SCO Names 1st Lawsuit Target: AutoZone [Updated] 1252
An anonymous reader writes "News.com
reports that SCO has filed the first (of two) soon to be infamous lawsuits. This one is aimed against car part retailer AutoZone, a multi-billion, Fortune 500 company according to the site. Who's next?" Another reader excerpts from SCO's posted claim: 'AutoZone violated SCO's UNIX copyrights by running versions of the Linux operating system that contain code, structure, sequence and/or organization from SCO's proprietary UNIX System V code in violation of SCO's copyrights.'
Update: 03/03 16:28 GMT by T : njan writes with the news that SCO just announced during their ongoing conference call another lawsuit, this one "to be filed against Daimler-Chrysler, alleging that they are infringing SCO's copyright by using code relating to 'core operating system functionality' of SCO System 5."
Kernel version? (Score:2, Insightful)
That's interesting... (Score:2, Insightful)
Autozone? Seriously, that's odd (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Legal Defense Fund (Score:5, Insightful)
Your best assistance would be to go to http://finance.yahoo.com under the stock symbol AZO. Go to the messageboards and reassure the stock holders reading the messageboard there that this is just part of SCO's continuing practice and the lawsuit should be taken lightly.
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
/. readers predict the future ;-) (Score:5, Insightful)
After just reading this thread [slashdot.org] and Groklaw afterwards... I think that SCO should give /. more credit, especially after the "the ranting and dribble that takes place on Slashdot" comment...
Now then Ye Prophets of SlashDot, what more predictions can we get from our 'crystal balls' (LCD screens will do) today :)
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not like this is a company using Linux to derive their core revenue (like a hosting company, for example) - they are using it more as an operational tool. For them, this is an annoyance, not a critical business threat...
IP case for the investors, not the real meat (Score:3, Insightful)
how is this +5 "Interesting"? (Score:2, Insightful)
There's more than webservers in life, kids.
This is a distraction (Score:5, Insightful)
From their press release, it seems like the AutoZone suit is not particularly related to "SCO IP in Linux," but to some SCO libraries that AutoZone may or may not have used it improperly.
But it does not matter. Could we discuss AutoZone tomorrow, please?
This is only a distraction from a bleak quarterly report. A rather blantantly obvious diversion. And Timothy, you should know better than this. This story should have been titled "SCO losses double for Q1 2004," or something like that. You should not be helping SCO manipulate the press.
Revenge (Score:3, Insightful)
Instead of a golden parachute the CEOs of SCO have opted for a semi-bronze boxing glove.
I'm buying something tonight from Autozone
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
Really, except for companies that do most of their business in ecommerce (still a real minority) it's only the throw-away boxes that are facing outward.
Re:Why this is more FUD (Score:5, Insightful)
So? They paid for the original licenses, they can do anything the want with the libraries except re-sell them or reverse engineer them with an intent to reveal the information for profit. SCO would only have a case if AZ was paying a maintenance license, and let it expire.
You gotta be kidding me! This isn't an intellectual property issue, it's a EULA-violation issue. I'd be laughing my ass off if it wasn't for the fact that I'm seriously pissed off about Auto Zone (long time customer).
Bush and crew, if you want re-election, look here: Barratry is bad for business! Tell Ashcroft to stop worrying about abortion doctors and start protecting American jobs and investors!
Another way to see this isn't about Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
It would be exactly the same case - an SCO ex client moving from UNIX to must have used SCO shared libraries as part of the solution because it went so smoothly.
So really this case has nothing to do with Linux at all, looked at in that manner.
an old groklaw comment (Score:5, Insightful)
Jim Greer had a good comment on groklaw [groklaw.net] a few weeks ago about Autozone and the details of their linux transition.
Re:Further info (Score:3, Insightful)
Their entire "case" is built around a single premise that has yet to make it to court to be examined. And yet they are basing their actions in this case as if the outcome of such a trial has already been decided in their favor. It hasn't. Although they are doing an excellent job of looking like asses by ammending their case as they go and upping the ante as if that somehow makes them appear more legitimate.
