| First Name: | C. Scott |
| Last Name: | Ananian |
| Age Range: | 20 - 29 |
| Street Address: | 57 Mystic St |
| City: | Arlington |
| State or Canadian Province: | Massachusetts |
| Country: | UNITED STATES |
| Zip Code or Postal Code: | 02474 |
| E-Mail Address: | ftc@cscott.net |
| Home Phone: | (617)233-1238 |
| Subject of Your Complaint: | Computers/Internet Services |
| Name of Company You Are Complaining About: | The SCO Group Inc |
| Street Address: | 355 South 520 West |
| Suite 100 | |
| City: | Lindon |
| State or Canadian Province: | Utah |
| Country: | UNITED STATES |
| Zip Code or Postal Code: | 04042 |
| Company Web Site: | http://www.sco.com |
| Phone Number: | (801)765-4999Ext. |
| How Did the Company Initially Contact You?: | Internet (Other) |
| How Much Did the Company Ask You to Pay?: | 2246 |
| How Much Did You Actually Pay the Company?: | 0 |
| How Did You Pay the Company?: | Not Reported |
| First Name | Darl |
| Last Name: | McBride |
| Date Company Contacted You: | 08/20/2003 (MM/DD/YYYY) |
| Explain Your Problem: (Please limit your complaint to 2000 characters.): | The
SCO group, in public announcements in a variety of media (see for
example
http://www.cbronline.com/latestnews/62cbf9d13b40711e80256d880018c80f)
claims that the Linux operating system (a copy of which I have on each
of the several computers I own) is *their* intellectual property, and
threatening legal action if I do not pay $199 per desktop system (I own
two), $699 per one-processor server system (I have one) and $1,149 per
two-processor server system (I have two), for a total of $2,246. The
source for the prices is
http://www.sco.com/scosource/linuxlicensefaq.html which also threatens, "you have the option to do nothing ... and hope that SCO is not serious about enforcing its intellectual property rights in the end user community." SCO claims of IP rights over the Linux operating system --- portions of which *I* wrote, and licensed to others (including SCO) to use on terms which preclude SCO's current actions --- are unproved in a court of law and widely regarded as bluster (See http://www.vnunet.com/News/1143505, for instance). I would like the FTC to prohibit SCO from threatening American citizens who acquired the Linux operating system in good faith until/unless their claims are proven. Note that a regional court in Munich, Germany, has already fined SCO 10,000 euros for SCO's unsubstantiated claims. See http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/03/1062548885546.html |