Linux Leaders: Open Source Not A 'Howling Wilderness Of IP Thieves'
McBride issued an open letter published on Tuesday that claimed Raymond, president of the Open Source Initiative advocacy group, and open source leader Bruce Perens, were both aware of the identity of hackers who issued a distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attack that shut down SCO's Web site for a full weekend in late August.
In their rebuttal Wednesday, the two Linux advocates denied they are aware of the identity of the perpetrator or that they are contributing to the hostile atmosphere against SCO.
"Mr. Raymond made very clear when volunteering his information [to SCO] and calling for the attack to cease that he was contacted by a third-party associate of the perpetrator and does not have the perpetrator's identity to reveal," according to the open letter, which was released to the media on Tuesday. "The DDoS attack ceased, and has not resumed. Your implication that the attacks are a continuing threat, and that the president of the Open Source Initiative is continuing to shield their perpetrator, is therefore not merely both false and slanderous, but contradictory with SCO's own previous behavior."
Raymond and Perens said in their rebuttal that McBride's public claims contradict a letter of thanks the CEO sent to Raymond who called for an end to the Internet attacks on SCO's web site.
"In fact, leaders of the open-source community have acted responsibly and swiftly to end the DDoS attacks -- just as we continue to act swiftly to address IP-contamination issues when they are aired in a clear and responsible manner," the letter also says.
The rebuttal also says McBride's statement that the open source development process lends itself to IP violations is incorrect.
"This history is open to public inspection in the Linux-kernel archives and elsewhere, with numerous instances on record of Linus Torvalds and others refusing code in circumstances where there is reason to believe it might be compromised by third-party IP claims," according to the statement. "Our licenses --the GPL and others -- work with copyright law, not against it. We reject your attempt to portray our community as a howling wilderness of IP thieves as a baseless and destructive smear."