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IBM Puts Pressure On SCO 395

inode_buddha writes "An article at Groklaw shows IBM's legal team dissecting the whole SCO thing professionally and thoroughly. I'm almost willing to bet the case gets dropped with extreme prejudice, especially now that Novell is getting involved. Is anyone taking bets as to when the case actually closes and how?" I suggest the MIT Technology Review add this one to their markets.
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IBM Puts Pressure On SCO

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  • I bet ... (Score:2, Funny)

    by chrispy666 ( 519278 )
    Is anyone taking bets as to when the case actually closes and how

    ...that it will close when we expect it the least, and in a way that we would never have imagined!

    now give me my $699, you insensitive clod !

    • Re:I bet ... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Ella the Cat ( 133841 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @08:56AM (#7415731) Homepage Journal
      I suggest a Slashdot poll. Seriously. Then we can look back and see whether or not Slashdotters in the aggregate can predict the future regarding something we clearly have a lot to say about.
      • I suggest a Slashdot poll. Seriously. Then we can look back and see whether or not Slashdotters in the aggregate can predict the future regarding something we clearly have a lot to say about.

        Slashdot Poll #987 [slashdot.org]
    • by orthogonal ( 588627 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @08:57AM (#7415732) Journal
      Is anyone taking bets as to when the case actually closes and how

      Is anyone taking bets?

      Are you blind man? The reason that SCOX is trading at $17.50 (that's American dollars, not Italian Lire or EverQuest gold pieces, that's American dollars my man!) is that a whole bunch of people are betting!

      When a stock goes from 78 cents (that's pennies, that's less than the cheapest Slurpy at 7-11) to $22.29 in the latest 52 weeks, that's not investing, that's gambling, pure and simple.

      And when the stock moves based on SCO's assertion that AT&T ultimately sold them the One Ring to rule all unix-like Oses, well... then, SCOX is Utah's Vegas, Atlantic City, and Churchill Downs all rolled into one!

      "Who can take a crap SCOX/
      Sprinkle it with lies/
      Cover it in Boies and a GPL theft or two?/
      The MacBride Man!/
      The MacBride Man can/
      The MacBride Man can 'cause he mixes it with FUD/
      And makes the crap taste good"
      (to the tune of "The Candyman Can")

      • Re:I bet ... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by bwt ( 68845 )
        Are you blind man? The reason that SCOX is trading at $17.50 (that's American dollars, not Italian Lire or EverQuest gold pieces, that's American dollars my man!) is that a whole bunch of people are betting!

        NO!! It means that a few people are betting a LOT of money. And you don't exactly know WHY they are betting on SCO. It's entire possible that they expect to lose their bet on SCO but to recoup the money in other places.

        For example, I happen to believe that MS and probably also Sun are happy to fund SC
  • by cgranade ( 702534 ) <cgranadeNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday November 07, 2003 @05:28AM (#7415322) Homepage Journal
    X$699 says that SCO is dead before I get my Plasma TV.
  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @05:32AM (#7415329)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by jonathan_ingram ( 30440 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @05:37AM (#7415338) Homepage

    7. As of the date of this submission, IBM has provided over one hundred thousand pages of production documents to SCO. IBM intends to continue rolling its production to SCO, despite the inadequate supplemental responses we have received from SCO.


    I can just picture the trucks full of paper rolling toward SCO's lawyers...

  • Fraud (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fiftyfly ( 516990 ) <mike@edey.org> on Friday November 07, 2003 @05:40AM (#7415343) Homepage
    What I wasnt to know isn't whether or not SCO get's it's ass handed back on a silver platter in court but rather when McBride's gonna face charges of securities fraud. There just isn't any other way to explain SCO's recent actions. Pretty blatant pump & dump case, so where's the charges?
    • Re:Fraud (Score:5, Informative)

      by MatthewB79 ( 47875 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @06:03AM (#7415394)
      It's been said by SEC representatives already (as posted in other forums and here on /.) that SCO and Darl do not represent enough "pump-n-dump" to affect the current market. In other words, he's not even on thier radar.
      • So as long as I don't ripple more then, say, a couple hundred mil I should be fine? <sigh/>
      • Re:Fraud (Score:5, Insightful)

        by cdrudge ( 68377 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @08:04AM (#7415626) Homepage
        But Marth inside trading a few million worth of stock (for a net gain of only a few hundred thousand dollars IIRC) does...
        • OK.

          Martha got done - really - for lying to the Feds and shredding evidence.

          If she'd kept schtum, she would have walked away.
        • Party On! (Score:3, Insightful)

          by jefu ( 53450 )
          Easy enough.

