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Time to clear out the bin of the taint of SCO, hopefully we haven't posted these already... The Economist has a piece titled Face Value -- Of Monkeys and Penguins. The EFF is pushing an email campaign about SCO. An anonymous reader submits this completely unverified claim that SCO needs to change the password on their mail server: sco.txt. And another reader presents a theory about SCO's stock performance.
I just read Rob and Eric's long, well-written rebuttal to SCO's complaint but missed any remarks from them on paragraph 141.
To me, it seemed too important to be not commented. Has it been commented upon since?
...when the EFF is coming after you. The EFF is not light-handed on the legal representation side, and if they're coming down on the side of Linux against SCO, then SCO has problems.
What I want to see happen, however, is an injunction that holds all funds paid for "Linux licenses" in an escrow account until this matter is settled permanently.
-- We live in a world where lemonade is artificial and soap has real lemon.
They run Linux... SMP version even. So I guess Linus can sue them for copyright infringement if they won't follow the GPL? Assuming this is a valid text log. Would a Netcraft report count as evidence?
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
I never thought I would see IBM on the right side of IT, but there we have it.
All as it takes is one sanguine person to turn the tide. Remember that.
(I read about one OSS advocate who @IBM who caught the attention of Mr. Gerstner. That was when I was sober...)
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
The fact that SCO stock increased while there case was shown to suck, really shows we are not kicking SCO in the right place. We need to hit them where it hurts.
We finally got to see what was presumably their best evidence, and it was a steaming turd of donkeyshit. They were either lying or were unbelievably negligent. While this was all over geek websites, it didn't make much of a ripple in the business press, and as the last article points out, SCO stock actually got pumped in the business press after the bogus code was released. And the business press is the place to hit SCO -- all they care about is their stock price, and the corporate hacks who determine stock prices don't read Slashdot.
Playing on the defensive as the EFF is doing is good, but we also need to go on the offense more.
People and organizations should contact biz journalists, or write letters to the editors. Send out press releases. Post the information at stock sites -- wherever. If stock traders know how bogus SCO's claims are, it will hurt the fuckwads at SCO. While the SCO story may not be of interest to the general public, it is of interest to the business community. I am sick of seeing unbalanced articles in businessweek or whatever, which contain no viewpoint from the free software software community.
And hackers can go on the offensive by filing lawsuits or threatening such. Send out cease and desist letters and make it public with a press release. Specific people and development teams have been libeled. They have accused the kernel team of theft. Now that code snippets have been made public, further lies by SCO can even be considered as slander against the specific people who contributed that code. And those who are the public face of the kernel team can claim damages as well. While the damages one could claim would not be enough to retire on, it can damage SCO's stock price with the publicity. SCum needs to be told to put up or shut the fuck up.
Stick it to the bastards!
Deconstruct the State
root:6X7liA1zmJhyA:12255:0:10000::::
non-shadow passwords, does any linux distribution still do this? unsalted crypt encryption? if i understand this file correctly, root is userid 12255, group 0? has no home dir, and no login shell? not a very useful account, even if you do crack the password.
more likely this is some sort of distributed authentication system based file, and the hash is just some component of that. the password will be useless if you get it.
You're definately not reading it right. This is what shadow files look like. This is a shadow'd password.
Can I get an eye poke?
Dog House Forum
Lokking at the password line, you will notice that the password is stored as a standard crypt password.
I can't remember how many years ago it became standard to use MD5 sums instead, which are way harder to crack. The only reason to use crypt passwords today is because you had to carry hundreds of users forward, and was not willing to re-issue a new password.
I have now put john the ripper at the job to crack the password, so I can see if the password looks likely to be true.
If the password line is true, they know they have been cracked, so they probably have changed the pass anyway.
I gave up with the idea of an useful sig...
I think SCO have two strategies here. The main payoff is the licence money paid to them by Microsoft. If they want to safeguard they're only reliable source of income, they need to keep the FUD coming. That means slow development, but a constant sense of threat for IT managers thinking of investing in Linux. The second string, of course, is that they manage to distort the facts enough that they get awarded the rights to linux and can start selling it.
Now then, for the first strategy, going to court would be a disaster. They have _no_ case apart from FUD, and as they are rapidly learning, the open-source community are not so naieve or so inept as to let themselves be brushed aside in the legal arena. If it comes to court they'll lose - and that's the end of their income stream.
On the other hand, it it goes to court and they win, and adopt strategy two - then Microsoft crushes them like a bug, takes the rights to linux and embraces and extends it into oblivion. Once again - end of income stream, and end of SCO. Which isn't to say that Darl McBride won't get some sort of reward from Little Willie Microsoft, but it'd be a bad move for SCO, and bad for SCO investors.
Meantime, we have to keep countering the FUD without dropping the ball, image-wise; a tesk that gets harder as time moves on and peoples attention spans start to time out.
Meanwhile, IBM are playing the game cautiously. They may as well - SCO aren't hurting them, but may yet have a trick or two to play. IBM's best strategy is to emulate the mills of the gods and grind "slow, but exceedingly fine".
Nope, I can see this one might run and run.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
Suppose:
1. I am a small time kernel contributor. I have about 10-20 lines of code in the linux kernel.
2. My copyrighted work is available to SCO for distribution only under the GPL (which is a copyright licence).
3. Caldera/SCO sold my code for 4 years (and complied to the agreement) - attach press releases detailing Caldera/SCO contributions to the kernel - including their praise of the GPL.
4. As of May Caldera/SCO has breached the GPL as follows:
4.a. Section 3 - SCO does not make the source code to the program available.
4.b. Section 4 blah blah - SCO is licensing Linux.
