Star Letter IBM, and now SGI claim that their UNIX™ licenses are irrevocable. Not on your nelly, says SCO - and is there anyone left on the planet who isn't aware of SCO's litigation against Linux and open source?

To: <andrew.orlowski@theregister.co.uk>
Subject: Why do these guys keep calling the license irrevocable?

I have read over SGI’s licenses and I’ve found no place where it says it is irrevocable. Why would anyone in their right mind sign over a license to anyone that was not revocable?

“Congratulations sir, I know you were speeding and drunk at the wheel, weaving in and out of your lane, but lucky for you, you had one of these drivers’ licenses that is irrevocable. Have a nice day.” There is no such thing as an irrevocable license. You have to abide by the statutes of a license or it can be revoked.

You can’t take code based on a license you signed, change it a little and then give it away for free (as in the case of XFS from SGI). If SCO allowed companies to contribute derivative UNIX code to Linux and give it away for free, it would destroy the value of all other versions of UNIX, including SCO’s own, not to mention the versions of UNIX made by SUN, HP, IBM, SGI, Sequent, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Siemens, and every other one of the 6,000 other licensees. Why would SCO not have such a provision in their licenses? This line of thinking is absolutely ludicrous.   

In fact, this very language comes from SGI’s license it originally signed with AT&T which license SCO now owns:

If LICENSEE fails to fulfill one or more of its obligations under this Agreement, AT&T-IS (AT&T Information Systems) may, upon its election and in addition to any other rememdies that it may have, at any time terminate all the rights granted by it hereunder by not less than two(2) months’ written notice to LICENSEE specifying any such breach, unless within the period of such notice all breaches specified therein shall have been remedied; upon such termination LICENSEE shall immediately discontinue use of and return or destroy all copies of SOFTWARE PRODUCTS subject to this Agreement.

Irrevocable? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Blake Stowell
Director, Public Relations
SCO

So, Mr.Bond. {Villain fingers pussycat}

How do you get out of that one? ®