          Martha Stewart is a Democrat (or at least has donated a pile of money to democrats over the years).

    • There is a way to explain SCO's actions. FUD.

      SCO's legal team is doing everything possible to drag this out as long as possible. The pump & dump can just be a side-action which has the effect of distracting people from the actual goal. Any costs and/or fines from this point on will still be quite minuscule compared to MS's bank.

  • by Cooper_007 ( 688308 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @05:44AM (#7415352)
    That's a first. A legal document that uses terms I can understand. Go IBM!

    What I'm wondering though, it seems IBM is just trying to get the case dismissed here on the basis that SCO refuses to show just what it is they did wrong. Say the judge goes with IBM and dismisses the case, then what?
    Given the recent slashdot article about paying Boies for his work, how much do they stand to gain if it came to this?

    Thanks to Groklaw for keeping close tabs on the trial. I wish general media would be equally forthcoming rather than just spit out whatever drivel SCO shoves their way.

    Cooper
    --
    I don't need a pass to pass this pass!
    - Groo The Wanderer -

    • Well, it's all thanks to the training [1funny.com] which IBM lawyers get.
    • by Ohreally_factor ( 593551 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @07:30AM (#7415577) Journal
      >ay the judge goes with IBM and dismisses the case, then what?

      Then the IBM countersuit goes forward. Oh, SCO will still have some explaining to do.
    • by defishguy ( 649645 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @08:25AM (#7415664) Journal
      I suspect that IBM is not trying to get the case dismissed at all. IBM is using the threat of dismissal to pressure SC0 into public discourse of the alleged stolen code.

      SC0 desperately does not want the alleged stolen code to enter the public record because we all know it will be 3.2 seconds before any code is re-written in the kernel even if it's IBM doing the re-write.

      This however is a great thing. SC0's case should be dismissed but not IBM's countersuit, which if found to be true will force SC0 to stop distributing Linux and probably their Linux personality kit too. It is IBM's countersuit which squarely applies to the GPL and it is also where the GPL will receive it's vidication.
  • 2/1 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by L-s-L69 ( 700599 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @05:45AM (#7415355)
    Case closes. All SCO execs having got rich, got jobs with micro$oft or just laying low for a while. No charges pressed, only people who suffer are SCO's employees. SCO gets taken over or closed for good.
    • Re:2/1 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Zocalo ( 252965 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @06:06AM (#7415403) Homepage
      only people who suffer are SCO's employees

      And the fools who bought SCO stock thinking they were going to get rich, but didn't quite dump the stock before the inevitable crash when the case collapses. I can't say I'm feeling sympathetic though.

      • Re:2/1 (Score:3, Insightful)

        by j3110 ( 193209 )
        I'm kindof torn on that one. Anyone actually stupid enough to invest in SCO probably is just going to get what they deserve. It takes a pretty big idiot to invest in a company that is in the middle of a lawsuit to begin with. Legalities are expensive and non-productive in the long run. Just taking my few ECO classes in college tells me to only invest in companies that have something marketable (SCO Unix isn't marketable in it's current form compared to competition). Thinking SCO can stamp out all it's
      • Re:2/1 (Score:3, Interesting)

        It's professional market speculators buying the stock. Look: If you play the smart odds over a large enough sample pool, you win. It doesn't matter if nine of every ten bets (did I say bets? I ment investments) fail if the remaining one pays off better than ten to one.

        The trick, of course, is knowing the difference between a smart bet and a big one. This is why day traders go broke: to them, it's no longer investing, it's gambling.

    • Re:2/1 (Score:3, Insightful)

      by penguin7of9 ( 697383 )
      No charges pressed, only people who suffer are SCO's employees. SCO gets taken over or closed for good.

      SCO investors stand the most to lose--the dummies that just paid top $$$ for inflated SCO stock prices.
      • Serves 'em right for supporting this kind of stupidity.

        People who actually did some research (and therefore decided not to buy stock in this company) would then be safe.

        You'd think that /. would be a good place for potential investors in technology to at least do a little "reading between the lines"...

        N.
    • Case closes. All SCO execs having got rich, got jobs with micro$oft or just laying low for a while. No charges pressed, only people who suffer are SCO's employees.

      Uh, now you're forgetting about the other two cases. SCO is not out of the crosshairs just by their own case being thrown out...

      SCO gets taken over or closed for good.

      IBM vs. SCO has potential to nuke the company into oblivion.

