IBM, Intel Set Up $10m SCO Defense Fund

An anonymous reader writes that the "NY Times reports that a group of companies, led by I.B.M. and Intel, plans to announce today that it is setting up a $10 million legal defense fund to help pay for the litigation costs of corporate users of the popular GNU/Linux operating system if they are sued. ZDnet also has a story on this." otisaardvark points out that "The fund is to be administered by OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) and so, amongst other things, could bankroll legal costs for Linus."

Comments

Ah what it is to have friends

[Space cowboy]

Big, Rich friends :-))

Of course, IBM and Intel aren't doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, but it's still a nice gesture, 'cos it works for us (well, them, I'm not a kernel contributor :-)

Simon

Re:Ah what it is to have friends

[diersing]

I think it works for the greater good as well.

If SCO goes after google, a well recognized name outside tech circles and gets thumped in it's first big, real court battle... it may force the "SCO Get Rich Train" right off the tracks before it really gets started.

I'm not a kernel developer either, but if Linux costs me $799 per proc to run, Windows and Apple become the cheaper alternative.

Re:Ah what it is to have friends

[weileong]

I'm not a kernel developer either, but if Linux costs me $799 per proc to run, Windows and Apple become the cheaper alternative.

Why else do you think MS told SCO to set it at that price point? :-)

An old proverb comes to mind.

[Locky]

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

timing

[parnold]

the timeing of this is interesting with today being the day that SCO has to show evidence in court of IBM's infringment on their copyright.

Re:timing

[Krow10]

What I find amazing is the big stink that SCO brought up about indemnification, and protecting your customers against legal action. Even Laura DiDio, our favorite shill, brings up the indemnification issue time and time again.

Now look what's happening here. OSDL is indemnifying linux users against legal action (more than an MS EULA can do, by the way), and SCO is... what's that? they're making noises about suing their own UNIX licensees?

What's really really funny to me is that this is the worst of all possible worlds for SCOX -- it takes the wind out of the extortion aspect of this fiaSCO ("pay up, or da Boies will sue youse") and it doesn't give them the leverage against a company's insurance provider of unlimitted liability that "indemnification" would have -- they actually have to sue an *indemnified* HP customer, or they have to sue *many* linux end users before they can start squeezing anyone on legal costs. As my 1yo daughter would say, Uh-Oh!

Cheers,
Craig

Intel and IBM won't throw away that much money...

[Shisha]

IBM & Intel won't just throw all this money away would they. I think what this means is:

We're pretty damn sure that Linux is clean. You can be sure too, because if you get sued we'll pay the legal costs for the time being, but since we know that you (we, Linux) will win in the end, SCO will have to pay and so it won't cost us a dime.

And so our Linux bussiness can roll on. It's more than PR. It's saying we'll win.

I wonder what Darl would have to say about this

[JustKidding]

I wonder if SCO is happy with this, or not.

Ofcourse, it is yet another news article with SCO's name in it, but it also seems like IBM and Intel think they need a crapload of money to defend people, which in turn suggests that there is something to SCO's claims.

SCO really wants to go to court, but ofcourse they know they don't stand a chance. This amount of money on both sides could make for a spectacular trial.
At the same time, some people, who hadn't figured it out yet, might realise that there is no way on earth SCO is actually going to win.

Besided that, i wonder if IBM and Intel did return-on-investment calculations on this. Maybe they figure the kudos will be worth more than 10M.

Re:I wonder what Darl would have to say about this

[mccalli]

it also seems like IBM and Intel think they need a crapload of money to defend people, which in turn suggests that there is something to SCO's claims.

To me, it seems as if IBM and Intel need a press release to reassure customers, that's all. Not everyone follows every twist and turn in this, and a potential customer might be swayed by some of the SCO press.

To me, this is just IBM and Intel showing that their money is where their mouth is, so customers can look and feel safe in choosing Linux.

Cheers,
Ian

Well

[eclectro]

help pay for the litigation costs of corporate users of the popular GNU/Linux operating system if they are sued.

That leaves grandmas, 12 year old girls, and nerds in parent's basements out in the cold.

I guess we now know who SCO is going to target next.

Intel has more to contribute than money

[Crashmarik]

It will be interesting to see how much of the code for X86 that sco is claiming as stolen actually came from intel. Either intel reference code for talking to the bios or for talking directly to the chipset peripheral controllers tends to show up everywhere. Plus there is intels own work on SMP operating systems. Hypercubes were an intel specialty.

Now if adaptec joins in sco could be in for a ripping the like of which has never been seen

But

[rhadamanthus]

Nobody has been sued but IBM, right? And that was for breach of contract! Until SCO actually has the nuts to sue anyone (won't happen), who cares?

--rhad

Part of a legal strategy, not just being generous

[RhettLivingston]

A typical legal strategy for a battle like this is for the side in SCO's position to tackle a bunch of little guys first to build up precedents without actually having to prove their case against an oponent equipped with a like legal force. IBM and Intel are simply serving notice to SCO that that isn't going to fly here. They will put on their defense wherever SCO goes instead of waiting for SCO to come to them.

Re:What if...

[WCMI92]

" Why do people ignore IBM's past? They're so easy to forgive IBM , and yet so quick to jump down Microsoft's throat for any little thing.

Imagine if Microsoft was doing team-ups like this. Slashdotters would be all over them for the "unfairness" of it all."

Microsoft already HAS "teamed up" and is intimately involved in this thing, or at the very least encouraging it.

$8 million dollars to SCaldera for licenses they didn't need, for one thing...

You can bet Microsoft will _NEVER_ "team up" with anyone fighting a cause for FOSS... The whole reason they are funding SCO's FUD driven pump n dump is because of the fact that the GPL is "Kryptonite" to their Embrace, Extend, Extinguish business model that they have used thus far to maintain their monopoly.

I forgive IBM for past transgressions because it seems they LEARNED from the mistakes they made in the 1980's. If they hadn't, it's likely IBM would have gone the way of Digital and other former dominant players...

Microsoft could crush Linux forever tomorrow... If they released Windows complete with source under the GPL. Won't ever happen.