[PLUG] SCO Looks For Intellectual-Property Claim On Linux

[Phil Tomson]

On Thu, 23 Jan 2003, Alex Daniloff wrote:

> I wonder, if we should start boicoting SCO alltogether.
> In the mean time they're dead ducks but for now they're
> creating very dangerous legal precedent.
> According to the common law any patent ought to expire
> after 20 years and become a commodity in public domain.
> Since UNIX exists for over 30 years I don't know if all
> these SCO intellectual things have any merits.
>
> Alex

Well, is it patents or is it copyrights we're dealing with in this case?
I suspect it's the latter and if that's the case the Congress and Supreme
Court seem to agree that copyrights can be extended indefinately - they
ignore the clause in the Constitution about copyrights being granted for
'limited times', or they redefining what 'limited' means.

Phil