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New Linux revision control

Little-known (but not AFIAK secret) fact is that Larry McVoy (Bitkeeper) has been tracking changes to the kernel source for years. Sort of a pre-adoption proof-of-concept of BitKeeper, not to mention the sort of thing which might become commercially valuable to a party that wanted to track its own deltas to the core tree (this is one of the features of BitKeeper -- making and tracking satellite repositories with one-way transitivity to core is reasonably trivial)...or a large monied interest with an interest in legal discovery.

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Another interesting point this raises is the question of who is responsible for introduction of encumbered code into the kernel. SCO is certainly making the case that it's IBM. However one possible legal argument is that the code submitter him- or herself is representing the code to be legally clear, and assumes responsibility in the event that it is not. Time will tell.

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Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]\r\n
[link|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/]\r\n
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?\r\n
[link|http://twiki.iwethey.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/|TWikIWETHEY] -- an experiment in collective intelligence. Stupidity. Whatever.\r\n
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   Keep software free.     Oppose the CBDTPA.     Kill S.2048 dead.\r\n[link|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html]\r\n
New Wouldn't that *have* to be the case?
However one possible legal argument is that the code submitter him- or herself is representing the code to be legally clear, and assumes responsibility in the event that it is not.
As SCO's code is not available for comparison, what expectation is there that IBM (for instance) would even be able to identify infringement? For that matter, what assurenaces does SCO have that Microsft (for instance) hasn't included some of SCO's intellectual property into their (closed-source) products?

If SCO would like to ensure their products aren't copied, they should file for patent protectin rather than pursuing copyright infringement claims. Then the code would be public, so other companies could compare new susbmissions for similarity, but still protected by the force of law. Or do they not think te ideas encapsulated in the code are original enough to be patented? Which would tend to shoot a hole in their entire argument that only be misappropriating their IP could Linux by where it is today.

And that, boys and girls, is called a Catch-22.
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Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.
     SCO's other shoe drops: SCO source code found in Linux - (admin) - (16)
         Simple solution - (drewk) - (3)
             Wouldn't it be funny... - (folkert)
             Linux revision control - (kmself) - (1)
                 Wouldn't that *have* to be the case? - (drewk)
         SCO stabs their own lawyers in the back - (drewk) - (4)
             ROFL - (admin) - (3)
                 Hey! You're maligning snakes everywhere with that one -NT - (jake123) - (2)
                     Sorry. -NT - (admin) - (1)
                         :) -NT - (jake123)
         So 10 lines of code == 20 years of [...] IP? - (jb4) - (3)
             Hmmm - I wonder 'which' code they refer to ... IBM - (dmarker) - (1)
                 Reminds me of Ashton Tate vs. Fox - (tablizer)
             Depends on level of difference - (tuberculosis)
         Eric Raymond deconstructs SCO's argument. - (Another Scott) - (2)
             Excellent resource. Thanks Scott -NT - (screamer)
             The GPL argument is particularly compelling IMO - (kmself)

WHEW! That was some seriously strong sh... *KNOCK KNOCK* sorry, I'll get back to that thought in a moment...
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