Point is, they are trying to scare people into forking over money. Clearly the only way they are going to be stopped is by losing and being counter-sued out of existence which they appear to richly deserve.
Unfortunately this is going to take a long, long time. At least the EU has shut them down.
Re:Autozone???? Not quite expected (Score:2, Insightful)
All right guys this isn't funny anymore. (Score:3, Insightful)
Before they sued that company, they were just a dying corp making a big PR splash with a lot of FUD and horseshit to drive their stock price up and make a lot of money. Unethical, dishonest, but no big deal. Now that they're actually suing Fortune 500 Linux-using companie(s), they could actually hurt the OS. Suits will be much more wary about switching if legal tells them they could get sued for it, no matter how much bullshit the lawsuit actually is. At first I laughed at the verbose arguments, the OSS community's cinglant responses and the Slashdot jokes (okay, maybe I didn't laugh at the
They've gone from evil, but ridiculous and harmless, to evil and actually dangerous. The OSS community is a great, grand thing, and now that they're actually starting to get dangerous we should be able to mobilize the power to squash them out of relevance/existence. Couldn't an org like the FSF or a big player like IBM countersue?
The how doesn't matter. What matters is that I've stopped laughing at SCO and I now consider them as a danger.
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
Screw that, they have to first prove what parts of linux are allegedly "stolen"
Re:Why this is more FUD (Score:3, Insightful)
--rhad
Huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is this *really* copyrightable? How can you copyright an organization? Perhaps you can patent a method of organizing something, but copyright? I had thought that copyright applies only to a tangible, set of information, such as lines of code, a written document, a work of art.
The first attempts to scare us centered around "infringing code". Now are they trying to say that "Your Linux looks too much like our Unix?" As far as I'm concerend, Looks like and IS are two different things.
Sherwin Williams or Target next? (Score:2, Insightful)
This is great news! (Score:5, Insightful)
spotlighting companies that use it. My boss will
never again be able to say "no serious company
trusts kiddie software like Linux for anything
critical"
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
We don't talk about Linux to the press.
Reasons SCO is suing AutoZone (Score:5, Insightful)
Hi!
There are a couple of reasons to sue AutoZone. Neither have much to do with AutoZone's tech savvy or their understanding of the different *nix kernels. They're both about business.
Let's talk microeconomics
The cost of any good is measured in currency and utility. Put simply, you'll buy a product if a) it contains what you want, and b) you want it badly enough. That's why people routinely pay $1.09 in a convenience store for bottles of water--they realize that the water is worth pennies (at best), but the convenience of the bottle (and the refrigeration) make the purchase worthwhile. Similarly, utility can be expressed as "reputation," "quality," "resale value," and similar terms. The reason you drive a Honda, rather than a substantially less-expensive Chrysler, is the utility cost of the car. Key point: utility is a significant factor in the price of a good.
The point of this lawsuit isn't to punish AutoZone themselves. It is to raise the utility cost of using Linux in the eyes of other businesses. Probably the single biggest utility cost that managers evaluate is risk. The great marketplace advantage of Linux is that a company can download a copy for free. (They could care less about "free as in speech." They're only interested in "free as in beer.") Microsoft has argued that Linux has a higher TCO [microsoft.com]--which is effectively asserting a utility cost. SCO is now raising another kind of utility cost: the likelihood of being sued.
The impact will be substantial, and immediate: auto parts retailers run thousands of POS systems. Any company using a Unix-based POS system (and there are tens of thousands of them across the U.S.) who has even been contemplating moving to a Linux-based system is having meetings this morning to assure senior management (or just try to assure senior management) that SCO is bluffing. This afternoon those same senior managers will be talking to lawyers, who will likely tell them that while SCO probably is bluffing, SCO can bluff in court for a long time, and who wants to be lawsuit #2? The effect of this lawsuit is to dramatically raise the ultimate cost of any Linux-based solution.
