The Power Behind the SCO Nuisance

akahige writes "Forbes has a fairly detailed story about the sordid history of The Canopy Group and all the various companies they've sued -- Microsoft (who they beat) and CA (this case is still pending), among them. Before joining Caldera, Darl McBride sued IKON Office Solutions, for whom he worked -- and won. And it also seems that a bunch of Canopy power players also sit on SCO's board of directors. The short summary is, 'these guys are professional litigious bastards -- be exceptionally wary.'" A local user's group is planning a protest for tomorrow. Reader myst564 writes: "After reading all of this SCO press I remembered that SCO once offered up all of their 'Ancient UNIX' (their words, not mine) source to the world while retaining all copyrights (i.e, no OSS license). Interestingly enough it WAS located here but isn't any longer: SCO's Ancient Unix. What's more you can read about the original release here at: Linux Today. I downloaded the source myself way back then but never did anything but delete it! Anyway, check out this comment. It's interesting that this was predicted in 2000!"

Comments

Who...

[1WingedAngel]

(what's Natalie up to these days?).

Apparently, spending some time on a Cold Mountain .

Mmmm.. I wonder if she has that Tatooine Suit on the Cold Mountain.

Re:Canopy Group / SCO Mormon Conspiracy?

[usurper_ii]

I'm going to say up front that I haven't put a lot of thought into this...

But there really could be a Mormon angle to this. Mormons believe that the Constitution was "divinely inspired." They are very active politically because they believe that in the United States worst hour, they will be the group to save it. It could be, and again just speculation, that they think open source is somehow an attack on the United States.

Some notes:

http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/whq/3 4. 1/br_36.html

Gerassi quotes Brigham Young's 1863 statement that "the time will come when we will give law to the nations of the earth" as indicating the scope of Mormon aspirations (p. 153). Mormon leadership knew "The Principle" was right because of revelation, and their view of the Constitution was equally inspired.

Although not focused on Mormons, other recent work may further amplify these issues of confronting a legal system run by apostates. Lauren Benton's Law and Colonial Cultures (New York, 2002) suggests that Muslims and Hindus successfully manipulated British legal regimens to their self-interest. Maria Montoya's Translating Property (Berkeley, 2002) similarly suggests the efficacy of multinational analysis in understanding why some ethnic "others" cope with colonial legal systems and others fail. In this light, Mormons were hardly unique.