SCO Developer

CDMS INC. IN THE FLOORING INDUSTRY

SCO/UNIX OPERATING SYSTEMS

There has been recent concern of wide spread piracy of the Unix Operating system known as Open Server Enterprise. SCO, Santa Cruz Operations, (maker of SCO Unix Operating System) is conducting an investigation of software piracy in the flooring industry.

You may ask why software piracy by a particular vendor of the SCO/Unix Operating System would concern other vendors using the same system. The answer to that question is simple. Each flooring industry software company whose software operates on the SCO/Unix Operating System must either purchase a license for the Operating System on behalf of their clients (as a "reseller" or "distributor") or arrange for the customer to purchase the license for the Operating System directly. The cost of the Operating System license is borne directly by the customer. A software company who licenses only one copy of the Operating System and thereafter installs the same copy of the Operating System into more than one customer's computer without paying separate licensing fees and obtaining separate licenses is committing software piracy and obtaining an unfair competitive advantage by not charging or incurring the cost of the license.

Although the ability to purchase a pirated software package at a cheap price may seem attractive to some customers, the consequences of such a course of action can be severe. For example, neither CDMS nor any other SCO authorized support technician may offer technical support or updates to users possessing pirated software, nor can the Operating System be re-installed in the event of a hardware problem. Additionally, possessing pirated software may result in the user being found guilty of software piracy, a federal crime, which may result in jail terms of up to 5 years and fines of up to $250,000 for each pirated software license. Servers running pirated software may also be seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for use as evidence in any software piracy prosecution.

CDMS INC. SOFTWARE PIRACY POLICY:

CDMS rejects the use of pirated software and supports the efforts of all members of the software flooring industry who feel likewise. CDMS fully supports the efforts of all law enforcement agencies in combating the use of pirated software. CDMS will not install its software package or support a customer that does not own its own copy of the SCO/Unix Operating System license. The SCO/Unix Operating System license must be registered and licensed to that customer only. All customers are responsible for obtaining the license and the media (usually a compact disk) necessary to install the Operating System.

TO CHECK FOR PIRATED SOFTWARE:

SCO has confirmed to CDMS that the License Numbers identified in the box below are pirated. To determine whether your SCO/Unix Operating System bears either of these license numbers, you should compare your software license numbers to the license numbers set forth in the following box.

The following instruction applies to SCO/Unix Open Server Version 5.0+, including version 5.02, 5.04, 5.05 and 5.06:

Log onto your computer as the "root" account. Type in "scoadmin license" at the "#" prompt.

Should EITHER of these 2 license numbers appear on your system, DO NOT CONTACT THE SOFTWARE COMPANY WHO SOLD THE UNIX SOFTWARE TO YOU. Instead, you should take immediate steps to declare yourself a "victim" (rather than be suspected a willing buyer of pirated software and subject to prosecution). To do this and find out how to replace your SCO software with a "legal" copy, please contact:

Steve Sabbath Senior Vice President of Legal and Corporate Affairs for SCO
Phone # (831) 427-7866
email stevesa@sco.com

Greg Chavis SCO Director of US Channel Sales
Phone # (831) 427-7804
email gregc@sco.com

… and….

IMPORTANT: File a report with your local FBI office. Tell the FBI that other dealers are filing reports nationwide and that all these related reports will be correlated in the FBI's national crime computer. The person taking the "victim-level" report should confirm that your report and cooperation will not result in confiscation of your computer server equipment.

Steps to protect the user of pirated software may be taken, but require affirmative action on your part.

For additional information on what you need to know about "software piracy" please read Software-Piracy-and-the-Law.pdf.