The other reason: making SCO look more attractive to IBM
Remember that SCO is primarily focused on litigation with IBM. SCO claims that IBM is the reason that Unix code "leaked" into Linux--many observers in the financial markets believe that SCO is really angling to get bought by IBM in a new dot-com form of greenmail. IBM was involved in developing AutoZone's new POS system--but evidently did not indemnify AutoZone against claims of infringement (a common practice in licensing these kinds of systems). AutoZone has liability insurance to cover this kind of claim (any company does). But that coverage almost certainly requires that the insurance company have the "free and unfettered right to conduct a defense". Because the suit is based on actions by IBM, the insurance company will instantly seek to force IBM to indemnify AutoZone. If IBM declines, the insurance company will sue IBM on AutoZone's behalf. That instantly creates a bunch of costs (legal costs, outside counsel costs, etc.) for IBM. And, since it's likely that IBM's own insurors will respond to the claim from AutoZone's insurors, sooner or later somebody will say, "hey--it's cheaper to just buy these jerks out." Which is precisely what SCO wants.
This isn't about free software.
Darl and his investors aren't doing this out of a noble belief in the goodness of their cause--or due to a bad case of technomegalomania. They're doing it because they expect an significant return on their investment. They use a legal claim that has enough merit to at least get them into court, and they leverage that claim to make enough of a nuisance that IBM buys them out at a premium. They make a couple of million, and move on. It's about money.
Marketing dream (Score:2, Insightful)
Wonder how long it will be before companies are asking SCO to sue them, just for the marketing boost.....
Nice testimonial! (Score:4, Insightful)
The basis for SCO's belief is the precision and efficiency with which the migration to Linux occurred, ...
What a sweet testimonial to the ease of migration to Linux! I hope all the Linux companies will make use of SCO's public opinion in their marketing materials.
Thanks, SCO!Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Legal Defense Fund (Score:5, Insightful)
--G"
Well, the easiest way to help AutoZone would be to actively purchase your auto parts needs there. Photocopy your receipt and write a letter to their CEO stating that you are in support of them against the SCO and you exercise your dollars based upon your beliefs (and I don't mean religious). If everyone did that, and people signed that they gave permission to the CEO to use the letters as how he or she felt fit to, that would help them out. Or, someone could create an AutoZone share purchasing club online...bring media attention to the whole debate.
Re:Autozone Success? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Autozone???? Not quite expected (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a strategic campaign to install fear in the hearts and minds of corporate CEO's who lack IT skills. Google could laugh the SCO case off and continue with their Linux tinkerings, but if SCO continues to sue companies lacking IT at their core, then this will create FUD amongst other corporations and perhaps SCO thinks they'll actually increase their customer base. Probably the exact opposite will happen, but it will be a bumpy ride for the meantime.
Countersuit Charges? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Autozone Success? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
Take out RedHat allies at the knees. A long-time buyer of RedHat (Enterprise?) technologies coming down hard might scare away other buyers, for fear of the same thing happening to them. Just like a fascist regime.
'Fear will keep the local systems in line - fear of this battlestation!'
Re:Autozone? .. He's evil... (Score:2, Insightful)
Autozone has thousands if not millions of loyal blue-collar customers...
These customers, are for the majority are computer illiterate in comparison to us
Yes they will (Score:3, Insightful)
Those things said, some simple math will tell you when they will 'give up' due to lack of funds. Some more complex math, basically interpolating based on increasing quarterly losses put them at 'giving up' a few quarters earlier. If you were an SCO customer right now, would you renew your support contracts based on the fact that they will be there to answer the phone in a year?
Smart money says this lawsuit will make the few remaining clients they have run to the hills, and they will go away quite quickly.
-Charlie
Re:Why this is more FUD (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe the reason they all get away with such loose journalism is that nobody challenges it. I've already emailed four. Their stories seem basically correct but still carry the SCO party line as an undertone, and especially in headlines
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
The press probably will not note the distinction. However, a court of law would. The future ruling/settlement would have nothing to do with the IBM, Novell or Red Hat cases.
