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3f2fa484 RS |
1 | As all users of GCC will know, SCO has recently made claims concerning |
2 | alleged copyright infringement by recent versions of the operating | |
3 | system kernel called Linux. SCO has made irresponsible public | |
4 | statements about this supposed copyright infringement without | |
5 | releasing any evidence of the infringement, and has demanded that | |
6 | users of Linux, the kernel most often used with the GNU system, pay | |
7 | for a license. This license is incompatible with the GPL, and in the | |
8 | opinion of the Free Software Foundation such a demand unquestionably | |
9 | violates the GNU General Public License under which the kernel is | |
10 | distributed. | |
11 | ||
12 | We have been urged to drop support for SCO Unix from this release of | |
13 | GCC, as a protest against this irresponsible aggression against free | |
14 | software and GNU/Linux. However, the direct effect of this action | |
15 | would fall on users of GCC rather than on SCO. For the moment, we | |
16 | have decided not to take that action. The Free Software Foundation's | |
17 | overriding goal is to protect the freedom of the free software | |
18 | community, including developers and users, but we also want to serve | |
19 | users. Protecting the community from an attack sometimes requires | |
20 | steps that will inconvenience some in the community. Such a step is | |
21 | not yet necessary, in our view, but we cannot indefinitely continue to | |
22 | ignore the aggression against our community taken by a party that has | |
23 | long profited from the commercial distribution of our programs. We | |
24 | urge users of SCO Unix to make clear to SCO their disapproval of the | |
25 | company's aggression against the free software community. We will | |
26 | have a further announcement concerning continuing support of SCO Unix | |
27 | by GCC before our next release. |