectual property is not optional -- it is mandatory. Working together, there are ways we can make sure this happens", he concludes.

Open source spokesmen, Bruce Perens and Eric Raymond rebuff Mc Bride’s overtures for a negotiation. In a rejoinder to Mc Bride’s letter, they say, "As software developers, intellectual property is our stock in trade. Whether we elect to trade our effort for money or rewards of a subtler and more enduring nature, we are instinctively respectful of concerns about IP, credit, and provenance. Our licenses (the GPL and others) work with copyright law, not against it. We reject your attempt to portray our community as a howling wilderness of IP thieves as a baseless and destructive smear."

Dismissing SCO’s call to work together, they say, "We of the open-source community do not concede that there is anything to negotiate".