Duncan Mac-Vicar P.

Interesting interview to the most hated man in software, the CEO and president of the litigation and former software company SCO, Darl McBride.

Best quote:

Then in the “excluded assets” it says, “excluding copyrights and patents.” Well, that’s the thing that never made sense. So when I first hired on (at) the company, we had intellectual property attorneys look at that, and they said, “This makes no sense.” You can’t buy software without the copyright. It’s like buying a book without the words. It doesn’t make any sense at all….

What are millions of users doing with proprietary software? Buying licenses. Buying “some rights” (to use, for example), not the copyright. When you buy a book. It comes with the words, but you don’t get the copyright.

Even with free software, you get a super-combo of rights which allow you to do anything except restricting those rights to someone. But still you don’t get the copyright ;-).