  • by dfung ( 68701 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @05:52AM (#7415368)
    I'm glad I'm not on the receiving end of the IBM legal machine. As a bystander I must admit that it's quite entertaining:

    "Either SCO has evidence to support its accusations or it does not. If it does, IBM is entitled to see it now; "
    = "shit"

    "if it does not, IBM will be entitled to dismissal of this case."
    ="or get off the pot"

    At this point, Darl's lawyer turns to him and says, "You don't think IBM has run diffs on the source tree yet, do you? Because if they have and are ready to respond, we're probably pretty much screwed".

    I pity the legal associates for IBM who have had to trace the provenance of every line in the source, but their pain will be worth it when SCO releases their first specifics and are nailed to the wall.

    • by theonetruekeebler ( 60888 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @07:20AM (#7415552) Homepage Journal
      SCO's lawyers get a twenty percent payoff if SCO wins or IBM settles. If SCO is bought out while the lawsuit is pending, the lawyers get twenty percent of that, too. source [yahoo.com].

      Nice to see that the lawyers themselves understand this suit is nothing more than a way to harass a large company into paying off.

      • So what do they get if SCO is hung out to dry and nobody buys them?
      • SCO's lawyers get a twenty percent payoff if SCO wins or IBM settles. If SCO is bought out while the lawsuit is pending, the lawyers get twenty percent of that, too.

        Not only that, they get 20% of any equity financing deals that come along during the suit and up to an additional $1mm and 400K in options (see the Oct 17 8-K filing with the SEC here [yahoo.com].) And note, they got $50mm in equity financing right around that time. So, Boise & co. could alrady have (or have commited to the) $11mm cash and $7mm worth

  • What if... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I allready paid my license to SCO, will they be returning my $699?

    It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
  • Good or bad? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GrouchoMarx ( 153170 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @06:01AM (#7415388) Homepage
    I can't really decide if I want this case dismissed or not. (I know my desires in the matter have nothing to do with it, but hear me out.)

    On the one hand, if the judge comes back with "SCO is lying through their teeth, there's nothing here, SCO bugger off, sorry about all the trouble IBM", then it will neatly tie up the FUD machine and probably bring an end to SCO right quick. Yes, there IS such a thing as bad PR, and we don't want any more of it. :-)

    On the other hand, a dismissal would not allow for a vetting of the GPL in court. Of all the possible tests of the GPL, this is perhaps the most pro-GPL case we could hope for. (Not SCO's accusations, but IBM's responses that SCO is in GPL violation.) For a judge to formally declare theat the GPL is indeed valid and legally binding would be a very good thing, but won't happen before 2005 at the earliest the way this case is going. That's a lot of FUD time.

    I really can't decide which to root for. :-)
    • Re:Good or bad? (Score:5, Informative)

      by DaEMoN128 ( 694605 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @06:13AM (#7415414)
      Actually, the SCO case can be dismissed and not affect the IBM countersuit. The GPL issue isn't brought up in the SCO case; it is part of the IBM case. The GPL will still be tested even if Judge Kimball tells SCO to quit smoking crack and continue with discovery for the suit that IBM brought against them.
      • Parent is absolutely correct.

        Dismissal of SCO's suit doesn't mean dismissal of IBM's countersuit.

        In IBM's countersuit they accuse SCO of copyright violations and GPL violations. The GPL will have it's day in court. There is nothing SCO can do about that now.
    • GPL in court (Score:5, Informative)

      by Ender Ryan ( 79406 ) <TOKYO minus city> on Friday November 07, 2003 @11:25AM (#7416537) Journal
      Actually, the GPL has already "stood up" in court, see MySQL vs. Nusphere.

      http://www.linuxworld.com/story/34553.htm [linuxworld.com]

      Specifically, In the process, a federal judge deemed the GPL enforceable and binding.

      • Sorry, but no (Score:4, Informative)

        by DaveAtFraud ( 460127 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @04:28PM (#7419430) Homepage Journal
        I frequent Groklaw so I chased your article through Google to finally end up with this article [harvard.edu] which digests the fallout from the case. The critical quote from the paper is (top of page two)
        One particularly interesting point: it did not appear that anyone was arguing that the GPL did not apply or was not a valid license.
        Though what Judge Saris said in the proceedings has no value as precedent in other cases, it sounded as though the GPL would be treated as any other license would be in a software context.
        I would have loved to have come up with a finding that says the GPL is enforceable and binding but this would seem to indicate that MySql vs. NuSphere doesn't provide it. I'm guessing this is because the GPL itself was not in dispute, but rather, the question was whether it applied to NuSphere's proprietary extensions to MySQL.
  • Dissecting (Score:3, Funny)

    by Elendil ( 11919 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @06:05AM (#7415401)
    An article at Groklaw shows IBM's legal team dissecting the whole SCO thing professionally and thoroughly.