Suit-up for battle. (Score:3, Insightful)
Difference between "contains" and "has rights too" (Score:1, Insightful)
And yet reading press releases such as those linked to here we get the impression that SCO is claiming rights over Linux in general.
In reality there only claim would seem to be the right to charge rats for deserting a sinking ship.
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
To have merit, SCO's "belief" that AutoZone copied their shared libs to Linux would need to be proven true.
But it is indeed not true [groklaw.net]. AutoZone did not use SCO's shared libraries. So not only is the case not really about companies simply using Linux being at risk, but the wrongdoing AutoZone is accused of is merely speculation on SCO's part.
But this case should be a wake-up call for anyone who has actually copied SCO's shared libs.... to either replace them with the GPL's alternative, or do a true port and make a clean break away from anything remoting having to do with compatibility with OpenServer and UnixWare.
If SCO is bought, the terrorists win (Score:5, Insightful)
That idea is the reason governments and large companies will not pay a ransom if one of their executives is kidnapped. In the short term you may get the exec back, but in the long term you make them and all your other employees attractive targets for future kidnappings.
The only way for this to really end is for SCO's claims to be defeated in court and have SCO forced into bankruptcy. Any buyout offer opens the door for Sun or HP or Microsoft or someone we've never heard of to claim that they "own Linux" and start issuing lawsuits.
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to state the obvious but the court of public opinion here is just as important (if not more so?) then the courts of law. If SCO wins with their FUD then we are all screwed.
I can imagine a future where anybody using Linux is automatically labeled a "hacker" or some other such label by ignorant congresscritters/others in power who have bought into the SCO FUD -- "What? Your using Linux? Why? Do you share movies or something?"
The best thing that could happen here is for SCO to lose and be exposed as the money grubbing litigious bastards that they are. Microsoft's (alleged) involvement being exposed wouldn't hurt either -- shitty software/security aside it'd be nice to expose their ruthless backstabbing business practices to John Q. Public.
However if SCO wins this (or any other lawsuit for that matter) -- and I'm sure they picked something with at least a little bit of merit (they aren't stupid) we could be in serious trouble. You think the FUD and the public perception (DoS attacks against SCO's website don't help us here any) is bad now? Just wait and see how bad it gets if they win one of these...
News outlets priorities straight for once (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Support Autozone and go and buy something! (Score:4, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
I love SCOX (Score:3, Insightful)
What will happen is that they will NOT get an injuction, the judge will find that that would cause undue grievous harm to AutoZone. So what then? Well, SCOX will be locked in another costly long term litigation game with a giant, litigation that will only cost them money and give nothing in return. Oh, they'll try to get good PR, but it'll fail.
I love SCO, they're so fucking clueless.
Big legal loophole being abused by SCO (Score:5, Insightful)
Many companies who are frightened of getting sued by these bastards have little other legal options. Not many, apart from badly researched ZDNet trashmag articles, believe that SCo has the slightest chance of success, but what about the financial damage to companies that are getting sued from loss in stock value, and the fact that there is no way in hell that SCO could really afford to pay for the damages once IBM, RedHat and Novell have finished with them.
What is to stop the next POS crap company that is going down from sueing everybody left right and centre?
Re:AutoZone not using SCO's shared libs (Score:4, Insightful)
So essentially what they're saying is, "We think they violated our license and are using our code because they did TOO GOOD A JOB OF PORTING THE SOFTWARE." What utter bullshit.
This is so much like their argument against Linux when they said "Linux MUST be using our code, because without it, Linux wouldn't be as good as it is." (Their bicycle/luxury car argument.) Seems to me they have some overinflated opinion of their capabilities, and believe that nobody else anywhere on Earth could possibly be better than them.
Fantastic.
My prediction (Score:5, Insightful)
Then SCO will claim in the press that it won the lawsuit with the implicit threat that everyone else running Linux had better start paying.
