From: "Joe Barr" 

From: http://www.linuxtag.org/2003/en/press/releases.xsp?id=3


English Version: LinuxTag has given notice to SCO Group GmbH to desist from
unfair competitive practices

Lawyers representing the LinuxTag association have given notice to SCO
Group GmbH to desist from unfair competitive practiices. The notice, dated
Friday, May 23, maintains that SCO Group is sowing uncertainty among the
community of GNU/Linux users, developers and suppliers. "SCO needs to
stop claiming that the standard Linux kernel violates its copyrights, or
they need to lay the evidence for their claim on the table," said
LinuxTag's Michael Kleinhenz.

The association demanded that the German SCO subsidiary retract its claims
regarding ownership of Linux kernel code by this Friday, May 30, or make
its evidence public. "SCO must not be allowed to damage its
competitors by unsubstantiated claims, to intimidate their customers, and
to inflict lasting damage on the reputation of GNU/Linux as an open
platform," Kleinhenz added.

Until a few weeks ago, SCO itself distributed the Linux kernel GNU General
Public License (GPL) as a member of the UnitedLinux alliance. Thus even if
SCO owns parts of the Linux kernel, it has made them into Free Software by
distributing them under the GPL.

"This situation illustrates the superiority of the Free Software
licensing model: If a software manufacturer withdraws from the development
of GPL software, its contributions that were published under the the GPL up
to that time remain available to users," said Jˇ¬rgen Siepmann,
attorney and founding member of LinuxTag. Till Jaeger, Director of the
Institute for Legal Aspects of Free and Open Source Software, agrees:
"Companies see this as an important pillar of investment
security."

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