    And people say that animal testing should be banned... ;-)
    • by JamesP ( 688957 )
      And people say that animal testing should be banned... ;-)

      I for one am uncondicionally pro testing in telemarketers, McBride and spammers...

  • by penguin7of9 ( 697383 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @06:19AM (#7415425)
    Here is one:
    break;
    Here is another one:
    }
    This blatant violation of SCO's intellectual property has occurred all over the Linux kernel and many GNU user programs.
    • by watzinaneihm ( 627119 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @06:41AM (#7415468) Journal
      The whole thing is funny. According to the article, SCO pulled up some 519 files which have around 300,000 lines of code, which might or might not contain tainted code. That is something like 1 percent of Linux kernel code. Rewriting the whole thing might take a month or two at the maximum, assuming cleanroom specs can be developed out of it.
      If that is worth a billion, then is Linux worth 100 billions? Linus is then richer than Bill.
      • by Anonymous Coward
        According to the article, SCO pulled up some 519 files which have around 300,000 lines of code, which might or might not contain tainted code. That is something like 1 percent of Linux kernel code.

        You're suggesting the Linux kernel alone has 30,000,000 lines of code in it? I don't think you and I are looking at the same kernel. It would be closer to say that 300,000 lines of code is 10% of the Linux kernel, which would take some substantial rewriting, and makes your last comment stupid.
      • by michael_cain ( 66650 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @12:15PM (#7416959) Journal
        SCO pulled up some 519 files which have around 300,000 lines of code, which might or might not contain tainted code. That is something like 1 percent of Linux kernel code. Rewriting the whole thing might take a month or two at the maximum, assuming cleanroom specs can be developed out of it.

        First point -- on the assumption that the case will continue, which I believe, it may be some time before anyone knows which lines are "tainted". For example, SCO points at the source files for JFS and says "These may be tainted." IBM says, "Which lines?" SCO responds with, "Any lines which you developed under AIX. Which are those?" SCO's legal theory seems to be that any features of AIX which were transfered to Linux are a violation, unless IBM can prove that the code given to Linux was developed as part of a non-AIX operating system, then ported to Linux directly from that non-AIX system. IBM is using the obvious tactic of providing a mountain of raw information, then demanding that SCO sift through it and identify the lines that are in question -- make it too EXPENSIVE for SCO to continue the case.

        Second point -- on the assumption that SCO wins, which I don't believe will happen, generating cleanroom specs may well be a problem. As I understand it, the contract forbids revealing the methods as well as the source code. IBM would be in the position of having to say to the Linux community, "The code and documentation that we revealed to you, and on which your specs are based, were trade secrets that we did not have the right to reveal." ANY use of that information -- such as writing specs -- could be deemed improper by a court. However, if SCO wins and gets a large settlement from IBM, I would expect the judge to rule that SCO has now been compensated for the loss of their trade secrets, and that the Linux community is free to make use of those "secrets".

        SCO appears to have (although IANAL) a simple case that is at least arguable. I have to believe that all of the public posturing, much if not all of which is irrelevant, is intended to run the share price up so that the executives can cash out.

    • Here are some more:

      #include <stdlib.h>
      int main (int argc, char *argv[])
      {
      int i;
      i++;
      else
      return;
    • by |>>? ( 157144 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @07:28AM (#7415572) Homepage
      Gotta love linux:

      $ cd /usr/src/linux
      $ grep -riE "break;|}" * | wc
      368665 1011575 14615858

      At a dollar per violation, that's a better return than my lotto investments...
      • way too much!!!!!
        Your regular expression finds any line that contains a } not just any line that is a }.

        Try this, it is any line that is just a break; or a } except for leading and trailing white space:
        $ grep -rE '^[ \t]*(break;|})[ \t]*$' "/usr/src/linux" | wc -l
        109614

        That finds about 3 times fewer instances, but still a good chunk of change.

  • by fruey ( 563914 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @06:35AM (#7415459) Homepage Journal
    II. SCO'S COMPLAINTS ARE MERITLESS AND IRRELEVANT.

    No need to read the threads here, the summary of feeling is already in the original article :-)

    Move along, nothing new to see here...

  • by dipipanone ( 570849 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @07:03AM (#7415516)
    One of the things that I find interesting about this whole case is the fact that Boies used to be a partner in Cravath, Swaine and Moore -- the law firm that are handling the case for IBM.

