[Discussioni] newsscan

[Francesco Potorti`]

STARTUP OFFERS INSURANCE AGAINST LINUX COPYRIGHT CLAIMS
      Open Source Risk Management is launching insurance-like protection 
aimed at indemnifying Linux users against copyright infringement claims 
like those made by SCO Group. The company says it has completed a six-month 
study comparing Linux with several version of Unix and found no copyright 
problems. "We have come out of the examination process with the strong 
belief that there are no meritorious copyright infringement claims in the 
kernel. With all we have seen to date, I don't believe they have a strong 
case," says OSRM executive director John St. Clair. OSRM's legal protection 
covers only copyright infringement, but it plans to offer patent protection 
as well for an additional charge. It also has launched an Open Source Legal 
Defense Center, which offers companies expert legal advice for $100,000 per 
year, while charging $250 per year for individual programmers. The 
copyright-infringement protection is priced at 3% per year of the total 
coverage -- so for protection against $1 million of legal costs, a company 
would pay $30,000. Meanwhile, an SCO spokesman disputed OSRM's claims: 
"Everything we have looked at and found would run contrary to what they're 
finding." (CNet News.com 18 Apr 2004)
http://news.com.com/2100-7344-5193883.html