SCO Madness Reigns Supreme

Sri Lumpa writes "It will come as little surprise for those of you that followed the SCO stories and read their latest filing that an IP attorney, Douglas Steele, Esq., thinks that 'SCO is trying to get the judge to declare all works released under the GPL for the last 3 years put into the public domain.' Meanwhile, more lawyers give their opinions, with Eben Moglen saying 'It's just rubbish,' while another says of SCO's defense: 'From the outside, it appears so bizarre and so ridiculous that I fear their argument is being misstated,' while Blake Stowell of SCO believes Congress has drawn a boundary between proprietary and open source and still insists that IBM should indemnify its Linux users while refusing to indemnify SCO's Samba users against a potential MS lawsuit. More links to related news stories continue to appear in the comment section of the first link, thanks to the Groklaw readers." Read on for another handful of updates in SCO vs. The World.

Roblimo knows good, honest Constitutional argumentation when he sees it, and over on NewsForge amplifies SCO's claims that the GPL is unconstitutional.

Dopey Panda writes "Looks like SCO has become just a bit worried about their liabilities for distributing the Linux kernel. Starting November 1 you will have to be a registered SCO customer to be able to access their FTP site. So that leaves just a couple days for you to download your own genuine SCO-approved GPL code!"

And perhaps today's most interesting SCO submission: 1HandClapping writes "In alwayson-network.com, Mark F. Radcliffe (HIAL) writes about a little-reported aspect of the SCO vs IBM case: 'Novell, as part of its sale of the UNIX licenses to SCO, retained the right to require SCO to "amend, supplement, modify or waive any right" under the license agreements (and if SCO did not comply, Novell could exercise those rights itself on SCO's behalf). At IBM's request, Novell employed this right and demanded that SCO waive IBM's purported violations. When SCO did not do so, Novell exercised its right to waive the violations on SCO's behalf. Basically, this defense destroys the core of the SCO case: IBM's violation of its UNIX license with SCO.'"

Oh, I see.

[utlemming]

The tactic is to get everything thrown in the public domain. I guess we figured out the new strategy---

1. File law suits

2. Get the licensing declared illegal

3. Profits

The only thing is getting everything released under the GPL in the last three years turned over to public domain would trampel the very concept of a copyright. It is a nice idea for SCO, but in reality they have to be smoking crack to think that this one will work. I honestly can not see it happening.

Old and busted, but still applicable.

[mikeophile]

Ladies and gentlemen of the supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider: (pulling down a diagram) this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now, think about that. That does not make sense!

Why would a Wookiee - an eight foot tall Wookiee - want to live on Endor with a bunch of two foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!

But more importantly, you have to ask yourself: what does that have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense!

Look at me, I'm a lawyer defending a major software company, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca. Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense. None of this makes sense.

And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberating and conjugating the Emancipation Proclamation - does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense.

If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.

Re:Noorda's revenge?

[Anonymous Coward]

a rube goldburg...

pure genius :^)

New theory

[lurker412]

SCO is obviously out to destroy the open source community, but their method is more subtle than previously thought. They just make an outrageous claim and then watch all the open source developers spend their time flaming on ./ rather than doing real work. Pretty sneaky...

Re:The Madness of King Darl

[stephenry]

The one thing I've never truely understood about the Export Control argument is that, firstly, Linux is not American, and can therefore not be controlled by it's government, secondly, export controls only apply to that which is not already freely available to the public. Unless, US law suddenly applies to everyone else in the world, I don't see this being successfull.

Shame really. I can just see it now. McBride's just spent his new $50 million hollowing out an old mountain (for SCO's new headquarters), bought him self a brand new white cat and leather chair and got his employees kit-ed out in matching grey overalls.

SCO's nefarious plan...

[studerby]

SCO's nefarious plan is to get IBM's lawyer's to laugh themselves to death, and thereby win by default.

Sheer genius!