    You've got to wonder what Dave's ex-partners currently make of all this. I guess initially they might have been somewhat anxious, thinking 'Oh no, one of our own coming after us. He'll be tuned in to all our cunning strategies and will use them against us.'

    Now though, they must be laughing their asses off, thinking 'Good job that dummy left before he did any real damage to our reputation.'

    On the other hand, given his twenty percent of all new investment in SCO, Boies has already had one decent payday, but you've got to wonder whether that will be sufficient to compensate for the damage to his firm's reputation that their handling of this case must have done to date?
    • Now though, they must be laughing their asses off, thinking 'Good job that dummy left before he did any real damage to our reputation.'


      No, they're probably laughing on their cell phones to their mothers, saying, "and you wanted me to be a doctor..."

      Lawyers almost always benefit, no matter which side of a case they're on.
      • by arth1 ( 260657 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @08:57AM (#7415735) Homepage Journal
        Lawyers almost always benefit, no matter which side of a case they're on.

        That's an unfortunate side effect of how the US constitution has been interpreted (by lawyers, I may add). Having the right to councel is interpreted as the right to the best councel your money can buy. It's apparently not unconstitutional, though, to have one side with a court-appointed $500 overworked defense lawyer who hasn't even had time to talk to you before the trial, while the other side has a $5 million staff of dedicated experts. That's considered a fair trial...

        What would be more fair was if both sides paid what they thought the case was worth to a common pool, who was then split equally between court-appointed attorneys. Then you're entitled to as good a defense as your adversary, and if you're in the right, and contributed enough to cover basic fact-finding for both parties, that should mean you will win, right?
        Oh, but the lawyers would lose...

        Regards,
        --
        *Art
        • Or another idea (Score:4, Insightful)

          by A nonymous Coward ( 7548 ) * on Friday November 07, 2003 @10:31AM (#7416131)
          Where each side can only spend as much as the other. If I am sued by McD, and only want to spend $100 on my defense, that's all they can spend on their offense. Or if I sue McD, and only want to spend $2000 on the case, that's all they get to spend of defense.

          There has to be some minimum, of course, it makes no sense to expect a corporate lawyer to only spend $100 on a case. But no banks of several lawyers deponing hundreds of witnesses just to put the fear of McD in people.

          Another aspect would be an escape clause ... if McD wants to spend $1M, they have to loan me the difference from what I want to spend, and if they lose, they don't get it back. I have to agree to this loan.

          This would apply in all cases, criminal or civil. No more state DAs spending a fortune on sending some illiterate scumbag to the death chamber because his public dedfender only had $300 to spend.

          Anyway, I like my scheme :-) Seems like it ought to go a long ways towards reducing the money power in our legal system.
          • Re:Or another idea (Score:3, Insightful)

            by hendridm ( 302246 ) *
            Hmmm, who sets the "minimum" that can be spent? A million dollar minimum is a lot to me but chump change to a major corporation. Also, by requiring that McD lend you the money, it almost seems like they're being punished before even being found guilty. It would make every crackpot coffee drinker come out of the wood work, piss away an insane amount of money in legal fees out of spite, possibly lose and give McD the finger as they disconnect their phone line to avoid creditors. It also doesn't seem like
  • by locarecords.com ( 601843 ) <davidNO@SPAMlocarecords.com> on Friday November 07, 2003 @07:22AM (#7415560) Homepage Journal
    ...

    Who ares which way the legal action goes.. That is not the point. The idea is to spread enough confusion and uncertainty that corporate entities will be more likely to use perceived 'legal' and 'safe' versions of unix that don't have any licensing issues.

    Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt contribute to the bottom line when it comes to conservative decisions about technology platforms. And let's face facts how many people read below the headline with its exagerrated emphasis on legal uncertainty and disarray.

    No company wants to risk their technology decisions being upset by later unbudgeted licensing, legal and technical problems when the quiet life of a standard product from a multinational is on the shelf next to it...

    • You seem to be confused here. It's not FUD anymore without Uncertainty; thus, a clear verdict DOES have a huge effect.

      And in the case of clear verdict in IBM's favor, that'll have a positive FUD-breaking ripple effect for Linux (just as a verdict in SCO's favor would have a negative FUD-enforcing ripple effect). IBM winning the case would send a very solid message of "Linux is safe - look at what happened when it got challenged". It sure makes future challenges less likely to happen when IBM very visibly c
    • Who ares which way the legal action goes.. That is not the point. The idea is to spread enough confusion and uncertainty that corporate entities will be more likely to use perceived 'legal' and 'safe' versions of unix that don't have any licensing issues.

