SCO Loses

[C1ay]

Judge Dale Kimball has issued a 102-page ruling [PDF] on the numerous summary judgment motions in SCO v. Novell. Here is what matters most from the first line of the judge's conclusion:

...For the reasons stated above, the court concludes that Novell is the owner of the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights.

 

Finally, we get to watch the dominos fall as SCO withers and dies :camera:

 

:hihi::shrug:

[CraigD]

Finally, we get to watch the dominos fall as SCO withers and dies :D

A long overdue decision, I agree. For the small community of people aware of SCO’s odious behavior for the past decade or so, of whom C1ay is clearly one, this is cause for celebration.

 

For those who don’t know what the big deal is, this wikipedia article provides some background. The wiki article, with it dispassionate tone, fails, I think, to note the reason so many people consider SCO such a devil: for many years, they’ve done no actual technical work, having devolved almost entirely into a business dedicated to making money through attempting to gain royalties and lawsuit damages from enterprises that are. An image popular in the 1990s of the once logo character of SCO, a high schoolish-looking devil, committing an aggressive and unnatural act with the Linux penguin, summed up the general sentiment – (rather hard to find) image here (cartoon indecency - not suitable for all viewers).

 

Whether this is really the end of the road / beginning of the falling dominos for SCO/Tarantella, or precisely what this company was, is, and will be, is a question for someone with far more legal and business acumen than me. For me, the whole sorry spectacle just serves to reinforce my view of society as a collection of people including those who make things, those who make money from things, in which the intersection of these two subcollections is small.

[Buffy]

Apparently though, its going to cause problems for Sun, because they got SCO to agree to let them put some of the "SCO Code" in their open source OpenSolaris distribution, and now that agreement has been invalidated.

 

While I'm sure Sun got some indemnification from SCO in their agreement, SCO no longer has deep pockets (unless MS bails them out yet again), and so its not likely that they'll see much relief.

 

Time for Jon Schartz to go begging on hands an knees to Novell for mercy...

 

IP wars create lots of losers and sometimes nothing but,

Buffy

[C1ay]

More on those dominos...

 

The court also ruled that "SCO is obligated to recognize Novell's waiver of SCO's claims against IBM and Sequent". This means that SCO has no rights to assert against IBM and the case is dead. We all knew that SCO was at a dead end but the judge has put the final nail in the coffin....

 

More at NetworkWorld...

[C1ay]

and another slant:

 

SCO agreed. In 2005, SCO CEO Darl McBride said that SCO had no problem with Sun open-sourcing Unix code in what would become OpenSolaris. "We have seen what Sun plans to do with OpenSolaris and we have no problem with it," McBride said. "What they're doing protects our Unix intellectual property rights."

 

Sun now has a little problem, which might become a giant one: SCO never had any Unix IP to sell. Therefore, it seems likely that Solaris and OpenSolaris contains Novell's Unix IP. Whoops!

 

More at DesktopLinux.com...

[C1ay]

and don't forget the Redhat vs SCO suit:

 

Red Hat, Inc. filed suit against The SCO Group, Inc. on August 4, 2003 seeking declaratory judgment of non-infringement of copyrights and declaratory judgment of no misappropriation of trade secrets, as well as accusing SCO of false advertising in violation of section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, deceptive trade practices, unfair competition, tortious interference with prospective business opportunities and trade libel and disparagement. Judge Sue Robinson in the U.S. District Court in Delaware has stayed the case pending the outcome of the SCO vs. IBM case.

 

From Sco.com...

 

I wonder how many more Linux companies could file tortious interference claims? I'm kind of thinking that SCO is going to need a cash influx to keep up with legal fees. I wonder if they'll be a penny stock tomorrow morning :shrug:

[alexander]

For the reasons stated above, the court concludes that Novell is the owner of the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights.

AHAHAHAHHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH OMG AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA

 

I may actually read through the court ruling, this is so hilarious!

Good thing BSD got it's own license, imagine if they were still under the Unix copyright...

Sun is good, i mean while OpenSolaris stinks, sun has finally realized that it should join the OpenSource world, and over the past year made some excellent moves, like OpenSourcing Java, and their new processor. I think its back on a good track, maybe...

[Buffy]

I'm kind of thinking that SCO is going to need a cash influx to keep up with legal fees. I wonder if they'll be a penny stock tomorrow morning :shrug:

Yep:

 

SCO 'disappointed' as shares plunge 70 per cent | The Register

 

Those who live by torts,

Buffy

[alexander]

It was a bringing they bought on themselves. Shouldn't have sued Linux for "stealing code" from them, maybe they would not be in such a hole today....

[C1ay]

SCOX (SCO GROUP, INC. (THE))

0.44 -1.12 (-71.79%) Aug 13 4:00pm ET :shrug:

Open: 0.45

High: 1.56

Low: 0.35

After Hours: 0.45 +0.01 (2.27%) Aug 13 4:55pm ET

 

I sense some delistings headed their way....

[CraigD]

I sense some delistings headed their way....

… on 10/22/2007. Per the wikipedia article “Darl McBride”

On April 27, 2007, NASDAQ served notice that the company would be de-listed if SCO's stock price does not increase above $1 for a minimum of 10 consecutive days over the course of 180 business days, ending October 22, 2007.

Those craving yet more chuckles should read the article’s linked-to “open letter from DM”.

[TheFaithfulStone]

Are we dancing in the streets now? :shrug:

 

TFS

[C1ay]

This kind of reminded me of the movie Flatliners :weather_storm: