SCO Amends Suit, Clarifies "Violations", Triples Damages

Bootsy Collins writes "This evening on C|Net contains three new items. First, they've upped the damages they're seeking to $3 billion. Second, they claim that by making SMP technology generally available through Linux, IBM violated federal export controls and thus breached their contract with SCO through committing an illegal act. Finally, they elaborate on one specific technology they claim rights to which IBM inserted into the 2.5 kernel series -- the read-copy update memory management features which went in at 2.5.43. Unclear is why SCO thinks they have the rights to RCU, since the technology was originally developed by Sequent in the early 1990s."

Comments

At least we know now what they're "smoking"

[edgrale]

"There are two major products that come from Berkeley : LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence." -- Jeremy S. Anderson

Soon SCO will claim ownership for LSD too ;)

IBM's view

[Anonymous Coward]

Three times nothing is still nothing.

Re:IBM's view

[TopShelf]

And pretty soon this will venture into the realm of imaginary numbers.

"Today IBM successfully convinced the judge to amend the claim to $3 i Billion, to reflect the imaginary validity of SCO's case"

IBM should countersue...

[joeszilagyi]

...on grounds of comedy. This is starting to turn into an old Looney Tunes cartoon, where the SCO Coyote throws everything but the Acme kitchen sink at the IBM Roadrunner. Meep meep!

Re:IBM should countersue...

[testy]

I disagree. IBM is more like the oncoming train that Wile E. McBridey sees in the tunnel, thinking it's the light at the end.

Slashdot -

[the_Bionic_lemming]

Hmm - five - six more articles maybe, and SCO will become the most posted/hated OS on Slashdot?

I wonder how Bill Gates will take losing the "Number One" spot here at /. ;)

Re:I've been away, so maybe this has been suggeste

[KeoghX]

FUD champagne? Is that the kind with scary bubbles?

Re:Only 3 billion?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why ask for 3 billion when we can ask for 3 _million_?

*raises pinky finger to corner of mouth*

Re:Open Letter to CmdrTaco

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I believe the "It's Funny, laugh" logo of the Monty Python foot suitably amended with at least one smoking bullet hole through it, would be far more approriate for SCO v's The World stories.

Re:Something to consider...

[tmhsiao]

I don't think it's an unfair suppository to make at all that Microsoft is viewing this as a high-risk low-cost gamble on SCO winning this fight.

I hate those unfair suppositories, especially from Microsoft.

I always knew Bill Gates was trying to shove something up my bunghole.

Re:Revealed! Whole programs copied in Linux!!

[countach]

Well, duh. The plagarist removed the copyright notice. They're not THAT silly!

But shame on you for revealing all of SCO's intellectual property! Don't you realise what this will do to their stock price? You've got a trade secret law suit on the way buddy.

Re:SMP? RCU?

[Waffle Iron]

I think they're complaining that SMP was a restricted technology, so by helping to add SMP to the Linux kernel, and making it freely available, IBM violated US export laws.

Who else very recently made the Linux kernel freely available to any foreign party including terrorists, communists and all three vertices of the Axis of Evil?

Hmmm?

Could it be .... SCO!!!???

Didn't they do the due dilligence to see if the capabilities that they were distributing were exportable under U.S. law? Looks like they didn't, and now OBL himself could very well be running Caldera Linux on the Beowulf cluster in his cave simulating thermonuclear explosions.

Re:Open Letter to CmdrTaco

[bubbha]

How about Dr. Evil with his pinky raised to the corner of his mouth saying "Three Billion Dollars!"

Future lawsuit headlines

[fireboy1919]

SCO upps damages to 6 billion - citing IBM's illegal use of 'international business machines' acroynm which they thought up first.

Damages go up to 15 trillion when SCO discovers that gravity and other basic laws of the Universe which IBM has been using to build servers formed a basis for SCO's machines first.

Finally, SCO ups damages to (quoting here) "forty bazillion-kabillion" for "having a successful business," which is what SCO was planning to do but couldn't because of IBM.

It should be noted that this last figure was given just before the Executive board collectively passed out after coming down dangerously from a hallucenagic high caused by dry-erase markers, non-dairy creamer, pez, and possibly other office-related recreational drugs.

Re:Release the ninjas...

[Mohammed Al-Sahaf]

There is no way penguins can write SMP code without our help. We will slaughter all the penquins and have them for dinner

As SCO's new press minister, I can confirm this.

IBM are a superpower of villains. They are superpower of Al Capone. These cowards have no morals - they have no shame about lying. We will slaughter them all .... most of them. The situation is excellent, they are going to try to sue us, and I believe their grave will be there. We will push those crooks, those mercenaries back into the swamp!

