[DMCA-Activists] FSF: Straight Talk on the GPL and SCO vs IBM

[Seth Johnson]

> http://www.fsf.org/press/2004-01-14-record-straight.html


Media Contact: Free Software Foundation
Ravi Khanna <address@hidden>
Phone:+1-617-542-5942


Media Contact: Free Software Foundation
John Shannon <address@hidden>
Phone:+1-917-400-4996

Setting the Record Straight: The Free Software Foundation, the General
Public License and SCO versus IBM 

Boston, MA, USA - Wednesday, January 14, 2003 - On Wednesday, January 21,
2004, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) will hold a press conference at
Columbia University to discuss the strengths and successes of the GNU
General Public License (GPL) and to refute the claims made by the The SCO
Group, Ltd. (SCO) and their counsel in their ongoing lawsuit against
International Business Machines Corp (IBM). 

In the last few months, SCO has been sowing confusion and misinformation
regarding the validity of the GNU GPL as part of their strategy to extort
money from users of the kernel named Linux, which is licensed under FSF's
GPL. FSF, the umpire of Free Software disputes, will respond to SCO's
lawsuit and will explain how SCO seeks to inappropriately increase its own
market value at the expense of the legitimate activity of the Free Software
community's developers, distributors and users. 

This press conference is valuable to anyone interested in the state of Free
Software, its licensing issues, the SCO v. IBM lawsuit, and the integrity of
the GNU GPL. FSF maintains that the SCO lawsuit is not only without merit,
but that SCO have themselves benefited from distribution the kernel named
Linux under GPL, even as they question that license's validity. Indeed,
Professor Eben Moglen, FSF Board Member and General Counsel, has pointed out
that SCO has distributed Linux under GPL, even after filing their lawsuit.
SCO has therefore published its supposed trade secrets and copyrighted
material under a license that gives everyone permission to copy, modify, and
redistribute that software. 

Professor Moglen will head the press conference and will discuss both the
strengths and successes of the GPL -- the most popular and widely used Free
Software copyright license. As the lawyer behind most successful enforcement
efforts of GPL, and a nationally recognized authority on alternatives to
contemporary copyright and patent law, Professor Moglen is in an unique
position to discuss the history of the GPL, the FSF's continued success in
obtaining compliance with the GPL, and why SCO's attack on the users of the
kernel named Linux and the GPL is both unprecedented and without merit. 

This press conference offers an excellent opportunity to understand the
history and intent of the GPL, its importance in the IT community and the
weakness of SCO's current lawsuit against IBM. Professor Moglen will be
available to answer questions both during and after the press conference. 



About Free Software Foundation: 

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer
programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of Free (as in freedom)
Software - particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants
- and Free Documentation for Free Software. The FSF also helps to spread
awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of
software. Their web site, located at http://www.fsf.org, is an important
source of information about GNU/Linux. They are headquartered in Boston, MA,
USA. 



About Eben Moglen: 

Eben Moglen is Professor of Law and Legal History at the Columbia Law
School, where he has taught since 1987. He clerked for Judge Edward Weinfeld
of the United State District Court for the Southern District of New York and
for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. Before and
during law school he was a designer and implementer of advanced computer
programming languages at IBM's Santa Teresa Laboratory and Thomas J. Watson
Research Center. His principal areas of interest are Anglo American legal
history, constitutional law, computers, free expression, and copyrights,
patents and trademarks. Since 1993, he has served as pro bono General
Counsel for the Foundation and has served on its board since July 2000. 


Copyright © 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite
330, Boston, MA 02111, USA

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any
medium, provided this notice is preserved.



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