Over the past few months, the SCO (Santa Cruz Operation) Corporation
(formerly Caldera International, Inc. a Linux distribution vendor) has
been complaining about violations of its Copyright works by the Linux
kernel code.
Recently, Darl McBride, the Chief Executive Officer of SCO has been making
pejorative statements regarding the license used by the Linux kernel, the
GNU GPL. In a keynote speech he recently said :
"At the end of the day, the GPL is not about making software free; it's
about destroying value."
In light of this it is the depths of hypocrisy that at the same event
SCO also announced the incorporation of the Samba3 release into their
latest OpenServer product. Samba is an Open Source/Free Software
project that allows Linux and UNIX servers to interoperate with
Microsoft Windows clients. The reason for this is clear; Samba3 allows
Linux and UNIX servers to replace Microsoft Windows NT Domain
Controllers and will add great value to any Operating System which
includes it. However, Samba is also developed and distributed under
the GNU GPL license, in exactly the same manner as the Linux kernel
code that SCO has been criticizing for its lack of care in ownership
attribution.
We observe that SCO is both attacking the GPL on the one hand and
benefiting from the GPL on the other hand. SCO can't have it both ways.
SCO has a clear choice: either pledge not to use any Open Source/Free
Software in any of their products, or actively participate in the Open
Source/Free Software movement and reap the benefits. For SCO to continue to
use Open Source/Free Software while attacking others for using it is the
epitome of hypocrisy.
The strength of Open Source/Free Software is that it is available to
all without restrictions on fields of endeavor, as the Samba Team
believes the ability to freely use, modify and learn from software
code is one of the grounding principles of computer science, and a
basic freedom for all.
Because of this, we believe that the Samba must remain true to our
principles and be freely available to use even in ways we personally
disapprove of.
Even when used by rank hypocrites like SCO.
Jeremy Allison,
Marc Kaplan,
Andrew Bartlett,
Christopher R. Hertel,
Jerry Carter,
Jean Francois Micouleau,
Paul Green,
Rafal Szczesniak.
