SCO Thoughts

So far I steered clear from the SCO controversy. Other people have done a better job of covering the clearly false nature of SCO's claim of copyright to the Linux kernel. One thing this controversy does highlight is the need for a rigourous intelluctual property management system. SCO clearly has no idea what IP they own, what IP is theirs and what IP belongs to others. This should be a clear warning sign for any company in the IP business.

• Keep a record. If you write software keep your CVS tree and commits. Keep the entire history available and quickly readable. DO NOT stuff it into a old backup tape to age and degrade.
  
• Periodically review your IP annually. Where is it? Where is it being used?
  
• Have clear IP usage guidelines at your company. If programmers are contributing to open source projects, understand what that means.