My email to Dan Ackman

Message ID: 79612
Posted By: walterbyrd
Posted On: 2004-01-12 11:51:00
Subject: My email to Dan Ackman

dackman@forbes.net

"the SCO Group, which owns the Unix operating system "

Dan that is an absolute outright lie. I openly defy to prove this outrageous claim of yours.

FACT: SCO does not own any UNIX patents.
FACT: Novell has filed copyrights to UNIX.
FACT: SCO does not own UNIX trademark, that is owned by the opengroup.

Stop embarrassing yourself, you filthy little liar.

Message ID: 79621
Posted By: lordshipmayhem
Posted On: 2004-01-12 11:56:00
Subject: Re: My email to Dan Ackman

I think I would have approached a message to Dackman with a great deal more politeness, emphasising the errors in the column and cutting out the personal attacks.

By sticking to the facts, we show that we are rational and logical, as opposed to just rabid drooling anticapitalist penguinistas.

Message ID: 79623
Posted By: preadapted
Posted On: 2004-01-12 11:59:00
Subject: Re: My email to Dan Ackman

Good on ya'!!! ...and quite right Walter.

At least though, he's referencing contradictory quotes from Linus, Cohen, and others on our side of the issue for a change. Any progress against FUD mongering is welcome and can only help to provide more downward pressure on SCOundrel's little stock scam.

The day dawns slowly in some ivory towers it seems, but sooner or later dawn it must.

Message ID: 79625
Posted By: walterbyrd
Posted On: 2004-01-12 11:59:00
Subject: Re: My email to Dan Ackman

You may be right, but my email was really no more than accurate.

Dan said: "SCO owns the UNIX operating system." Not: "scox claims to own" or "scox owns certain copyrights" oh no, nothing like that. Dan flat out claimed as a statement of fact that "SCO owns the UNIX operating system."

I sorry if it's offensive, but the truth is: that statement is an absolute outright lie. As such, Dan can only be accurately discribed as filthy little liar.

Message ID: 79632
Posted By: b29651
Posted On: 2004-01-12 12:04:00
Subject: Re: My email to Dan Ackman -defense

of walter
forbes lost my respect.i owe them no respect.but for me that means ignoring them
they just arent even in the game anymore.ignoring them is the best thing to do for them
doesnt matter what kind of story if we ignore them they dont get the ad revenue
money loss always is more effective fight
-:)
br3n

Message ID: 79663
Posted By: preadapted
Posted On: 2004-01-12 12:48:00
Subject: A different email to Dan Ackman

After reading Walters post and all the replies I felt compelled to send the following to MR. Ackman.

"Thank you, Mr. Ackman for a relatively balanced article on the topic of SCO's claims of IP infringement associated with their lawsuit against IBM and ancillary threats of legal action against users of GNU Linux.

I'm sure you have received a number of positive comments about this most recent article and very likely some abuse as well from a few of the more ardent supporters of free and open source software. I assure you sir that the vast majority of us are long time professionals and technicians in the business and far more interested in fair and equitable resolutions of such matters than in disparaging the character and reputations of our opponents and those who honestly attempt to journal our battles.

While I am appreciative of your inclusion of contradictory comments against SCO's claims from the likes of Linus Torvalds and Mr. Cohen of OSDL, it would greatly enhance your credibility within the industry as a whole if you would in the future treat claims as just that rather than fact.

SCO's claims to ownership of UNIX and a number of their other representations are vehemently disputed by a considerable number of reputable companies and individuals across the wide spectrum of the information technology universe.

None of SCO's claims have been validated as of this moment by profference of any verifiable evidence by that party nor has any duly established court of law in this or any other country ajudicated any of these disputed legal claims in their favor.

As that is truly the case, please take a little more care in what you seemingly report as fact by adjusting the language that you use to reflect actual momentary conditions.

Respectfully yours,

Gary Gibson
Virginia Beach, VA

preadapted@yahoo.com"

Message ID: 79668
Posted By: walterbyrd
Posted On: 2004-01-12 12:56:00
Subject: Re: A different email to Dan Ackman

Certainly a much more well reasoned and polite response. But is there a point? As Dan clearly indicted in his article, he is already aware that scox's case is disputed by Linux users.

Because scox sued ibm, and mailed those letters, Dan is thoroghly convinced that scox is the only true owner of UNIX.

Or, at least, that is what Dan is claiming.

Message ID: 79674
Posted By: preadapted
Posted On: 2004-01-12 13:07:00
Subject: Re: A different email to Dan Ackman

I admire your moxie, Walter and certainly take no exception to you or anyone else expressing their honest opinion no matter how positive or negative it may appear to others.

My point is not to be made on or to anyone on this board as I think there were enough comments directed to the topic immediately after your post.

