SCO Madness Continues

[jodef]

Guess were all tired of hearing about this but saw the articles so posting it for those who might be interested in reading them:Infoworld Highlights:

The SCO Group on Tuesday will launch its first lawsuit against a Linux user for alleged violations of SCO's intellectual property, SCO Chief Executive Officer Darl McBride said Monday.After consulting with its law firm, Boies, Schiller and Flexner, SCO has narrowed down its list of possible targets to a "handful" of the world's 1,000 largest corporations, McBride said. "We're going to file it tomorrow. It's sort of come down to a couple of complaints we have prepared," he said.Launching lawsuits against large corporations will do little more than speed up SCO's demise, according to Bruce Perens, a founder of the Open Source Initiative. "If you shake down a company that way, especially a Fortune 1000 company -- a company that has a good many more lawyers than SCO -- that tends to blow up in your face," he said. "SCO can confuse as many people as they want. They're still going to eventually go out of business. They can't win these suits."

Sco To Sue Linu User

Cases such as the suit against IBM "typically range in the $10 million to $15 million range," McBride said, but the company is confident it can afford the costs. In 2003, it received a $50 million investment and now has a cash balance of about $64 million, he said.

So I guess they won't stop until the money runs out or they lose

[Guest LilBambi]

Sheesh, SCO is definitely no better than the RIAA, suing their own customers.

The first target will be a company that has a Unix license from SCO already, giving SCO some contractual leverage in the case. McBride said. In addition, the suit will involve copyright infringement claims.

I would imagine SCO chose this particular 'customer' (and I choose that word losely) very carefully to insure themselves (hopefully only in their own mind) that the company would go to great lengths not to want to damage their relationship with SCO (because they rely heavily on the products that are based on their previous SCO licensing) by refusing to capitulate on this. In this way SCO would feel they had the greatest chance of getting another company to buckle under to add to their 'precedent' list of "why SCO deserve to win in court." Another imaginary feather in their cap as it were.A very dangerous game and I certainly hope it backfires on them. I hope they read this company wrong and that the company will wait on the courts to decide in the SCO case before making any kind of decision on this.

SCO is seeking to charge companies $699 per single-processor server to use Linux, which is closely related to Unix. Thus far, only a "handful" of companies have taken up SCO on the plan.

It is really hard to believe that any company would buy into a licensing scheme with SCO before the court has even decided whether there is any merit in the case. Scratch that, I can't believe any company would ever buy any license from SCO for anything in view of the way they do business.Is it any wonder why the GPL/BSD/alternative licensing is looking better all the time to more and more companies, as well as individuals. Doh!It's companies like SCO that give IP a bad name. Their greed and lack of a positive 'golden rule' attitude in business toward their customers and potential customers, that I hope will be their own undoing. OK, OK ... it may be idealist to think so ... but I truly hope that there is some light at the end of this very dark and increasingly sinister time in IP history.

[Rons]

Just makes me angry! These guys don't stop! :'( :'(

[linuxdude32]

Some of the Linux distro companies should get together and set up a fund to offer to defend this company from SCO so they don't buckle. The sooner this gets to a real court case, the sooner SCO will be told NO and their investment money will run out soon after their loss.

[mhbell]

They are going to drag it out as long as they can. their (sco) stock went up on news that they were sueing a end user today. what a crock of Bull_ _ _ _! read about it at the URL below..Mel SCO delays end-user suit. Again.The SCO Group teased all day long about releasing the name of the Linux end-user they said they were going to sue today. But at the end of the day, they did only what they've been doing for months now. They didn't keep their word. Rumors of the impending litigation drove shares of The SCO Group stock up more than a dollar to close at $13.42. During the morning, the announcement was to supposed to be made about noon. Then it was delayed until early afternoon. Then until after the markets had closed. Finally, at nearly 6PM EST, CRN reported that SCO decided to wait until Wednesday.http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04...4/03/02/2250228

[linuxdude32]

Maybe they only just found about this:

The Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) continues to stand behind Linux users in spite of the latest of SCO's legal moves. The OSDL Legal Defense Fund, stacked three million dollars high at the moment, is ready to be put to use protecting any Linux user sued by SCO who applies for aid.

I knew they were going to protect developers, didn't know they were going to protect users, too. Cool! Surely this is proof enough that SCO has no ground to stand on. That they won't go through with their lawsuit and that even if they did, OSDL are so sure that they have no basis that they'll protect users.

[Guest LilBambi]

Jason, it is very good news indeed.

[Guest LilBambi]

SCO is delaying public announcement but they have upped the ante .. now it will be two of their own customers that will be sued. The two company names will apparently be released on Wednesday.CNET article: SCO delays Linux user lawsuit announcement

"We'll have at least one suit that's filed today before the end of the day," Stowell said Tuesday, with two suits more likely. "There is a high possibility we will be announcing two."

SCO has declined to identify which companies it has targeted for lawsuits, but it has said the first two will be aimed at companies that hold Unix licenses. Google, which uses thousands of Linux servers to power its search engine, is not the target of the initial suits, Stowell added.McBride said Monday that the company has about $64 million in cash--plenty to pay for extensive legal actions.

[linuxdude32]

SCO was unprofitable last quarter but would have been in the black if not for a $9 million payout to its attorneys, led by David Boies of Boies, Schiller & Flexner.

And they're going to announce the names of whom they have sued or are going to right before a conference call with shareholders. Interesting timing considering the quote above (from the article you linked, Fran). I'm so sure it's just a coincidence.

[mhbell]

And the Saga Continues with another twist in the ever changing BS and FUD by SCO!SCO Targets Two in Linux End-User Lawsuits UPDATE:The SCO Group (Quote, Chart) will file lawsuits against two commercial Linux operating system users Tuesday night and announce their names Wednesday, officials said.Company spokesperson Blake Stowell told internetnews.com the lawsuits had not been filed yet and would not be filed in Utah but would be before the courts closed for the day. At press time, courts on the East Coast and Midwest have already closed for the day, leaving only western states open to receive the filings.