[Novalug] Breaking up is hard to do ... the M$-Novell Cat and Mouse Game

[Bryan J. Smith]

Again, beware of those who choose to wield the disclosures of paralegals.  ;)

As always, if you have concerns, consult an attorney.  Corporations have
their council.  Speculation spreads FUD and starts this non-sense.  From this
non-sense, you get IT media non-sense.  And from IT non-sense, you really
screw up the facts.  Next thing you know, everyone is paranoid.

If you want an example of this, see March 2003 v. May 2003.  Those very few
of us who followed this know what I'm talking about.  Those who don't, well, they
are typically part of the problem.  I think Linus summed it up best himself ...
  March 2003:  "Contract Dispute"
  May 2003:  "Smoking Crack"

Once FUD takes ahold, and people make a contract dispute into something it is
not, anything can happen.  People like to scream the sky is falling, stretch things
into areas they are not and, in general, alarm those who do not need to be remotely
alarmed.  The result becomes completely inaccurate information, microcosms of
re-enforcing self-truths and what-not.

Likewise, in 2003-2004, there were several companies that signed IP agreements,
only to regret them.  Because the irony is that with_out_ an IP agreement, it was
very _difficult_ to establish the IP.  FUD begets FUD.  No liability is really no
liability.  It is important to understand this, and not cross counsel or other experts.
I've seen this first hand.

Right now there are contract disputes going on.  Not X v. Linux, but X v. Y.  It gets
extremely tiring for people to make X v. Y into X v. Linux when it is _not_.  Don't
introduce the FUD.  Don't introduce the non-sense.  Don't give someone an
avenue to "Smoke Crack."

Understand why Linux is a GNU platform.
Understand where 4.4BSD comes from.
Understand the details.

Stop taking on other concerns, concerns between private parties as concerns for
Linux.  Every time you do this, you only give an avenue to parties to jump on those
assumptions, even if they are not legally true.

It also makes it extremely difficult for Linux entities to sue over industry harm done
by the statements of those enforcing, private entities overstate the facts in general,
and outside their contract disputes ...

when a bunch of rabbid "the sky is falling" Linux advocates are doing it as well.


Don't smoke crack.