Mohammed al-Sahaf (now SCO press spokesman)

Letter to IBM

[umrgregg]

Dear Mr. Palmisano:

I have become aware of a litigious situation between your company and that of Darl McBride (SCO). In your pending defense against their lawsuit(s) I would like to recommend to you that I, NMG be your sole defense attorney. I am not on your legal defense team, nor am I actually a lawyer. I am merely a reader of Slashdot. SCOâ(TM)s claimâ(TM)s of damages are so ludicrous, I believe that even a troop of Screaming Monkeyâ(TM)s could provide you proper defense. Unfortunately for you, the Screaming Monkeyâ(TM)s were already hired out for the year by the Federal Trade Commission. Therefore, I extend an offer of my services for your legal defense in return for a pack of smokes, a ThinkPad and a chance to punch SCO in the kisser. This union will save you a bundle of money in defense feeâ(TM)s and will save your legal resources for your pending investigation with the horde of Screaming Monkeyâ(TM)s. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

SCO isn't scared at all.

[RoLi]

Dear IBM!

We have now identified lots of code copied source from our precious SCO Unix.

Here are 2 of the worst offending code snippets:

kernel/sched.c: n++;
kernel/signal.c: ++count;

Please look at our SCO-Unix code, you will see how shamelessly those lines were copied:

drivers/scsi.c: n++;
drivers/keybd.c: ++count;

And there are 58 other lines of shamelessly copied source code in Linux. Our marketing department has calculated that each line of code is worth 50,000,000 $ which translates to an average of about 10,000,000$ per character. We have found copied characters worth of 5,693,340,000,000 $ in the Linux source code, however, because we are generous, we only insist on the fully copied lines of code. However, if IBM doesn't pay, we might be forced to demand the full amount.

But for now, I only demand IBM to pay 3,000,000,000 $ within 2 weeks to this account:

account holder: Barl McDride
account no: 4239573204
Royal Cayman Bank
134 Ocean Boulevard, Cayman Islands

Every week of delay will cause another 1,000,000,000 $ due to lost sales, mental stress and other damages which have to be paid to the same account, so please pay quickly, or else.

Sincirely, your pal

Darl McBride

Re:They must really be scared now.

[barfomar]

If I were a CEO of barely breathing tech company in the midst of a shakeout, I'd consider accumulating a few million shares of my company thru an off-shore broker when everybody is puking them out. Pick them up quietly, like gathering apples as they fall from the tree. Then, file some outgeous suit against some deep pocket, wait for the shares to multiply by 20-30 times, call my broker on payphone using a phone card purchased a gas station, and head for the islands. But, I'm not in that position....

ONE [ HUNDRED ] BILLION DOLLARS!

[saikou]

Planning meeting in Dr. Evil's lair.

Dr.Evil: .... ozone layer
Number Two: That already happend.
Dr.Evil: Sh.t! Oh well, let's draft some frivolous lawsuit and sue the world's biggest computer company for...
ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
Number Two: *cough* Don't you think we should ask for more?
Dr.Evil: OK. And sue them for ONE BILLION DOLLARS!
Or heck, make it three.
Good.

Re:IBM won't settle

[Stephen Samuel]

Also, as SCO has virtually no chance of winning, settling doesn't make financial sense. Naturally, THAT'S why SCO increased the suit to $3B - it lets IBM think that settling makes sense now at a lower SCO success rate. If the break-even point for a settlement was a 50% chance of SCO victory, now it makes sense at a 17% chance. For example, obviously, as both numbers are too high. ;)

the 17% solution only makes sense if SCO has a minimal chance of winning the suit and gettint a reasonable percentage of what they're claiming. Right now, they're suing IBM for GPL'ing a piece of code that (as far as I can tell) was created by a sequent -> IBM employee (and, I presume, assigned to Sequent then transferred to IBM).

This is my quick summary of the SCO conversation:

SCO: Stop selling UNIX or we'll sue you to stop you.
IBM: Why? We have a license!
SCO: Because you've done something wrong, and you won't fix it.
IBM: What have we done wrong?
SCO: We Can't tell you (na na na na naaaa!)
IBM: You have to tell us what we did wrong if we're going to be able to fix it.
SCO: We could let one of your engineers see the code we think you stole, but then you'd have to shoot him
IBM: Can we subpoena your therapist in the counter suit?
SCO: OK: It's the RCU code. By the way, we're tripling our damages.
IBM: But we wrote that!
SCO: And your point is????
IBM:I don't think we'll be needing your therapist.