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I noticed that the lawsuit Gator was facing was launched June, 2002. Does anybody know whatever happened to it?

Did they settle? Was it dismissed? What of it!

An online Starcraft RPG? Free, only at
In soviet russia, all your us are belong to us!
Karma: Redundant

Microsoft had issues with licensing code for their SQL Server product. They told their customers not to worry, their customers believed them. Then Microsoft loses the battle and the customers are exposed to potentially huge fines and fees. I say that is worse than any of the current mess with SCO. Someone needs to make sure that this is brought up to counter any anti-GPL FUD that might be flying around. Sagent Vs MS Story

Finally, I think it is inappropriate to classify Gator as "spyware" any longer. I challenge anyone to find an instance where Gator installs itself surreptitiously on a users browser any longer.

Then why do I still see Gator being delivered to end-users via drive-by downloads, then? Granted, they clicked yes on a freaking dialog, but if you polled users, you'd find the vast majority of them did so by mistake.

That makes Gator a petty little company increasing its userbase by taking advantage of user ignorance, in my book.

As another poster noted, please see this link. It is perfectly alright to slag the SCO name, it would seem

I like that, keep using the Caldera logo to reference SCO. They (SCO) really hate that.

As a famous cybersecurity researcher, I have access to news articles that are impeccably fresh.

Understanding the Micro$haft-SCO connection
SCO Group drops old Caldera name - .com.com: isn't that a funny domain name?
German Linux association may drop SCO as member
Thousands say 'SCO Sue Me'

As a famous cybersecurity researcher, you should believe what I tell you.

I just read this on CNET News. It's a response to CNET's coverage of the Microsoft-SCO deal, and while not terribly important taken at face value (It's just a troll whose author has "Dear friends at Microsoft"), it's showing that this is already having an undesirable effect, as this person can't be the only one in an influential position to be affected by this news. 'Free' Linux Movement should end

I've used two different Palm apps to do this on my old Palm IIIe. One was called OmniRemote and I don't remember the name of the other one...I originally got it at Cnet/Download.com but don't see it anymore.

You could program it just by pointing the original remote at the IR sensor, and pressing 'record' and it would memorize the signal. You could adjust button sizes/placement etc. Very cool. The range was rather limited, but I would guess in the Sony and some later Palms its not as much of an issue.

According to CNET news.com.com.com.com, it's only $3.99/month and $1.99/month to the people that helped test and develop it. While charging for a service people though was going to be free might not be ideal, come on now - it's 2 bucks a month. Pride for a job well done and good intentions don't pay the bills nor make investors happy. If you don't want to pay for the service, find another comparable solution (or get a job).

Btw, could someone explain these clearly out-of-context quotes?

SCO is already dead and was reanimated by MS to spread FUD, according to Bruce Perens at news.. So it's necromancy.

As you can see in the graphic of Historical and technical background, you'll notice there is no death date for BSD!

Take that, you BSD trolls!

(counterpoint: when something is not dead, it's in the process of dying, which is what the trolls have been saying.)

One little problem, CloudMark SpamNet has alienated the entire community it is based on. For 11 months, it was touted as totaly free community-based spam detection (using p2p bayesian filtering AFAIK), while the end-users beta-tested it. Now, as they reached their 1.0 release, a decision was made to charge $3.99/month for the "service" (which the community created by classifying mail as spam w/ their client). Read more on it here

""We are continuing to work on the Mac version," said Tetzchner in an interview."

• Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla.: enemy in favor of RIAA/MPAA hacking your computer
• Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla.: enemy taking money from Disney

Unfortunately it's true. I have isolated the exactly matching code that is in the source of both kernels:

int i = 0;

And this snippet of code is obviously an obfuscated section of SCO's codified enterprise business process:

#DEFINE GOOD = 1
#DEFINE OUTLOOK = 0
#DEFINE DEEP_POCKETS = IBM
#DEFINE OUTRAGEOUS_SUM = 1000000000

char SKO_revenue;
double competitions_revenue

if ((SKO_revenue < competitions_revenue) && (OUTLOOK != GOOD)) {
printf("Sue %s for %d dollars",DEEP_POCKETS,OUTRAGEOUS_SUM);
}

the story I submitted earlier to Ask Slashdot, but didn't make it to press -

Whoah Nelly! looks like SCO has a new indirect backer in the form of Billy and the Gang. According to News.com.com.com, Microsoft has licensed proprietary UNIX code for an undisclosed sum, which prompts this humble reader to question whether this is just another cheap method to clear off some healthy competition.. SCO is gunning for IBM, needs money badly, and Gates foots the bill. Coincidence?

the story I submitted earlier to Ask Slashdot, but didn't make it to press -

Whoah Nelly! looks like SCO has a new indirect backer in the form of Billy and the Gang. According to News.com.com.com, Microsoft has licensed proprietary UNIX code for an undisclosed sum, which prompts this humble reader to question whether this is just another cheap method to clear off some healthy competition.. SCO is gunning for IBM, needs money badly, and Gates foots the bill. Coincidence?