Re:How to litigate... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Great info on AutoZone (Score:5, Insightful)
Several vendors - the original Caldera Linux distribution company, Red Hat, and Linuxcare - were offering support for enterprise installations of Linux. In fact, Bryan Sparks, then CEO of Caldera, flew to Memphis and met with me during my evaluation of the various distribution and support offerings. I also met and talked briefly with Dave Sifry of Linuxcare during the 1999 Linux Expo. AutoZone settled on Red Hat chiefly because of my familiarity with their distribution and the ease with which AutoZone could negotiate a support agreement with them.
I know this is off-topic, but I've seen this quite a bit. Now that Redhat have discontinued their end-user distribution, how many large contracts will they miss out on because the department head is familiar with some other distribution instead?
Re:I get to vote with my wallet ... (Score:3, Insightful)
A quote I heard yesterday - no single drop of rain thinks it's to blame for the flood. We're all at fault for this mess, and if the only benefit I can give is by being an example - OK, I can live with that, as ineffectual as it may be.
Re:Great info on AutoZone (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not odd, it's misdirection. (Score:3, Insightful)
The thing is, every lazy journo out there will assume the copyright violations are in the Linux codebase .
So, /.ers, here's the plan: every clueless tech-journo needs to be put right as soon as - if not before - they report SCO's (and whoever *cough*microsoft*cough is behind them) misleading PR as fact and the whole movement looks like it may be dodgy.
Justin.
Re:Why this is more FUD (Score:2, Insightful)
I noticed that as well, but when I switched the search to SCO sues, without mentioning Linux in my search, I still got a barrage of headlines clearly implying the suit was about Linux.
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This may not be so random... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
However, if every Linux-using company publically says that they're using it, SCO will have 20 zillion lawsuits to file.
Re:ev1servers - take note - scox sues their custom (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, they may have just received a Very Good Deal on their Windows machines from a little company called Microsoft. <wink>
Perhaps this is payback? It certainly isn't 'protecting our customers against lawsuits' as Marsh has lie^H^H^Hsaid, because the customers rent the use of the boxes, rather than purchase them and have them hosted.
Justin.
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Take it! Take the offer! (Score:2, Insightful)
"The court of public opinion" is a non-issue (Score:1, Insightful)
No, I don't think so. "The court of public opinion" does not ware a black robe with "Judge" embroidered on it. The Judge, if he / she is worth 10 cents of what it cost to go to law school, will consider the facts, not "the court of public opinion." In either case, SCO will lose, and bad.
Remember, it's like this everywhere (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:"The court of public opinion" is a non-issue (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the "court of public opinion" instead wears a green robe with dollar signs embroidered on it.
The Judge, if he / she is worth 10 cents of what it cost to go to law school, will consider the facts, not "the court of public opinion."
Absolutely true, but the damage to be done by public opinion is not in the courts, but rather in the IT spending budgets. A shutdown of spending on Linux due to misperception of the facts is nearly as deadly as SCO winning their suit against IBM.
Re:"The court of public opinion" is a non-issue (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, but I don't really give a rats ass if SCO wins or loses any of these lawsuits. It's not like I'm going to be losing my money over it -- I don't have any stock in Autozone, SCO, or IBM.
What I do care about (and what you obviously didn't pay attention to) is what the rest of the public thinks about Linux. If the rest of the public sees us as a bunch of file-sharing, website DoSing, ignorant hippies who think everything should be free then it doesn't matter if SCO wins or loses any of these lawsuits. If they destroy the public perception of free-software and Linux (not that the over-zealot members of the free-software community doesn't do their own fair share of damage to our cause) then they and Microsoft and have won. Are you too ignorant to see that or do you just not care?
The Judge, if he / she is worth 10 cents of what it cost to go to law school, will consider the facts, not "the court of public opinion."
You've obviously never lived somewhere where judges are elected to fixed terms and need to run for reelection have you?
DaimlerChrysler next target (Score:5, Insightful)
Lawsuit #2 (Score:3, Insightful)
DaimlerChrysler is the second company (Score:3, Insightful)
Let us hope that both of them do not settle, as it would indeed be a bad precedent.
