After noticing the new IBM advertisements touting the benefits of open source (check out the IBM Open Source page), I was intrigued to see that it took only days for the ads to generate an article in BBC News.

Maybe they were having a slow news day. Perhaps they were looking for something to distract them from the two big resignations earlier this week, but whatever it was, they're writing about Open Source in a major market news medium.

Now, they don't get all of the facts right, but they hit on most of the major points well. In particular, I'm sure the FreeBSD folks (whose software does not have the restrictive GPL license) will be shocked and annoyed to hear Linux described as "unique in that its code is open source." In point of fact, there are many UNIX variants that are Open Source, which means (according to the definition by the folks who own the trademark) that the software is freely available--source as well as object, can be modified and redistributed under the same license, and won't contaminate the licenses of other software by its use.

Either way, it's good to see Open Source getting some play in the media. Maybe the congressmen and congresswomen receiving letters from SCO will start to understand what they are being asked to mess with.