      Unixes like AIX? Oh, wait... The thing is, the way SCO is claiming that any Unix is a derivate of their Unix, and that any technology put into it by third parties is now controlled by SCO, there is no "safe unix". Btw, how's that for viral licencing, it m
    • by pjrc ( 134994 )
      No company wants to risk their technology decisions being upset by later unbudgeted licensing, legal and technical problems

      Why then, do that almost all use Microsoft Windows??

  • It gets better! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Larsing ( 645953 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @07:25AM (#7415564)
    SCO has filed a motion to compel discovery [groklaw.net] against IBM and IBM has responded [groklaw.net]...
  • by MaGGuN ( 630724 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @07:57AM (#7415613)
    I suspect SCO will stop before any actual lawsuit takes place, using some obscure excuse. But at the same time holding their doors open for future litigation, just to maintain the insecurity among todays and future linux users.
  • Timeline (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kalak ( 260968 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @08:02AM (#7415622) Homepage Journal
    It appears that "IBM's motion to compel is scheduled for oral arguments on Dec. 5." (stolen from Groklaw [groklaw.net]). Hopefully after that, things will tank and we can get back to normal.
  • by AndroidCat ( 229562 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @08:04AM (#7415624) Homepage
    An article at Groklaw shows IBM's legal team dissecting the whole SCO thing professionally and thoroughly.

    Don't you usually only dissect something when it's dead? Yeah, that sounds about right--but stick the fork in to be sure. Pass the popcorn...

  • by theolein ( 316044 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @08:09AM (#7415635) Journal
    IANAL (or his coffee boy) but one thing strikes me almost immediately upon reading the SCO and IBM requests and responses: IBM's method and language is far clearer and to the point than SCO's. IBM does not resort to the use of (semi)abusive language but stays focussed and follows avery clear pattern of logic which basically states that IBM will present reasonable evidence as requested, but it requires that SCO also provide resonable evidence and point out exactly what, where and when has been infringed. That is something that SCO seems to have real problems in doing (and no, the 337'000 lines in 531 files in the Linux source that have been mentioned by SCO will not suffice as nowhere does SCO point out exactly, as required by law, which lines in those files are SCO's property with a reference to Unic source code), and SCO seems to have real problems in defining what has been infringed. In fact it seems as if SCO is trying to make a case as it goes along and has no real evidence to date.

    What is also noticable is that IBM is bringing SCO's public behaviour into the case, finally. SCO is finally being called to account for it's disgusting public behaviour, and I'm pretty sure that IBM is going to use Darl, Chris and Mike's statements against them in court. I think those boys are probably too fucking stupid to realise that what they're said amounts to public record and is admissable in court. I hope they end up being as poor as I am. I hope Darl and co get sued individually by hordes of Linux contributors for damaging Linux business and end up poverty stricken on the street corner begging for booze money in Salt Lake City.
    • by Tsu Dho Nimh ( 663417 ) <abacaxi.hotmail@com> on Friday November 07, 2003 @10:22AM (#7416093)
      "IBM does not resort to the use of (semi)abusive language but stays focussed and follows avery clear pattern of logic "

      IANAL, but IAAPW (I am a professional writer) and IBM's filings are superbly written. they have a good final edit team at work. Compared to them, the SCO lawyers are handing in the sort of incoherent work typical of term papers done at the last minute with the help of large amounts of caffeine.

      This could easily be used in a "legal writing" course as "how to" and "how not to" write briefs, motions and memorandums.

      • by Anonymous Coward
        I believe that you're correct. I just spent quite a while reading these notes and I notice a pattern.

        In IBM's response to discovery, it actually lists substantive complaints and gives SCO a reasonable amount of material for discovery (e.g. the sources to several AIX & Dynix versions). They could, perhaps, have given SCO a bit more, but they may already be working on that and much of what SCO asks for is irrelevant. SCO's complaints about IBM not producing enough in discovery strike me as whiney. Th
  • by The Mutant ( 167716 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @08:18AM (#7415654) Homepage
    And they ain't good. [yahoo.com].

    Insiders are all selling. Keep in mind that they have complete and perfect information about their firm, and its future prospects.

    Insider selling is usually a sign that management feels the shares they hold are over, not under, valued.
    • So are IBM... (Score:3, Informative)

      by MosesJones ( 55544 )
      What does it mean? [yahoo.com] are IBM worried about losing ?

      Oh wait, both selling patterns are pretty similar. This isn't really news it just means that people have set up automatic sales and these have to be done well in-advance. What will be news is when senior execs sell large amounts of stock automatically as the price DROPS.