Here's a follow-up analysis of the story

Fictional news can't beat real headlines:
Microsoft Buys SCO Group's Unix
I note that the article text immediately does have the correct information that a non-exclusive license is what was purchased, not all the Unix assets.

However, my favorite quote from the SCO news is "teams of lawyers and engineers are scouring the source code"
I think lawyers scouring source code is generally not particularly effective.

(Don't look at me. That "zdnet.com.com" URL is what works. Using just "zdnet.com" fails. CNet runs com.com, and I don't know why the ZDNet site doesn't use the same link structure.)

Absolutly. Its little more than a snide effort to point and snear at that "Linux" thing, that steals the Intellectual Property of companies such as SCO. Its not like you have to look far to find evidence of this attitude, either. Right there in the article (This one from CNet)

Late Sunday, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said acquiring the license from SCO "is representative of Microsoft's ongoing commitment to respecting intellectual property and the IT community's healthy exchange of IP through licensing. This helps to ensure IP compliance across Microsoft solutions and supports our efforts around existing products like services for Unix that further Unix interoperability."

Well gee Brad, why don't you just come right out , call us all theives and demand that Linus be given the electric chair?

From the CNet article about Microsoft licencing UNIX from SCO we see:

Late Sunday, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said acquiring the license from SCO "is representative of Microsoft's ongoing commitment to respecting intellectual property and the IT community's healthy exchange of IP through licensing.

I guess you can thank SCO for this latest round of name calling from Microsoft.

Microsoft to license Unix code

Not the same thing, but it does provide much needed cash to SCO.

2003: Bill Gates buys Unix from SCO, sues every Linux co. on earth, buys the Internet from itself, and All Your Base Belong To Us.

Microsoft will license the rights to Unix technology from SCO Group, a move that could impact the battle between Windows and Linux in the market for computer operating systems.

According to a statement from Microsoft, the company will license SCO's Unix patents and the source code. That code is at the heart of a $1 billion lawsuit between SCO and IBM, which is aggressively pushing Linux as an alternative to Windows in corporate back shops.

rest at the URL. . .

They should be stopped!

... but about the uncertain future
Microsoft licenses SCO Unix (code + patents)

This gets dirtier every day

Microsoft may Buy Sco

Now we know who is pulling strings here.. (as if we didn;t guess already )

I wonder how this will affect the case ?

Unfortunately they are.

You do realise that that memo is two years old, don't you?

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-984529.html

news article . BEA is.

This isn't informative, mods. It's /still/ speculation.

The Power5 isn't "starting to replace the Power4", since it isn't going to be released until 2004. (See also here if you want more than once source on that.) 980 speculation is still that: speculation.

"Competitor H&R Block doesn't use any type of activation technology for its TaxCut software and has not made any definite plans on whether to do so with future editions, said Chrys Sullivan, the company's director of software products.

"We think it's an interesting development in our industry," she said. "We're watching this closely to see how the industry reacts."

Sullivan added that H&R Block has given customers a legitimate way to use a single copy of TaxCut on multiple PCs with a new "platinum" version that comes with a license allowing multiple installations in a single household.

"We listened to our customers and we know that a lot of them want to be able install the software on multiple computers in the same household," she said. "We're glad to be able to accommodate that."

Here is a related incident:

http://news.com.com/2110-1017-944258.html

Bargain Network spidered real estate prices on homestore.com/realtor.com and posted them on the bargain.com website. Homestore sued and the case was settled out of court. I wish it was not settled out of court because that would set up a precident.

In my opinion you are asking for the problems. Taking a case like this to court and winning would be difficult. At the very least it would be a serious legal expense.

The last time I checked the rules for Froogle you had to be the actual merchant that ships the product in order to show up in their index. If you are spidering a merchant then you are an affiliate, the products do not originate from you so you would be exluced from Froogle. Froogle does not allow you to sort products by price - so obviously what you plan on doing is different. Froogle also gives merchants the option to be excluded from their index.

My advice is this - get a lawyer because one will surely be contacting you. Familiarize yourself with these phrases: false advertising, breach of contract, and unfair competition.

The CFO got some out of 7,000 shares March 12. The disgusting thing is that their share value has doubled since they started making this noise. Who's buying this shit?

Their total sales went up, but I recall reading that their Market Segment Share (how they did relative to competitive products) went down. So More people used software to do their taxes this year, so the pie was bigger, but Intuit got a smaller percentage of the pie. While total sales are important, MSS is JUST and if not MORE important. Here's a referance. Intuit wants to stopp the loss in MSS.

It is earthlink's and his employer's mail server. He is playing nicely

I notice that despite all the anti-spam efforts, the junk flowing to my inbox is increasing rapidly.

There may be precedent for this. eBay was able to convince a judge to bar spidering of their site.

There is another legal concept called "Unfair Competition" which links copyright and facts.