Hanlon's Razor

[Anonymous Coward]

"Never attribute to malice that which can be sufficiently explained by stupidity."

Re:Noorda's revenge?

[sphealey]

Well if you are in to conspiracy theories, it could also be said that maybe Microsoft is pulling the strings and funneling money into SCO to try to undermine the Linux movement. That makes more sense then Noorda starting this whole mess.

After losing the first anti-trust trial (not the one most recently concluded), Bill Gates vowed never to be out-maneuvered in Washington again. And he appears to have purchased the best and the brightest in political, lobbying, and legal advice. If he wants to go after the GPL he will do so in a much more controlled and precise manner. In fact I think Microsoft is lobbying right now to have the GPL outlawed, but you aren't hearing about it in Infoworld. No, this doesn't smell like the new, politically aware Microsoft. Not that they aren't enjoying the pre-game anyway.

Why, if he wanted to get back at Microsoft, would he do something that directs most of the damage to IBM and Linux? Microsoft is loving every minute of this Linux FUD. Even if he advised that SCO go after IBM, if Darl McBride was the least bit sane he would have known he could never win.

In the short term, Linux is being "harmed" in some eyes. But if the outcome is solid case law that backs the GPL and once-and-forall resolves the SysV ownership issue, then the long term benefits to Linux will be immense. And IBM really isn't being hurt by this. Their lawyers get paid whether they work today or not, and IBM can make money selling Linux, AIX, Unixware, Multics, Windows, whatever. They are pushing Linux right now because it is hot and it keeps Microsoft under control, but they don't have any intrinsic stake in anything nowadays except the S/370 systems.

sPh

I see a pattern emerging here...

[Java Pimp]

1. IBM, we sue you for leaking a few lines of our code into Linux.
2. IBM, we sue you because you leaked thousands of lines of our code into Linux.
3. IBM, we sue you because we own Unix and you developed software for Linux.
4. Linux was based on Unix and Unix has 2,000,000+ lines of code. Linux contains all our code!
4. IBM, we sue you... not quite sure why now... We own Linux. Everyone give use $699 or else.
5. All software written under the GPL in the last 3 years is free because the GPL is stupid and it just should be ours anyway.
6. All software ever written is ours.
7. ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!

Re:The Madness of King Darl

[milo_Gwalthny]

Leave Martha out of this you sexist! Especially with Thanksgiving coming up... who will help me get my table set correctly?

Makes sense

[PenguinX]

Madmen always take the most simple and logical path to reason their madness. SCO wants money at the expense of everyone else, so naturally they must assert themselves as superior to everyone else.

It seems to me that they will build an ingeniously incorrect case, bring it in front of a court of law, play the justice system like a card table in Vegas, and if they win ... well that would be bad.

Selling Multics?

[miniver]

IBM can make money selling Linux, AIX, Unixware, Multics, Windows, whatever.

While most of your post is accurate and informative, I have to dispute one point: nobody could make money selling Multics, or they'd still be selling it today. GE tried and failed, Honeywell tried and failed, and no one else was stupid enough to buy it after that. (I am a former Multician.) Multics was very good at a bunch of things, but it was never designed to be ported to different hardware, and it just cost too damn much to run and maintain.

Re:The Madness of King Darl

[critter_hunter]

The madness of King Darl

While King Darl is pretty good, a more interesting name would be "The Princess McBride" ;)

Re:Why is IBM so quiet?

[WWWWolf]

IBM sits quietly for quite a while.

Then, they'll finally speak.

BEWARE, I LIVE.

And then, there will be quite a few comments SCO needs to respond to, such as:

I AM I-B-M.

RUN, COWARD!

At this point, SCO will probably realize challenging IBM was a mistake.

I HUNGER.

RUN, RUN, RUN!

For once upon time there was a time when horror had a face, and that face was - paradoxically enough - the facelessness of IBM's legal department.

Re:Hanlon's Razor

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought we had Athlons for that.