Prime Time Judges rule America? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Legal Defense Fund (Score:3, Insightful)
SCO hasn't been afraid of starting lawsuits it can't win in the past; what makes you think it will be afraid to do so in the future?
Besides, if the allegations aren't true, and no SCO libraries are being used, it should be easy to prove and this case will be dropped very quickly (at least quick for the judicial system).
Ah, that's the catch, isn't it? "Quick for the judicial system" seems to be translatable as "within several months" so:
If SCO needs to bump it's stock price up for a few months, then anyone who looks at them funny and has deep pockets is a possible target.
If SCO needs to make using Linux seem risky (to persuade Microsoft or Sun to "buy more licenses"), then anyone who uses Linux is a possible target.
On the other hand, this really doesn't make Linux much more risky than any other business activity: if anyone can sue you for anything, baseless or not, appeasing them all would mean caving in to threats from anyone whose brother made it through law school, not just Darl.
Re:"The court of public opinion" is a non-issue (Score:3, Insightful)
*If* their case doesn't have merit, but if you read the ancestor posts in this thread, there's a glimmer of a possibility that it does.
And if they win the case, that will be extremely damaging to the Linux community, as people will in general draw erroneous conclusions about all the other FUD that SCO has spewed over the past several months.
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, AZ does use Linux to derive their core revenue in a very real way. Every single terminal in every single Auto Zone store runs Linux, with a custom text-menu front end. They run on very inexpensive Siemens 486 boxes IIRC. Thousands or millions of these things in the field--without Linux they can't look up part numbers and in auto parts, part numbers mean everything.
Re:Prime Time Judges rule America? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeh, he's free, but remeber how O.J. Simpson used to be do lots of television commercials for major corporations at one time? Now he's basically shunned by everyone. I don't think that's the future free software supporters are hoping for for Linux.
I want to be a lawyer (Score:5, Insightful)
What other job can you make claims like this at this hell hole of an economy and be profitable... while getting global attention from slashdot etc. Only lawyers can do this.
I'll probably get modded down for this.... the richer the lawyer, the bigger the scum bag.
Re:Great info on AutoZone (Score:3, Insightful)
Sue the goverment for the repeal of the First Ammendment on the grounds that it interferes with their business model.
The sad thing is that if SCO were a couple of orders of magnitude larger, the current administration would probably oblige them. Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
-S
Quit Linking to Groklaw! Jeezus! (Score:5, Insightful)
If you do link, please also link to their paypal account link.
Maybe if 1 out of 1000 of you slashdotters who hit groklaw and see it got hosed will go back when it is up and donate a couple bucks, they can add a server or two.
TIA,
Dave
(BTW, I've donated already, twice)
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:1, Insightful)
Are you saying everybody doesn't run their corporate webserver on a single box that serves as the NAT/firewall gateway, mail server, Samba server, and print server for the entire company? I'm shocked, absolutely shocked.
P.S.: Sometimes I think the Open Source crowd's "hillbilly" roots show through in that they expect if the products they use work for a tiny subset of their world then it should be suitable for everyone in every situation no matter how big the scale. Most likely Autozone has thousands of SCO UNIX POS terminals or something.
Again, no evidence of intelligent life at SCO (Score:3, Insightful)
What those "suspects" don't realise is that such an outcome will leave the field open to a complete Far Eastern takeover of open source in the form of that other major player in this area, the various TRONs running on more devices worldwide than either Linux or Windows and will ultimately lead to the demise of Billy Boy and his evil empire. Not a silver lining but a just come-uppance none the less.
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:4, Insightful)
You have just fullfilled Microsoft's goal in this suit. If they can obscure the growing use of Linux, they may yet survive...
Maybe.
But consider the analogy of growing stealth Linux deployments in the enterprise, gnawing away at Microsoft's empire.
It bears an eerie similarity to the stealth PC deployments on the enterprise desktop back in the early 1980s, gnawing away at the mainframe's empire.
In that sense, Linux could succeed using the very same pattern that Microsoft used to succeeded 20 years ago.
pMaybe SCO knows something we don't (Score:1, Insightful)
Maybe SCO knows someone at AutoZone and thinks that AutoZone will lay down easily?