Rather, as one who understands the Machiavellian nature of the political struggle that is going on in the press over this issue,
I felt that a bit of encouragement toward accuracy directed to Mr.Ackman might have some benificial affect for our cause, even if it is only a miniscule one.

I'm just trying to participate in a positive manner and do my small part.

Thanks for the polite reply my friend and keep the faith.

Gary

Message ID: 79678
Posted By: crunchie812
Posted On: 2004-01-12 13:23:00
Subject: Re: A different email to Dan Ackman

<<
Because scox sued ibm, and mailed those letters, Dan is thoroghly convinced that scox is the only true owner of UNIX.

Or, at least, that is what Dan is claiming. >>

I believe you were misreading his intent. I fully understand the frustration and rage you feel over the media coverage SCO has recieved, I share it.

When I saw the article, and posted the url with the UNBELIEVABLE bit, it was because I saw it as an outright bitchslap to Dan Lyons on his home turf.

Odd how two of us, similarly informed and of similar opinion on the issue, could have such opposite reaction.

Message ID: 79686
Posted By: crunchie812
Posted On: 2004-01-12 13:32:00
Subject: And my email....

Thank You: An ACLU For Linux

From:
Greg T Hill< greghill@terranova.net> (Courts of Chaos)

To:
dackman@forbes.net

Date:
Today 01:09:30 pm

I would like to congratulate you on a fair and balanced article on the SCO vs
IBM/Linux issue. Your article is a distinct cut above the work which has
been previously published in Forbes on this subject.

There is a great deal of rage and frustration in the Open Source community
over the coverage which SCO has recieved in many major media outlets, which
amount to little more than a repackaging of SCO press releases. Doubtless you
will recieve virulent emails from some hotheads for any omissions and
percieved errors of fact.

Your article is almost unique in that it mentions that IBM is countersuing for
copyright and patent violations.

Other points of interest in the coverage in general is that SCO's claim to be
the owner of the Unix Operating System is generally undisputed, despite the
fact that there is actually no such thing. Unix is a registered trademark of
the Open Group, who also maintains the Single Unix Specification, an open
standard to which Unix operating systems can be created without reference to
AT&T ancestral code. See
http://www.opengroup.org/comm/press/unix-backgrounder.htm

Note also that the very basis for SCO claims for suing Linux users is in
dispute. SCO has paid millions in royalties to Novell for the Unix
copyrights. SCO requested, but was refused, transfer of Novell's Unix
copyrights. SCO nonetheless registered the copyrights. Novell has ALSO
registered those same copyrights.
http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2003/12/sco.pdf

To date, all of the alleged infringements that SCO has produced have been
debunked as rapidly they have been revealed. The code that they revealed at
SCOForum was proved to be a) public domain and b) a clean room implementation
of the Berkeley Packet Filter and not AT&T code at all. The header files
which are the basis of their most recent letters are clearly outlined in the
Single Unix Specification and usable by all without restriction.

SCO is barred from making claims in Germany without offering proof of their
allegations. Red Hat is suing to the same end here in the U.S., but the case
is backlogged in Delaware Court.

I hope that you might consider looking into some of the issues I have raised
here, all of which are common knowledge but recieve scant attention in the
mainstream media.

Thank you once again for an excellent article.
--
Greg T Hill
-------------
Today is Boomtime, the 12nd day of Chaos in the Year of Our Lady of Discord
3170

Message ID: 79706
Posted By: preadapted
Posted On: 2004-01-12 13:44:00
Subject: Re: A different email to Dan Ackman

I think you've hit the nail on the head here, crunchie both where Ackman is concerned and regarding Walter as well.

This is an emotionally charged situation for hundreds of thousands if not millions of us.

Forgetting for a second all the effort and sacrifice that programmers, developers, testers, distro makers/vendors, and LUGs have poured into bringing Linux to entire planet, consider for a moment the amount of time users have invested in learning and honing new skills, the pain of weaning themselves and their friends off of M$ and other proprietary OS models, etc.

We're talking millions of users times hundreds or thousands of precious hours each. It is surely incalculable. Political instinct suffers a great though hopefully temporary lapse and a deep one in some cases due to the outrage and disbelief over the actions of the dishonest, noncaring, noncontribuitors that are attempting to hijack all this effort.

I think that Walter has settled down quite a bit now that he has had an opportunity to vent his rage and, well, Mr. Ackerman whether he rates the abuse or not has chosen to play in a big league full of big boys and girls and has to expect a flaming from time to time.

Hopefully he is grown up enough to take it for what it's worth and realize that there are some really hacked off folks out here.

Lets go back to watching the board and leave well enough alone.

Peace.

Gary

The texts of these Yahoo Message Board posts have been licensed for copying and distribution by the Yahoo Message Board users "walterbyrd", "lordshipmayhem", "preadapted", "b29651", "crunchie812" under the following license: License: CCL Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike v2.0.