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Open Season on Open Source



On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 10:30:03 -0400 Derek Martin wrote:
>On Tue, Jun 17, 2003 at 09:26:21AM -0400, Hungry Profiteer wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 16, 2003 at 23:07:15 -0400 "Rich Braun" wrote:
> > >"Hungry Profiteer" <b40xcvq1 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > >> Hiawatha Bray has an article on the opening page of the Business
> > >> section in today's Boston Globe, entitled "Open Season on Open
> > >> Source".
> > >>
> > >> In addition, the article has no information ...
> > >
> > >Perhaps you could pause your message right there with that last
> > >phrase.  (It's only slightly an exaggeration, but the point is that
> > >the article has no *new* information that hasn't been rehashed a
> > >hundred times by other media.) [SNIP]
> > >One obvious point that I think should be made ...

> > ... is that's it's rude to quote out of context and to assume that
> > only obvious points need to be made.

>Now before you go getting your knickers in a bind, no one's done
>that.  Rich is simply borrowing your phraseology to make a very
>valid point:

Kate Turabian and I disagree with you, but I'll leave that aside and
concentrate on the larger issue.

>there's nothing in the article that we haven't heard before.

You're right if the "we" is the Linux community, but that's the point
*I* was trying to make: the laymen in charge of buying software for
corporate America are NOT familiar with the issue, have little or no legal
background, and therefore would be scared off by the threat of becoming
involved in ANY controversy, even indirectly.

To the extent that Mr. Bray's article does not refute SCO's FUD, it
reinforces it.

> > > The lawyers simply cannot grab hold of this jello; it'll slip
> > > through their fingers as fast as Torvalds and his 10,000
> > > volunteers can code up a workaround to whatever alleged pirated
> > > code is rooted out and identified by the SCO legal beagles.  If
> > > 998 of the Fortune 1000 are found to be running pirated code,
> > > they'll be running a patched un-pirated version by this time
> > > next Sunday.

> > If 998 of the Fortune 1000 are considering open source, Microsoft
> > has just frozen the market. Again. They don't need to announce a
> > new release, just to spread FUD about the risks of switching to
> > the competition.

>You sound as if you work for Microsoft, and are trying to do just
>that...

If you believe that, then the only things you remembered from what I
wrote were "Linux" and "Lawsuit", and I can rest my case.

> > Please don't inply that Mr. Bray doesn't have an obligation to
> > give the background information his readers need to make an
> > informed decision about

>Ok, I won't imply it.  I'll state it outright.  Hiawatha Bray has no
>such obligation, whatever your expectations of journalists may be.
>Mr. Bray is a paid employee of a for-profit media organization, and
>the only obligation he has it to write articles his employer feels
>will sell newspapers.  Unfortunately, that often means that our
>journalists of the day write sensationalistic articles which stir up
>controversy over issues which, by and large, don't really matter
>much.

I hope you don't mean that. If you do, I'll only point out that the
reporter the New York Times just fired could claim he was doing a good
job because his articles were published and therefore his employer
must have felt that they would sell newspapers; it's clear, however,
that the Times and (one hopes) the Globe feel that honesty and solid
reporting are the best way to go about that task. I think Mr. Bray's job
is to convince people he can be trusted to tell them the truth,
because it's what newspapers are supposed to do.

> > It doesn't matter if Linus Torvalds can code around it, nor how
> > many volunteers he has to help. The only things the average
> > purchasing manager will remember from Mr. Bray's article are
> > "Linux" and "Lawsuit".

>No one but IBM will be sued, which is the point.

Perhaps that's the point you are trying to make, but it's not mine.

Please take another look at the article: RMS is pictured prominently,
with his hand pointed out at the reader, complete with Grizzly Adams
beard and T-shirt.

To "us", i.e., the technical community, it's a respected professional
making a point.

To the layman, it's a frightening image of a nerd pontificating on
something laymen don't understand. Not only that, but the first three
words of the article *WERE* "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt". If
Mr. Bray was trying to frighten his readers,  I can't think of a
more effective combination.

Now, I'll say right now that I'm an adult: I know why the TV stations
hype their evening news, I know why tabloids show pictures of car
wrecks on their front page, and I understand that Mr. Bray might
choose to *start* a story about FUD by scaring his readers into paying
attention. But that is ALL he did. There wasn't enough background
information for the LAYMEN reading the article to make an informed
judgment, and that's what sticks in my craw.

>The first thing that must happen is that SCO wins against IBM.  I
>think that's unlikely, but possible.  Without it though, there is no
>establishment of SCO's justification for suing anyone.  In order for
>SCO to win, the code which they are claiming infringments over will
>have had to become part of the public record.

On the surface, in order for SCO to win, it need only force IBM to pay
it off as a nuisance claim rather than defending itself. But that's
not the whole story (pun intended). I think SCO wants to gain enough
buzz to have Wall Street start pumping up it's stock, and then it
wants to have someone buy it out. Unfortunately for SCO, their case is
as full of holes as a wool suit sewn by a hungry moth, and IBM might
decide it's cheaper to fight.

It will all depend on how much the stock swings, and in which
direction. If it goes down, I'd wager on a buyout. If it goes up, a
trial.

[snip]

>I think you worry too much, but I half-suspect that spreading FUD is
>your intention, and that suspicion is fueled in part by your
>anonymous posts...

Anonymity is a regrettable necessity, but it extends only insofar as
it prevents laymen from doing Google searches for my name. My identity
is, in fact, available to anyone with experience in SMTP.

No matter: take my arguments as you find them, and agree or disagree
as you choose. I think I've written clearly and made my point
concisely. If you demur, then counter what I say with opinions, facts,
or predictions of your own.

Any Fear, Uncertainty, or Doubt is in the mind of the reader.

Hungry Profiteer

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