Defence fund established for Linux users
Defence fund established for Linux users
The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium of technology companies dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux, has established a legal defence fund to defray legal expenses of Linux users involved in litigation with The SCO Group on issues that affect the Linux community and industry.
Heavyweight OSDL members such as IBM and Intel, together with a number of other smaller companies, have already contributed more than US$2 million to the fund. The OSDL aims to raise around US$10 million for this fund.
"Customers deploy Linux solutions in good faith based on its technical merits and lower cost of ownership," said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL. "As the emerging centre of gravity for Linux, OSDL is responding to a call for leadership on this issue. This fund sends a clear message that OSDL, in cooperation with others throughout the Linux industry, will stand firm against legal threats levied by The SCO Group."
The OSDL has said that the fund will not cover developers, but rather end users. A separate legal fund for developers has been set up by Linux distributor Red Hat, which itself is involved in legal action with SCO over what it claims were misleading and damaging comments made by SCO about the open source software.
Meanwhile, Linux users in Australia are bracing themselves to be on the receiving end of license fee demands from SCO following an admission by the company's Australian and New Zealand boss, Kieran O'Shaughnessy that he was set to fly to London next week to finalise the company's plans for securing license agreements with large commercial users of Linux in Australia. Those users are expected to receive letters demanding payment by the end of the first quarter.
SCO has already sent out over 1500 letters to business users in the United States, demanding fees for the use of what it claims is its proprietary source code within the Linux operating system.
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