AutoZone doesn't want to deal with a lawsuit and
1. Pays for a license
2. Settles out of Court
Perhaps there are other outcomes that will appear favorable to SCO and not be particularly damaging to AutoZone?
-greg
SCOX (Score:2, Insightful)
SCOX [yahoo.com] off by 12.82% at this time for the day. Great job guys even stock holders are starting to think you are insane for taking on 3 multi-billion dollar companies at the same time.
Sera
Re:Calm down and stop frothing. Think it through. (Score:3, Insightful)
Could we be underestimating the Enemy? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:"The court of public opinion" is a non-issue (Score:3, Insightful)
She could have proved it to the judge by dragging in some computer, deleting some files, and then showing how she could retrieve the "deleted" files again. It sounds like the judge should have recused himself from the case given his total lack of expertise in computer technology (any technogology?).
Parallels with SCO and the RIAA... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Basis for Daimler-Chrysler suit seems odd (Score:2, Insightful)
Two days ago you heard them tauting that they would sue a Linux End User. Last night you heard they were going to announce two.
Today you hear about these two companies.
The MUST be Linux End Users because that is what they said the other day IN THE PRESS.
Most people won't even check to see if that is really what they are suing about, because they believe they already know the answer from previous press releases.
They are trying to pull a Magician's trick of mis-direction. So far, it has been working for them.
Re:If SCO is bought, the terrorists win (Score:3, Insightful)
Choice? (Score:1, Insightful)
So, if there is a real deity, we get to choose what this deity is like? Surely if there is a deity, it has some nature and characteristics to it, independent of what *I* think? I propose it must therefore be my duty to discern the nature of said deity, based on sound logic, and not merely settle by whim on "the deity of my choice". We don't get to choose.
Re:"The court of public opinion" is a non-issue (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually the ignorant hippies comment referred to some of the more radical people in the free-software movement that seem to think all intellectual property is bad and it's evil to have closed-source software and charge money for it.
While I'd tend to agree with the principal of free-software I think (and most people probably agree with me) there is room for both to co-exist. I don't see the gaming industry going anywhere anytime soon.
It doesn't help our cause any if John Q. Public thinks that we are all a bunch of computer geeks that think software should be "free". In fact if the community as a whole had been thinking more like a corporate PR-type person and less like the geeks that we all are, we probably should never have called it "free" software in the first place.
Of course I'm rambling but I think it's a valid point to consider.
We need a spinmeister extraordinaire.
Yeah that's basically what I'm trying to say boiled down into one sentence ;) Where's the PR department for OSS? Let's get some headhunters and find some guys :P
Re:not just a Linux user (Score:3, Insightful)
Grounds? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is just plain stupid. (Score:1, Insightful)
If Bill Gates were to take copyrighted material say a pirated MP3 and incorporate it in his operating system. Who would be responsible for infringing on the copyright? Bill or the consumer? In all fairness wouldn't Bill Gates be responsible for all copies distributed? I'm by far not an expert on the law but this suit seems asinine and appears to be a gold mining operation/pipe dream/Mob like strong arm tactics. When are they going to gag SCO?
Re:Why this is more FUD (Score:3, Insightful)
Er, no.
Anything involving copying needs a license. The license they paid for only includes so much copying as is necessary for the license to be effective, and that which is given under the copyright laws. That basically means it allows loading and using the operating system in the normal way, and perhaps making backup copies. It does not allow them to copy the files wherever they please.
If they copied the shared libraries to a Linux system (it seems they didn't, and SCO's case is at best speculative and deserving of summary dismissal), they would be doing so without a licence, and have breached copyright.
Even if they did do this, however, SCO would have to show damage. If these were existing SCO systems that were converted to Linux, they're going to have a hard time showing damage, since they can't point to an alternative scenario in which they would have had more money. It's only if there were additional machines put in place that they'd have a case for damages. Of course they may be seeking other remedies which don't require a showing of damages.