a public relations opportunity for BSD

[Larry Sica]

On Friday, May 16, 2003, at 08:53 AM, Garance A Drosihn wrote:

> At 11:32 PM -0700 5/15/03, Terry Lambert wrote:
>> Garance A Drosihn wrote:
>>  > I agree completely.  For one, you can't "Not comment
>>  > on whether the charges are true", and then turn around
>>  > and try to advertise your product based on the very
>>  > same charges.
>>
>> This, at least, is incorrect, since FreeBSD is free from
>> taint, due to the USL/UCB lawsuit settlement of 1994.
>>
>> Linux has no such settlement document.
>
> Well, obviously that is true, but that isn't what I meant.
>
> What I meant is you can not sit back and say "Hey, I am
> making no comment on whether the charges against linux are
> right, but just co-incidentally this morning I decided to
> get up and tell the world that FreeBSD does not have the
> same legal issues that linux is accused of".
>
> The fact that "you" (the generic you) are starting to
> advertise that *you* are innocent is most certainly a
> direct result and thus an implied comment on the guilt of
> Linux.  It's like saying "I won't comment on whether the
> incumbent mayor stole the car he's driving, but just this
> morning I happened to decide that I should wave around the
> bill-of-sale for my own car and thus you should vote for me".
> It is a campaign of marketing-through-FUD.
>

That is not a good analogy.  In this case there is obvious proof that 
FreeBSD does not suffer from this potential issue.  Pointing this out 
could be just a matter of saying here this is the current climate.

> It could be 100% accurate that you do own your car, but the
> only reason you're waving around that bill-of-sale is because
> of the charges against the other guy.
>
> Let's say the court system works remarkably fast, and next
> Monday the courts throw out SCO's case as being "Totally
> Without Merit".  Then how stupid would we look for saying
> "Hey, over here, we're the innocent guys!".
>

Not stupid at all since what was stated was true.  FreeBSD was not 
affected.  Actually it is important to point this out as FreeBSD is 
often lumped into linux.

> What I'm saying is that I would have been completely
> comfortable with the suggested marketing campaign if the
> idea popped up a year ago, but it is not appropriate to
> *start* such a campaign right now, and thus try to cash
> in on this lawsuit against another open-source project.
>
> -- 

One could argue there never is a truly appropriate time.  It is 
relevant as an issue right now, how is that not appropriate?


--Larry