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Red Hat Sues SCO, Sets Up Legal Fund

Posted by simoniker on from the the-saga-continues dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Red Hat has released a PR Newswire article stating that it intends to sue SCO Group to prove that it doesn't infringe any of SCO's intellectual property regarding the Red Hat Linux platform, and to hold it accountable for its actions and smear campaign. They've also announced the creation of a legal fund, to which they've pledged $1M US dollars to fight complaints such as these, called the 'Open Source Now' fund."

7 of 787 comments (clear)

  1. Story on ZDNet too by buzzdecafe · · Score: 5, Informative

    This story is here as well:
    Red Hat files suit against SCO

  2. 90 million? by rawshark · · Score: 5, Informative

    Red Hat has 90 million in cash and short terms, hardly "poor".

    http://biz.yahoo.com/fin/l/r/rhat_qb.html

  3. Sure they are by missing000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yahoo Finance reports that Red Hat has a market cap of 1.159 Billion, while SCO only has a 151.9 Million market cap.

    While market capitalization does not tell the whole story, it does show that Red Hat is a much more financially powerful company.

    With that and the fact that they almost certainly have a rock solid case, the fact is they should sue the shit out of SCO.

  4. It's a "put up or shutup" Suit by Tsu+Dho+Nimh · · Score: 5, Informative
    Red Hat filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court of Delaware. The seven-count suit seeks, among other things, a declaratory judgment that Red Hat has not violated SCO's copyrights or trade secrets, Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik said at a news conference here on Monday.

    This is a SEPARATE issue from the "Open Source Now Fund". I havne't found a copy of the filing, but making unsubstantiated and untrue public statements about your competitors is a serious buiness law violation.

  5. Re:It was only a matter of time... by Arker · · Score: 5, Informative

    Suse already got an injunction against them in Germany. German courts pretty much told them to shut the hell up unless they could back their allegations up, so they... shut the hell up. Not a peep out of them in Germany since.

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  6. Re:Sure... when they fix up2date. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    What the hell are you talking about?

    * up2date surveys/support cuts for old releases
    So what if Redhat doesn't support old releases. Use up2date and your machine will be updated to new releases automatically. The only difference between releases is /etc/issue, anyway.

    * mp3
    Patent issues. I doubt Fraunhofer will allow Redhat to license the mp3 formats for GPLed software (for obvious reasons).

    * exiting the boxed set market
    Last version of redhat I downloaded via BitTorrent. It went pretty smooth. It was the first set of isos I've downloaded off the internet and it was slick. I won't ever buy a boxed set again!

    * no reiserfs/xfs
    For reiserfs, install with "linux reiserfs". XFS? Who uses that anyway?

  7. Re:Is Red Hat big enough to fight? by mabinogi · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's seven counts...
    1 for a declaritory judgement that there is no Coprighted SCO code in RedHat Linux, or if there is, that it's not enforceable.
    2 for a declaratory judgement that there is no SCO owned Trade Secrets in RedHat Linux

    3. False advertising
    4. Deceptive trade practices
    5. Unfair competition
    6. Tortious interference with prospective business oportunities
    7. Trade Libel and Disparagement.

    Source: http://lwn.net/images/ns/rh-complaint.pdf

    At first it just looked like they were covering themselves, but the last 5 show that they're on the offensive.

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