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OSDL ESTABLISHES $10 MILLION LEGAL FUND TO ADDRESS SCO'S ONGOING THREAT TO SUE LINUX CUSTOMERS

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Fund to pay legal fees for litigation threatened by SCO against Linux users and will cover Linus Torvalds' legal fees

BEAVERTON, OR. January 12, 2004 - The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium of leading technology companies dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux, today announced the creation of a Linux legal defense fund. The fund will defray legal expenses of Linux users involved in litigation with The SCO Group on issues that affect the Linux community and industry. OSDL aims to raise $10 million for this fund and will accept donations from individuals, organizations and companies.

'Customers deploy Linux solutions in good faith based on its technical merits and lower cost of ownership,' said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL. 'As the emerging center-of-gravity for Linux, OSDL is responding to a call for leadership on this issue. This fund sends a clear message that OSDL, in cooperation with others throughout the Linux industry, will stand firm against legal threats levied by The SCO Group.'

OSDL created the Linux Legal Defense Fund after consulting with its members, participants in its Linux User Advisory Council, and key members of the Linux development community. The fund will be wholly supported by independent contributions. To date the Lab has received more than $3 million in pledges from companies, including IBM, Intel, MontaVista Software, and others.

More information and details about the OSDL Linux legal defense fund and how to contribute can be found on the OSDL Web site at OSDL Linux Legal Defense Fund.

About Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) OSDL - home to Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux - is dedicated to accelerating the growth and adoption of Linux. Founded in 2000 and supported by a global consortium of Linux customers and IT industry leaders, OSDL is a non-profit organization that provides Linux expertise and computing and test facilities in the United States and Japan available to developers around the world. OSDL members include Alcatel, Cisco, Computer Associates, Dell, Ericsson, Force Computers, Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, Linuxcare, Miracle Linux Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric, MontaVista Software, NEC Corporation, Network Appliance, Nokia, Novell, NTT COMWARE, NTT DATA INTELLILINK, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, SUSE LINUX, TimeSys, Toshiba, Transmeta Corporation, Turbolinux, Ulticom, Unilever, VA Software and Wind River Systems. Visit OSDL on the Web at http://www.osdl.org/.

OSDL is a trademark of Open Source Development Labs, Inc. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks and brands are the property of their respective holders.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Lonn Johnston for OSDL
Page One PR
Phone : +1 650-473-0600 x101
E-mail : lonn@pageonepr.com

Intel
Chuck Mulloy
Phone : +1 408- 765-3484
E-mail : cmulloy@intel.com

IBM
Trink Guarino
Phone : +1 914-766-4084
E-mail : guarino@us.ibm.com

MontaVista Software
Joe Samagond
Phone : +1 408-328-9234
E-mail : jsamagond@mvista.com

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Legal Debt Collection Tricks
by: Steve Austin

If a customer owes your local business money, it's hard not to feel angry, like you want to do anything possible to get your money back. But the days of going all out to collect on a debt over.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, designed to protect consumers from harassment or intimidation, sets firm limits on what you can do to collect a debt from a consumer. The federal debt collections law even prohibits practices that were once standard, and that you might not consider harassment at all.

Besides, as a local business, you have an even more powerful reason to be especially careful about legal debt collection issues. You have something much more valuable at stake than a lawsuit: your business's reputation in the community.

Legal Debt Collection Best Practices:

There are plenty of articles on the web that lay out in plain English what the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act says you can and cannot do. Just to give you some idea of the law's requirements, here are some of the biggest:

- No telling any third party about the debt (except collection bureaus, collection agencies, or the debtor's attorney).

- No calling on the telephone 9 pm - 8 am, or calling repeatedly in a way that is annoying.

- No postcards or envelopes that mention the debt.

- No threats to take actions you cannot or will not really take, such as seizing property, in the case of an unsecured debt.

- No misrepresenting yourself (e.g., "Hi! This is the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. May I speak to John?").

- No paying down the debt with payments the customer has directed be applied to other debts

Tips and Tricks for Legal Debt Collections:

With all these limits on what you can do to collect a debt, what can you do legally?

- Speak with the debtor personally on the telephone

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