4.c. Section 6 somewhat disputable - accompany with SCO press releases - especially when they threaten to sue GNU/Linux users - again licensing.
4.d. Section 7 - SCO continues to distribute although it seeks to apply additional retrictions through yet unfounded copyright claims - the key term of secton 7 is "believe" - SCO "believes" additional restrictions apply.
Claims:
They breached contract. My hourly consultant fee is 200$. It took me one hour to write it. I want 20$/loc + court expenses. Nothing else.
Their guy:
This is an obvious copyright dispute.
Me:
What do you mean? Do you mean you didn't break the GPL and you stole my copyrighted work?
Their guy:
We never agreed to the GPL.
Me:
If you didn't agree to the GPL then how come you sold my code for four years? Did you simply steal it?
It certainly explains who has been buying SCO stock.
I am shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
Following is an opinion - all Speculation & conjecture - could SCOX = BRE-X?
BRE-X was a struggling small town Canadian mining company.
SCOX is a struggling small town Utah software company.
Midland Walsh, one of the principals of BRE-X was famous for suing a former employer and getting a settlement for an undisclosed sum.
Darl McBride, one of the principals of SCOX is famous for suing a former employer and getting a settlement for an undisclosed sum.
BRE-X suddenly said they found these incredibly huge gold deposits in a mine in Indonesia. This despite considerable prior evidence that this mine never contained gold before.
SCOX suddenly says they found these incredibly huge illegal UNIX code deposits in Linux. This despite considerable prior evidence that Linux never contained illegal UNIX before.
BRE-X brought in well-known outside experts (Kavanagh and Francisco) which made their claims of gold found, look more credible. Investors didn't know if these outside experts were directly involved in the search for gold - it later turned out that they weren't.
SCOX brought in well-known outside experts (Boies and Heise) which made their claims of gold found, look more credible. Investors don't know if these outside experts were directly involved in the search for UNIX code - how will it later turn out?
BRE-X said they had their own secret teams of experts, whose identities they couldn't reveal, supporting their claims (assaying of core samples for gold).
SCOX says they have their own secret teams of experts,whose identities they couldn't reveal, supporting their claims (finding illegal UNIX code in Linux).
Industry experts criticized the BRE-X techniques for assaying which were unorthodox, which they say didn't follow industry standard practises, and lacked concrete details.
Industry experts criticized the SCOX techniques for code search which were unorthodox, which they say don't follow industry standard practises, and lack concrete details.
BRE-X's reports (with incredible claims) were criticized by industry experts for the same reasons. The industry experts were ignored.
SCOX reports (with incredible claims) are criticized by industry experts for the same reasons. The industry experts are ignored.
BRE-X kept issuing new reports, with no verifiable concrete details, upping and upping their claims of gold found.
SCOX keep issuing new reports, with no verifiable concrete details, upping and upping their claims of UNIX code found.
Despite the obvious reasons to doubt, media and stock analysts preferred the BRE-X version of events to that of the industry experts. Some stock analysts (Bianchini of Nesbitt Burns) really pushed the stock hard.
Despite the obvious reasons to doubt, media and stock analysts preferred the SCOX version of events to that of the industry experts. Some stock analysts (Cohen of JHC Capital Management) really pushed the stock hard.
As more and more discrepencies in the BRE-X story came to light, the company produced a series of increasingly unsatisfactory explanations, and more outrageous claims, which were disputed by industry experts too.
As more and more discrepencies in the SCOX story come to light, the company produced a series of increasingly unsatisfactory explanations, and more outrageous claims, which were disputed by industry experts too.
The BRE-X stock prise rose and rose on the Toronto Stock Exchange, driven by massive relatively uncritical media coverage.
The SCOX stock prise rose and rose on the NASDAQ, driven by massive relatively uncritical media coverage.
BRE-X insiders cashed out millions of stock. It was a tiny fraction of the total company stock, but still a lot of money to them, especially considering their prior investment in the company was worth a relative pittance.
SCOX insiders cash out millions of stock. It was a tiny fraction
my fav quote: "The world is moving to a Unix operating environment, and SCO owns the intellectual property rights to it"
SCO to rule the world then? heh!
"if i'd known it was harmless, i'd have killed it myself"
Ripped from Yahoo's RHAT message board:
===
Possible explanation of SCOX price
by: heimdal31 08/29/03 04:34 pm
Msg: 98717 of 98729
I've tried to put some of the information I've gleaned from the SCO board into more easily digestible form.
I think the most interesting one is
http://www.threenorth.com/sco/cohen.html
but all 4 are linked from
http://www.threenorth.com/sco
Communism is a complete failure when compared to capitalism. Check examples of countries right alongside each other for most positive proof.
In the 70's and 80's, West Germany (capitalist) was much more of an advanced society than East Germany (communist), and was the main reason "the wall came down".
Look now at the Koreas. South Korea (capitalist) is much farther advanced that North Korea (communist yet starving people everywhere).
While in theory, communism simply does not work when attempted in a real environment. Too many opportunities for corruption that are exploited and work against it's fundamental principles.
According to this program, the password from
root:6X7liA1zmJhyA:12255:0:10000::::
is "Cracking".
-
Let's Put SCO Behind Bars
Also, in the day and a half since posting the link a Google search for "Let's Put SCO Behind Bars" went from 2190 to 3250 matches.The article is under a Creative Commons license. Please copy it to your website, your weblog, or other message boards. The markup is very simple and the page completely self-contained to enable easier copying.
There is a UBB code version for message boards that use that format. When I get some time I'll make a plain-text one suitable for email and usenet news.
Thank you for your help.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
Noticed the "mail your representatives" page was written in ASP
AHEM
talk about freedom...