Re: SCO offers UnixWare licenses for Linux

[Jan Harkes <jaharkes@cs.cmu.edu>]

On Thu, Jul 24, 2003 at 07:34:06PM +0200, Felipe Alfaro Solana wrote:
> I see the point but... Take Linux as a community. Let's say someone
> contributes stolen code, but the community doesn't check if the
> contributed code violates any IP or copyright law. So, is the Linux

Instead of saying "doesn't check", I would rather say "cannot check".
Without access to proprietary source code I'm going to have a hard time
telling whether a patch that someone sends me is IP-tainted or not.

> We can't be liable for the work of others over which we don't have total
> control. Or is the law forcing us to check line by line the
> contributions made by hundreds of programmers all around the world?

A company doesn't check contributions line-by-line either. In fact they
often prefer to hire someone who has several years of experience in the
field, so they are intentionally trying to hire people that have had
access to some other company's IP.

Jan