No, SCO don't indemnify Samba customers
Turns out that SCO won't indemnify their customers:
In addition, the company continues to ship the GPL-covered Samba software, which lets Unix or Linux systems share files on Windows networks, as part of its UnixWare and OpenServer products.
SCO spokesman Blake Stowell said SCO doesn't offer indemnification, or legal protection, for use of Samba. As a hypothetical example, if Microsoft were to decide Samba violated its file system intellectual property and start suing companies that use the software, SCO would stop including Samba but wouldn't offer customers using the software legal protection, Stowell said.
"I'd be confident if we had any reservations that misappropriated code had gone into Samba, we ourselves would stop shipping it, and we would recommend to our users they stop using it," Stowell said. But of assuming responsibility for a Samba lawsuit, he said, "I don't think we could."
So, just to be clear: SCO's demanding that IBM and other vendors indemnify their customers against any problems arising from open source customers, but SCO won't do that for their customers. SCO would, if Stowell is believed, not only leave their customers open to lawsuits, but also stop providing updates. OK. Good to know.
And of course, if the GPL is invalid, SCO's presumably violating copyrights by distributing Samba without a licence...
SCO's Web site states unambiguously that it's not possible to offer indemnification on GPL software: "Some customers have asked their Linux distributors to indemnify them against intellectual property infringement claims in Linux. The Linux distributors are unable to do so because of the terms and conditions in the General Public License," a page describing SCO's Unix license said.
SCO has been suggesting that IBM should indemnify its Linux customers. "If IBM is so confident that Linux is free and clear, why don't they indemnify their users against any lawsuit SCO could bring against them?" Stowell said.
Not possible, eh? Unable? Not confident? HP just did it.
posted Fri 7 Nov 2003 in /issues/sco-vs-linux | link
Archives 2008: Apr Feb 2007: Jul May Feb Jan 2006: Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun Jan 2005: Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan 2004: Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan 2003: Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun May
Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Martin Pool.