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IBM Countersues SCO, And More!

Posted by michael on from the house-of-cards-gets-a-push dept.

mr.crutch writes "Few details are available, but CNet is reporting that IBM has filed counterclaims against SCO. CNet also has an interview with Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik..." Jizzbug writes "Thanks to the folks of K5, we can all obtain our rights to use the Linux kernel from SCO, and without paying up to SCO's extortion. If kernel.org kernels aren't safe, sco.com kernels certainly ought to be." LWN has a copy of SCO's Linux License for your perusal. Bruce Perens is speaking of the dangers of patent portfolios to open source software, notable because IBM's counterclaims include patent infringement. And finally, a company is selling SCO Check, a tool to de-SCOify your Linux system, if SCO ever presents any evidence whatsoever of infringing code in Linux. Update: 08/08 00:16 GMT by T : SCO's public response to IBM's counterclaim is short and to the point. Among other things, it says "If IBM were serious about addressing the real problems with Linux, it would offer full customer indemnification and move away from the GPL license." Given the other links in this story, perhaps SCO should go first on that count.

17 of 1,156 comments (clear)

  1. better and better by eyegor · · Score: 5, Funny
    Geez... this is better than watching Battlebots!

    I think that old Darl (www.tubdarl.com) bit off more than he can chew! IBM has more seasoned lawyers that specialize in patent cases than SCO has employees.

    Anyone notice that SCO's stock slipped another 11% today? heh.

    --

    Don't anthropomorphize computers, they don't like it.
    1. Re:better and better by H310iSe · · Score: 5, Funny

      I have a suggestion I posted on the poll yesterday: Linux users can bring SCO to the ground with a massive call-in program! 1-800-726-8649. Everyone call and talk to the nice people at SCO about giving them money. They'll love all the time you spend on their 800 line. They'll love the time you spend with their sales staff. Request information be mailed. Request callbacks. Suggest you may want to pay in cash and ask if you can bring it by their office. I welcome other fun ideas, anyone?

      I, of course, called. They put your name in a queue for a sales call-back. I said I had a couple linux boxes, and they haven't called back, so I think, in order to be effective, you need to front like a big linux shop (or at least medium-sized one). I'm calling back under a different name and call-back number as the head of a subcontractor to Industrial Light and Magic or something...

      --
      closed minded is as closed minded does
    2. Re:better and better by JudgeFurious · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't think IBM is finally opening their patent portfolio. I think the damned thing is so big that they've been going through it since SCO first started making noise and they've just now reached some entries in it that are applicable.

      When you say "patent portfolio" and "IBM" together in the same post I get this mental picture of the warehouse from the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. They've probably got a small mountain of stuff in there they can destroy SCO with. It just takes them a while to dig it out. It's like getting the Death Star in range, it takes a little while but once it's there you're done.

      --
      Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
  2. Finally by Trigun · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hope SCO managers cashed in ALL of their stock.
    Sco is going down like Justin Timberlake at a Nambla meeting!

  3. Oooh, the front page. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Generally, I would say that linking to a 25 meg file from the front page of Slashdot is unconscionable. But in this case, perhaps it should be seen as an act of patriotism.

  4. De-SCO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just bought a tool for $699 to De-SCO my windows 98 box. I'm not taking any chances.

    I recommend you all buy the utility, the website is http://www.caldera.com/

    1. Re:De-SCO by WCMI92 · · Score: 5, Funny

      SCO will invoke the DMCA's provision arguing that DeSCO unencrypts their profit algorhythm. And a Norweigein teenager will be tried for it.

      --
      Corporatism != Free Market
  5. SCO responds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Darl McBride: "We can't comment on the action yet. Our attorneys are still reviewing the court filing."

    No Mr. McBride, your attorneys are already dead

  6. Haha by brsmith4 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looks to me that big blue wont have to buy SCO. They will simply be awarded what's left of the company as a settlement. How poetic.

  7. I, too ... by DogIsMyCoprocessor · · Score: 5, Funny
    have a program that determines if any infringing SCO code is present in your Linux system -

    /usr/bin/false

    --

    "And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."

  8. Re:Oooh, the front page. by EnglishTim · · Score: 5, Funny

    Odd - I'm still getting 191KB/second - Come on, Slashdotters, you can do better than that!

  9. Probably not the best... by Omicron32 · · Score: 5, Funny

    IBM: Do you hear that, Mr. SCO? That is the sound of inevitability. That is the sound of your death. Goodbye, Mr. SCO.

    SCO: Oh shit.

  10. Re:Litigate 'till CSO runs out of money? HAH! by kalidasa · · Score: 5, Funny

    I believe it [the IBM anti-trust case] was settled by Nixon appointees early in the Carter administration. "ran out of money" is of course facetious

    Don't remember the Carter years too well, do you? "Ran out of money" isn't that bad an exaggeration!

    :-) Couldn't help it

  11. someone had to say it ... forgive me please ... by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 5, Funny


    McBride: What happen?
    Ballmer: Somebody set up us the bitchslap.
    Ballmer: We get lawsuit.
    McBride: What!
    McBride: Main screen turn on.
    McBride: It's You!!
    BigBlue: How are you gentlemen!!
    BigBlue: All your rights are belong to us.
    BigBlue: You are on the way to bankruptcy.
    McBride: What you say!!
    BigBlue: You have no chance to survive make your time.
    BigBlue: Ha Ha Ha Ha ....
    McBride: Take off every preferred share.
    Ballmer: You know what you doing.
    McBride: Move shares.
    McBride: For great profit.

  12. McBride as The SCO Information Minister by TexTex · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm starting to find more and more comparisons between McBride and the Iraqi Information Minister.

    "There are no IBM patents in SCO. Never!"
    "We have them surrounded in their servers!"
    "Let the IBM infidels bask in their illusion!"
    "We will own them all...most of them!"

    --
    -Barkeep, a draft of your most hazardous brew, for the world is slowly stepping into focus, and I don't like what I see.
  13. Re: SCOX and shorting by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny


    > Another method used in shorting is "Borrowing." This is where an investor can sell someone else's stock, buy it back later at a cheaper price, and give back to the person who originally owned it.

    Yeah, sometimes I do that with other people's cars, on weekends.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  14. Understatement... by frozenray · · Score: 5, Funny

    From SCO's quarterly report:

    "There is also a risk that the assertion of our intellectual property rights will be negatively viewed by participants in our marketplace and we may lose support from such participants."
    This, Ladies and Gentlemen, has to be the understatement of this century, if not of this millennium.
    --
    "There are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare." - Blair Houghton