      If I was a SCO exec I'd be putting my sell price as a drop below 15 or a rise above 25, the drop price is the important one though as it will tell us how confident they are, the lower the
    • What's really sad about it is that this isn't really the kind of volume that's going to get the much attention. You're talking about a company with almost 14 million shares outstanding, and 45% of the shares are held by insiders, but the trades are of 5000 and 10,000 shares. That's just a drop in the bucket.

      That doesn't mean some of these guys aren't raking in some nice money, but it's just not a massive amount.
  • by EmagGeek ( 574360 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @08:29AM (#7415671) Journal
    I just bought two brand-spankin-new IBM laptops to replace my ailing HP machines. Going to put Suse on one of them and RH Enterprise Linux on the other one. Going to take a picture of them side-by-side and mail it to SCO. Can't wait :)
  • stock shorting (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SubtleNuance ( 184325 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @08:47AM (#7415705) Journal
    Is anyone taking bets as to when the case actually closes and how?"

    Can someone run us through how we would get rich by shorting this stock (SCOX)?

    If IBM gets their case dismissed, the stock is going to drop to $Worthless. Ive never actually done a short -- what are the details?
    • Re:stock shorting (Score:2, Interesting)

      by acceleriter ( 231439 )
      I'm no stock market expert, but the consensus on the Yahoo stock board is that the price is being artificially pumped by people with *lots* of money. This would make a short anything but a sure thing.
    • Re:stock shorting (Score:3, Informative)

      by The Mutant ( 167716 )
      When you short a stock you are engaging in two steps : first, your broker will borrow shares and second, you sell shares you don't own ("selling short") in the open market.

      Now since you have borrowed stock, someday you have to pay back the loan (borrowed stock). Since you have sold the borrowed stock, you have to acquire shares (at a later date) to repay your debt. There are two scenarios here :

      1) Stock price appreciates markedly; since you have to pay back the debt by purchasing (more expensive) sh
    • Re:stock shorting (Score:2, Informative)

      by Alphix ( 33559 )
      Alternative 1 - Put option

      Suppose that the stock of company FooBar is worth $80 today.

      I buy the *option* of selling that stock at $80 in one weeks time (this of course cost me something since there is a risk involved for the entity that I buy this option from).

      Let's say that priviledge costs me $1 (since everybody considers company FooBars stock prices to be quite stable).

      Now, one week later IBM has barbecued company FooBar royally, the stock has plunged to $40.

      The option of selling one stock at $80 i
    • Re:stock shorting (Score:3, Informative)

      by Alsee ( 515537 )
      how we would get rich by shorting this stock (SCOX)?

      From what I hear the current situation is truely twisted. #1 There are a huge number of people already trying to short SCOX. #2 You need a supply of shares trading on the market to cover the short. #3 The vast majority of SCOX is being held by a handful of people tying up the market. Because of #3 there aren't enough shares trading on the market to cover #2 which is actually driving the price UP.

      Yes, the price of SCOX is going UP because a lot of people
  • What about UNIX? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Queuetue ( 156269 ) <queuetue AT gmail DOT com> on Friday November 07, 2003 @09:13AM (#7415778) Homepage
    If this does spell the end for SCO, what will become of UNIX in that case? Is it possible to finally move this ancient codebase - which seems to have little value beyond it's potential as an IP strongarm weapon - into the public domain once and for all?
    • Re:What about UNIX? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by linuxbikr ( 699873 )
      Actually, NO ONE wants the UNIX Sys V code and all the contracts and copyrights that go with it! AT&T dumped it because it was becoming a pit they couldn't escape from in terms of contractual arrangements, royalties, rights, etc. So many companies are tied up in one way or the other with the original UNIX licensing agreements that it is quite the Gordian knot to unravel.

      It was for sale and Novell stepped up to the plate. Sun didn't want it. IBM didn't want it. HP didn't want it. They knew what a

  • by paiute ( 550198 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @09:38AM (#7415871)
    I love this objection:

    20. IBM objects to plaintiffs definition of the terms "IBM", "Defendant", "you", "your", and "any synonym thereof" on the grounds that they are overbroad, unduly burdensome, and seek information that is irrelevant and not reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence.

  • by chathamhouse ( 302679 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @10:18AM (#7416073) Homepage
    And now to balance things off from SCO's perspective. Never clueing in on the possibility that some companies pay their employees to produce some Software Libre. There's a balance out there between proprietary and OSS. You pick what best suits you, or your business model... but probably not a *nix that just now claims PAM as a feature.

