[ILUG] - Press Release -- ILUG Refutes Claims made on Morning Ireland about MyDoom and Linux/OSS community

[AJ McKee]

2nd February 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information about Linux in Ireland:

Contact: 	AJ McKee
Phone:	353(0) 86 380 93 64
		353(0) 1 278 96 26
Email:	pro at linux.ie
Web: 		www.linux.ie

Irish Linux Users Group Refutes Claims made on Morning Ireland about
MyDoom and Linux/OSS community

Dublin, Ireland, 2nd February 2004 . 

ILUG (Irish Linux User Group), strongly refutes the claims made by
Mr. William Campbell on RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland, in relation to
the "MyDoom" virus currently spreading across the internet and that the
virus can be attributed to the Linux/Open Source community.

Although not directly affected by the "MyDoom" virus, ILUG and the
Linux/Open Source community joins in the condemnation of this and all
other computer worms and viruses as being a violation of the computer
user's right to use their computer and serve only to further inhibit
free, open information & knowledge exchange. We do however feel that
the RTE report lacked objectivity and represented our community in a
misleading light.

A number of statements were made by Mr William Campbell of Bua Training,
which grossly misrepresented the Linux & Open Source Community in
Ireland.

Mr Campbell stated he suspected the open source community of developing
and deploying this software. We find this statement offensive,
irresponsible and made without any reasonable thought or evidence to
suggest any Open Source Software community involvement.

Furthermore, the suggestions that Linux, OpenOffice.org and Star Office
are companies are simply wrong. Linux is a free operating system
developed
by many people and companies world wide in the spirit of cooperation,
with no one individual owning the rights to the software. This is also
true for OpenOffice.org while Star Office is a product of Sun
Microsystems. Linux & Open Source Software is in use successfully by
many Irish Companies, including RTE.

SPAM and Viruses represent serious issues for Linux and the Open Source
Community, and as such the Open Source Community has spent many man
years developing ways to prevent spam and viruses from affecting
computer users. SPAMASSASSIN which helps combat junk email was created
and is maintained by Irish Open Source Developers. SPAMASSASSIN and
other Open Source Software Community products such as Clam Anti Virus
can detect and safely remove the "MyDoom" virus before it can reach
users of vulnerable commercial operating systems

Linux & Open Source Software companies employ many Irish people and
enjoy continued success both nationally and on the global arena and
welcome fair and level competition with larger commercial operating
system vendors.

Open Source Software is written and subsequently licensed under what is
known as an Open Source Licence. This software has been placed under
that licence voluntarily by the author. The author may be a company or
an individual who may or may not receive any payment for the work, but
in fact a lot of work is done by employees within commercial companies
(e.g. IBM, Sun, HP and SCO). This is then provided to members of the
general public free of charge as a viable alternative to other
commercial software.
 
ILUG respectfully requests that Mr. Campbell publicly clarify his
statements made in relation to the Linux and the Open Source Software
community in Ireland. Additionally, we request that RTE allow us to
refute Mr. Campbell's statements publicly so as to help undo some of the
damage we feel may have been caused to our organisation.


About ILUG

The Irish Linux Users Group (ILUG) was set up in 1997 to promote
awareness of the Linux operating system within Ireland. The ILUG also
acts as a focal point both for developers wishing to contribute to the
Open Source Software movement and for users of all levels seeking to
solve their individual technical issues. Much of the everyday
interaction revolves around our free mailing lists. Additionally our web
site contains a lot of valuable information for everyone including a
list of hardware and software vendors who deal with Linux, an area for
beginners, a library containing books and software CDs for loan, and a
downloads area where software written by members of the ILUG is freely
available. Membership of the ILUG is free and is open to anyone. For
more information about ILUG and Linux in Ireland, please visit
www.linux.ie


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