From: "William F. Zachmann" 

IBM used to (perhaps still does) include some open source GPL code in
WebSphere.  As I recall, IBM included, in the software license boilerplate,
a disclaimer of some sort disputing (if not outright denying) the
legitimacy of the GPL license.  I don't recall the details very well,
though.  Does anyone else?

As I search my memory, I think maybe it was related to Apache.

All the best,

will

"Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
news:3f34f863{at}w3.nls.net...
>
> from http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/08/HNuntestedgpl_1.html
>
> Untested GPL may be at center of IBM-SCO suit
> SCO Group and Linux advocates offer differing interpretations of GPL's
role
>
>
>       By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service August 08, 2003
>
>      The requirements of the software license that governs the Linux
> operating system were questioned on Thursday as The SCO Group and Linux
> advocates offered differing interpretations of the role that the GNU
General
> Public License (GPL) would play in a legal dispute between SCO and IBM.
>
>
>
>       In March, SCO launched what has become a $3 billion lawsuit against
> IBM, claiming the Armonk, N.Y., company had improperly added code to
Linux.
> SCO, which owns rights to the original System V Unix software, has since
> claimed that IBM may no longer distribute its own version of Unix, called
> AIX, and threatened Linux users with lawsuits.
>
>       IBM on Wednesday filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court in
> Utah charging SCO with a number of counterclaims, including patent
> violations, breach of contract, and breach of the GPL.
>
>       SCO responded to the countersuit on Thursday, calling IBM's
complaint
> an effort to distract attention from flaws in its own business model and
> criticizing the GPL. "It's a fairly nebulous license," said
SCO spokesman
> Blake Stowell.
>
>       Whatever questions may surround Linux's license, they are compounded
> by the fact that SCO this week began offering to sell Linux users new
> software licenses that would bring their Linux systems into compliance
with
> SCO's intellectual property claims. Linux advocates argue that, because it
> distributes Linux itself, SCO is retroactively tacking a second
conflicting
> license onto software it has already distributed.
>
>       "They need to realize that they have licensed the software under the
> GPL and released it to the world and they have no rights to ask for
> royalties," said Bradley Kuhn, the executive director of the Free Software
> Foundation, the organization that created the GPL.
>
>       SCO stopped selling Linux in May. Stowell admitted that his company
> was still providing Linux source code and security patches on its Web site
> in order to fulfill support contracts with customers, but he disputed
Kuhn's
> claim. "If our IP [intellectual property] is being found in Linux and
that's
> being done without our say, then I don't think that the GPL can force us
not
> to collect license fees from someone who may be using our intellectual
> property," he said.
>
>       IBM's complaint echoes Kuhn's criticism. SCO has included GPL code
in
> its Linux products and "by so doing, SCO accepted the terms of
the GPL,"
the
> complaint says. By seeking licensing fees, SCO is in breach of the
license,
> it says.
>
>       The Free Software Foundation's general counsel, Eben Moglen is
> consulting IBM in its counter suit, according to Kuhn.
>
>       IBM's claim of GPL violations is noteworthy because the GPL has
never
> been tested in court, and the IBM counter suit could ultimately decide
> whether it is enforceable under U.S. law.
>
>       Recently, a German legal expert called into question the software
> license's enforceability under European law.
>
>       The GPL has not gone to court in the past, Kuhn said, because
> companies have always settled with the Free Software Foundation, rather
than
> risk a court case. "The GPL doesn't need to go to court to be
proven," he
> said. "The lawyers on the other side don't want to go to court because
they
> can't win."
>
>
>
>
>

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