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Could Google Be SCO's Next Big Target?
An anonymous reader writes "Well, Darl and co. may have decided which company to sue next: Google. Sources say Google will be sued for not paying their Linux taxes. The story quotes 'Industry wags are saying that God invented SCO to give people a company to hate more than Microsoft.'" This is all speculation until such a suit is filed, though.
how you can sue someone for violating your IP rights without legal backing saying your own that IP in the first place.
Is it legal to send a big F-U in response?
This is just what SCO wanted, they probably planted this "leak" to get more attention and a new batch of Greater Fools to buy stock.
All "wolf! wolf! wolf" and lots of crying. No "bite! bite! bite"
Belief is the currency of delusion.
A source claiming to be in the know says that the SCO Group is going to sue Google for not paying its Linux taxes.
An unnamed source who claims to know this?
Could this article be more speculative? How does something like this even get considered news?
Maybe this will be a Slashdot first -- read the article then post!
After reading the article, I still do not understand how Google could be sued for copyright infringement when they are the end user of a product produced by someone else; does copyright law not specify this? It would be like Eolas suing me for patent infringement after I installed an IE plugin.
I will go back into my little hole now.
This isn't so far fetched... Remember that Microsoft made a sizeable investment in SCO a little while back. With a server farm the size of Google's, this could cause considerable harm to their operations. Consider what an injuction against Google during litigation might do. If they can't use their servers, they're out of business.
My question is this, tho: Whatever happened to barratry? In particular, what of the laws regarding making threat of litigation and not following through?
I think Google should call their bluff and get this taken care of once and for all. However, the threat of a lawsuit, and even filing one, is not much to get concerned over. Google probably gets threats all of the time (see: Scientology and Xenu).
Now, a verdict, on the other hand....
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
What an extortion racket.
On Monday, December 5, the discovery motions in the IBM/SCO case go before the judge. That's the first "put up or shut up" event in the case.
- At the end of the day, Linux is still going to be there and nothing SCO has is going to take it away.
- Slashdot gets a ton of hits out of tossing SCO red meat to the crowd every day, and it's not as if it'll cost them anything.
- The mob loves feeling like they're The Community heroically fighting for their cause, and it's not like it'll cost them anything.
- The only people who stand to lose anything are the investors putting money into the pockets of SCO execs in exchange for a stock that's going to crater.
So, no harm done and fun for all. (Except investors, but they should know better.) But I definitely think the fuss from the Linux media fuels SCO's stock inflation by giving them credibility and attention, and I'd be surprised if that weren't part of their calculation from the begining. Why do you think McBride responds with an open letter to every attack? Do you see other CEOs who feel compelled to treat Groklaw like it's the Wall Street Journal?Like I said, it's all good fun but at least know when you're being trolled...
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
If Google gets attacked, people will notice. Hopefully, they'll start associating Linux with it as a result. If Linux can absorb even a little bit of Google's golden-boy glow it'll go a long way to creating a realistic entry point for consumer desktop Linux.
It is actually a supply and demand problem, law schools make money so we have lots of law schools and then we get to many lawyers and they end up trying to find targets to attack. It would be better if many of these lawyers just entered the business world as MBA armed with +3 vorpal law degrees. Most serious companies come to understand that courts are a last resort and not a biz strategy.
Onward to the Aether Sphere!
I think this case is a perfect example of the mindset. (which, thankfully, was tossed out of court by the judge)
And yes, I AM an American, and this behavior just sickens me. It never seems to dawn on these people that they're making their own lives miserable through this behavior. Except they're ruining mine along with it.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
Absolutely, notice that they have yet to move beyond mere threats and actually sue any Linux users. If Google gets sued, they could *easily* have the case delayed until the IBM trial is settled, after which there will be no SCO to do any suing anyhow. Regardless, it's not going to happen. I'm sure SCO will come up with a very good reason in February why they have yet to sue anybody. A lot of talk, very little walk.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
Could they be any more stupid? I'd pick a nice Fortune 500 company with very few Linux installs. Settling would be tempting and cheap. SCO would have an easy victory and some much needed credibility. Google would be a terrible target because they wouldn't roll over for several reasons. First, Linux is central to their core business proposition. Second, they can evaluate for themselves the validity of SCO's claims. Third, they are no doubt very aware of the story so far (IBM counter suit, RedHat suit, the German ruling). And last, they will be familiar enough with IP law to know SCO has no legal basis for suing end-users for copyright infringement. And even if they did, until the IBM case is decided they can't prove infrigement at all.
I can see how such a move could be compelling to our stupid friends, however. Big well known company, high-profile Linux user, huge potential liability if SCO were able to claim punitive damages from end- users, vulnerable because IPO coming up and of course the impossibly fabulous power that would come from getting Google to knuckle under. Oh please, please. please sue Google. I think you'd see a counter suit that would make IBM's and RedHat's look like velvet by comparison.
That brings up the other point worth mentioning. If SCO actually sues someone, and that someone does not negotiate a settlement on the spot, this game will change dramatically in short order. RedHat's suit would no longer be theoretical. Their desire for an injunction would become urgent. And any other company that sells, supports or makes money in any way from Linux would also have a powerful motivation to seek their own unjunctions. If SCO sues, I think its quite likely that within 60 days of their filing, they will be on the receiving end of dozens of lawsuits. If any are successful, SCO would have to shut up for the duration of the IBM trial. Then the balance changes. SCO's interest would be in hurrying up the case, not dragging it out. That 2005 court date would all of a sudden seem a very, very long time away.
But I definitely think the fuss from the Linux media fuels SCO's stock inflation by giving them credibility and attention, and I'd be surprised if that weren't part of their calculation from the begining.
I don't know how someone can *be* more wrong. (Though the moderators have managed it yet again.)
SCO's FUD is aimed at investors, and CEO's, not geeks living in their mother's basement.
And so SCO's target audience is in magazines like Forbes and the Wall Street Journal and the various financial wire services. All of those media outlets have been reporting the SCO story largely uncritically, without any real investigation into the detail of the story.
Sites like Slashdot and Groklaw have been providing the story behind the story, and as such, they've been doing a good job of countering the SCO FUD. If investors *had* been reading those sites, there would be very little chance that they'd be having a bet on the longshot that SCO can win their case, because they'd have more insight into the nature of SCO's case.
As it is, they read the analysts and reporters who have been say 'SCO has showed us the evidence and there appears to be a huge payday a little way down the line.' Deutche Bank have a target price on SCO of something like $45 dollars a share, and it's only the Linux press that is saying precisely why that price target is unlikely to be realized.
Eventually, someone in the mainstream financial press will get the whole picture and confidence in SCO will take a tumble. The Linux media is playing an essential part in that process by doing the analysis and amassing the evidence that the non-tech press seems to be incapable of doing.
Why do you think McBride responds with an open letter to every attack? Do you see other CEOs who feel compelled to treat Groklaw like it's the Wall Street Journal?
McBride's comments *are* aimed at the WSJ, not Groklaw. I can't find any comments from McBride or any SCO executive to PJ. If anything, PJ's assiduous coverage and analysis of this story puts the mainstream media to shame and shows the way that Blogging as a form of collaborative open journalism actually *can* cover specialist stories in more depth and with greater critical analysis than the rest of the media have been capable of so far.
Nice troll though. Congratulations.