Normally, facts cannot be copyrighted. However, this law seems to kick in when one company compiles and publishes time-sesitive information that it has taken from a direct competitor in a way which "free-rides" on the efforts of the competitor. It is usually applied to news organizations, when one newspaper sends a reporter to Iraq and a second newspaper (perhaps an evening edition) uses the "facts" in the first newspaper's article to publish the very same news.

I could see the instantaneous publishing of all competitors' prices as a violation of this legal theory.

What I find annoying is that material about other products seems to get kicked off quickly from the front pages of many sites and some even disappear. This is unfortunate because information is essential in making informed decisions. Microsoft products have been unable to survive in a free market nor compete on technical merits, and then there are the image problems, security issues, fines.

The market has already changed and Microsoft has not. RedHat, Mandrake, Suse, and OS X are all far easier to install, use and maintain. And these are more secure. In other words, they are for all practical purposes, drop in replacements for most home and many business desktops, minus the games. For games, there's Playstation and Gamecube. The market has already said what it has to say about xbox

The U.S. economy is hurting so badly that deflation is now a danger. Ballmer, Allchin, and Gates' insistence on trying to keep a dead company afloat is just causing further harm. Enough all ready, if the executives haven't exercised their options by now, tough. Businesses and agencies now realize that by going with the better (i.e. non-Microsoft) systems, not only do they gain more flexibility, but can spend their time working rather than repair.

Sun: Nice hardware, very expensive, CDE.

AMD: Commodity hardware, cheap, WinXP.
HP: Intel hardware, very expensive, CDE or WinXP.

"This seems like it will be about as successful as the whole GIF ordeal a few years back. Where is UNISYS today? Is SCO litigating itself into irrelevance"

Cadence sued Avant! some time ago over stolen code and settled for over $200M (story here). This case seems more like the SCO case if SCO's allegations are true. The good news is that this case will probably drag out in court for a decade, which is probably why SCO doen't want to reveal the offending code. They want to collect royalties for a decade, not have the offending code replaced in a year.

They might be infringing as well as stated in this story.

Why write the notes on the laptop, when you can just record the lecture, and capture the white/chalk board with software (hopefully soon, see http://news.com.com/1601-2-997711.html).

Wasn't there one of these a while ago? June 8, 2000. Did that ever materialize?

Since it takes /. about a week to catch up (Really Old News For Nerds, Stuff that mattered last week) how about the newly announced Sony handheld thingy?

A Microsoft spokesperson is now claiming that it was "an April's Fools joke"

Leave it to M$ to delivery over a month late on a simply joke... WinFS in 2005, yeah right...

If its a hoax, then what is THIS doing in their site...

/*Why is there a penguin on my desktop?!*/

Kinda like when DanQuayle used to get sent out to publicly spell potato/potatoe/tomato/tomatoe to take the heat off of Big Bush. Or when Monica showed off her stained dress to let the DMCA have a little breathing room.

MSN ZDNet even carried the story Here.

Slashdotters defending DRM... am I crazy or am I the last sane one? I'm not sure sure anymore.

Slashdot continues to get more mainstream readership, even getting mentioned in print articles these days. As a side effect of this visibility, the activity of astroturfers has increased -- notice that the pro-MS AC(s) tend to have the same writing style and logical fallacies. When other readers put them in their place, a handful UIDs dog pile one or two posters with ad hominem attacks or the "you-just-don't-like-Microsoft" (appeal to emotion?) attack. Microsoft has a long practice of 'turfing in it's marketing:

• MSFT paid Gartner to publish MSFT material as Gartner's
• fake "grass roots" letter writing
• another fake letter writing campaign
• paid for people to hang out in AOL forums
• paid for people to hang out in ZDNet "talkback" forums
• paid for people to hang out in CompuServe forums
• MSNBC doctored Wall Street Journal material
• Stuffed an on-line ballot box
• planned to plant fake op-ed pieces in local newspapers
• funded favorable think-tank whitepapers
• 'Astroturf' PR campaign exposes Microsoft goals.
• Joseph Menn. "Lobbyists Tied to Microsoft Wrote Citizens' Letters." The Los Angeles Times; Aug 23, 2001; pg. A.1 (print)
• Windows Outstuffs Linux in Poll
• Dead People, Fake Letters, Support Microsoft - Report
• Dead people rise in support of Microsoft
• Microsoft employee's move against AOL backfires
• The Freedom to Innovate Network - an 'Astroturf' Organisation

Also, right now MS is in a panicked marketing blitz. notice all the product placement on the tech sites. The embarassing stuff just disappears from the top page less than a day, but the press releases sit there for weeks.

It makes sense. Most Windows users have both Windows and Office because it's what the OEMs had installed on the machines they bought, nothing more or less. Most of these are either apathetic or know nothin else, so they will not write. Others are pissed off at the low quality, made worse by Microsoft treating security and stability issues as PR issues -- How many times have you heard "computers" crash from BSD, Novell, QNX, Linux, or OS X users? Or is it just the MSCEs? Most remaining clients could go easily over to OS X or one of the Linux distros and the next IT boom would start, like the previous one, without Microsoft.

In short, they need DRM to survive the summer and few, except for MS and RIAA staff