    ---

    Darl McBride, SCO Group CEO, to Deliver CDXPO Keynote Titled 'There's No Free Lunch - Or Free Linux'
    08:32 EST Wednesday, Nov 05, 2003

    LINDON, Utah, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The SCO(R) Group (SCO) (Nasdaq: SCOX), the owner of the UNIX operating system, today announced that Chief Executive Officer Darl McBride, will deliver a keynote address at the Enterprise IT Week/Computer Digital Expo (CDXPO) conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday, November 18 at 5:00 p.m. The conference and keynote will take place at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

    (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990421/SCOLO GO )

    In his address titled "There's No Free Lunch -- Or Free Linux," McBride will present his perspectives on the prospects of free industries, SCO's suit against IBM, and why intellectual property must be protected in a digital age.

    "The Internet created -- and creatively destroyed -- great wealth. It also created a culture legitimizing intellectual property theft," said McBride. "When you defend intellectual property, you speak an unpleasant truth. People don't like to hear unpleasant truths. The alternative to this fight, however, is the death of an industry and thousands of jobs lost."

    McBride will also explore how the information technology industry - software, hardware, networking and services -- depends on money passing from one hand to another, asserting that the livelihood of engineers and developers rests on paid models, even as those developers donate time to free projects such as Linux. McBride will lay out his assertion that without paid software, there would be little or no free software. At the conclusion of his keynote, McBride will be available for media questions.

    McBride's keynote will be followed by a Town Hall discussion moderated by Jack Powers, conference chairman of Enterprise IT Week and director of the International Informatics Institute.
  • by mormop ( 415983 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @10:41AM (#7416196)
    Every press release that goes out gets more and more nuts!

    They've claimed, retracted, changed their terms of reference, claimed IP, dropped IP and gone for "contractual terms", reclaimed IP etc. I mean this is the sort of thing judges hate i.e. being pissed around by claimants who know not the difference twixt arse and elbow.

    I can't wait for the press release that reads:

    It all started when a guy in the legal department started having traumatic flashbacks to a Vietnam movie he watched in 1991. This may or may not have had something to do with the half pound of red leb he'd been smoking while watching 'cos he was still at law school at the time. The resulting hysteria was like, infectious, and spread to the management, and like, before anyone realised what was happening we'd turned charlie into evil commie open source developers that had to be wiped out at any cost.

    By the time anyone came round and realised that no-one was taking notice of anything we said it was too late. Our customers had migrated to Linux and mailed us telling us to piss off and it took 3 days to stop the management squatting on the roof and howling at the moon.

    I mean, what happened man?......
  • by Wylfing ( 144940 ) <brian@@@wylfing...net> on Friday November 07, 2003 @11:01AM (#7416327) Homepage Journal
    It looks like this case is ripe for dismissal. However, the horrible reality is that a dismissal will liberate SCO to continue their FUD campaign in the press without having to show their evidence. The Red Hat case has a chance to make SCO shut up, but expect SCO to dodge that bullet for a long time to come and then figure out a way to settle. They will settle litigation out of court, because publicly traded companies like IBM and Red Hat can't justify the risk of trial after getting a reasonable settlement offer (which SCO can afford because they are trading at almost USD20/share now).

    It ain't over for a looooong time yet.

  • by nolife ( 233813 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @11:14AM (#7416435) Homepage Journal
    IBM has a very interesting point that I have seen mentioned before. The below is from the Groklaw link

    Interrogatory No. 1 asks for the identification of files and lines of code from Unix that SCO contends IBM has misappropriated. It is Unix software, after all, not Linux software, that IBM is alleged to have misappropriated.

    IBM is basically saying, show us "your" Unix code that you think we took. This makes more sense then the arguement I've been hearing by the Linux community of show us the Linux code that you think infringes, although the Linux community has no real right to see the SCO Unix code, IBM should have that right as a member of the lawsuit. That would make things even harder as SCO may not be able to turn up such code as it probably does not exist. From a legal standpoint, it makes asks SCO to prove infringment of their code in that manner and takes away thier shotgun approach of ifs, coulds, and resembles.

  • by kimkhan ( 720118 ) on Friday November 07, 2003 @11:45AM (#7416695)
    Read the last para just before the section 'Migration' starts. http://www.thejemreport.com/software/freebsd51.php FreeBSD license lets anyone to use their code in any propreitary software and not affect the software license. So I can take code from FreeBSD and incorporate it into my propreitary software and not having to release it to the community. That is I believe what happend with SCO, they thought they owned the code that is actually licensed by FreeBSD in the first place.

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