Office of the Attorney General of California
Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550
Party Complaining:
Clay Graham
3401 Adams Ave. #A
PMB 164
San Diego California 92116
Complaint Against:
The SCO Group
355 South 520 West
Suite 100
Lindon, Utah 84042
Phone: 801-765-4999
Fax: 801-852-9088
Was a contract signed? Yes, GNU General Public License, attached
Can we send this complaint to the party you are complaining about? Yes
Mr. Bill Lockyer,
I am writing to express my concern over the actions of The SCO Group, Inc. Certain of these actions may have significant negative effect on California individuals and businesses.
In brief, in March of this year SCO filed a complaint against IBM (amended complaint filed June 16) in the US District Court for the District of Utah, alleging contract violations by IBM. In general SCO claims that IBM added intellectual property of SCO to the open source operating system Linux, in violation of the terms of various contracts to which SCO is the successor in interest. Since then IBM filed a counter claim in the same court (August 7), and Red Hat Inc., a Linux vendor has filed for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief in the US District Court for the District of Delaware.
My concern arises from actions taken by SCO since these filings. SCO has shifted their focus from IBM to all users of Linux, claiming that as Linux contains unlicensed intellectual property of SCO, all such users must pay SCO for a license to use Linux. They have further stated that they will vigorously pursue such users, and prosecute them should they not buy this license.
The problem is that the claims that SCO has put forward are generally held to have little, if any merit by expert technical and legal opinion. If this is true, then SCO demanding license fees from users of Linux is questionable at best. Further, if one reads the public statements of SCO executive and SCO press releases on this matter, one sees that SCO has adopted a deliberately and unnecessarily threatening stance.
One responsibility of a party seeking redress in such matters is to mitigate. This SCO has consistently refused to do. The developers of Linux have been unanimous in their request that SCO tell them what parts of Linux are infringing upon SCO IP, so that they may remove it. SCO has stated that they will not reveal this information. In this light, the demand for license fees from Linux users borders on the extortionate.
I believe that it is appropriate for the Office of the Attorney General to make an initial assessment of this situation, with a view to possible further investigation. There are many users of Linux in our state, they use Linux because of the many benefits it confers. All these are under threat by SCO. Private users, charitable institutions, churches and schools may use it by reason of it's cost it is free.
SCO has begun invoicing such users to pay them $200 for every desktop, and $700 or more for every server. This price will last till only October 15, after which the prices will approximately double. If they do not pay, SCO promises to sue them for damages.
Corporations choose Linux for technical reasons, not primarily for cost. SCO's actions include a challenge to the GNU General Public License, the terms under which Linux is distributed and developed. Besides the financial burden SCO's licensing would place on small business, SCO would also destroy the mechanism that was fundamental to Linux realizing the technical superiority which caused it's adoption.
In conclusion, I feel that the actions of SCO are unjustified and unwarranted, and if allowed to continue unchecked, will cause material harm to private and corporate citizens of our state. I have presented here only the briefest summary; as with any such controversy there are many factors and issues bearing on one's ultimate conclusions but any study, even brief will tend to support my position.
Should your office make such assessment as I have asked, I urge you not to stop with media pundits, but consult expert and informed opinion. To this end, I have attached a list of resources that that can serve as jumping off points for further research.
Please feel free to contact me at any time. Also please note that I am writing as a private citizen of California, not as an agent of my employer.
Thank you for your consideration of my letter.
Clay Graham
Concerned California Citizen
General Public License -
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.txt
Rosen Position Paper -
http://www.osdl.org/docs/qa_re_sco_vs_ibm_html.html
Open Source Legal Position -
http://www.opensource.org/halloween/halloween9.html
Perens Analysis of Disputed Code -
http://perens.com/SCO/SCOSlideShow.html
Redhat Legal Position -
http://www.redhat.com/about/presscenter/2003/press_sco.html
Monta Vista Software Legal Position -
http://www.mvista.com/sco-ibm.html