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Darl Goes to Harvard

colinmc151 writes "Both Groklaw and Internet News are reporting on the visit made to Harvard University by Darl McBride, SCO president and CEO, and Chris Sontag SCO senior vice president. Darl and Chris made a presentation titled 'Defending Intellectual Property Rights in a Digital Age'. One protester gave out copies of Linux to all that attended. Bottom line SCO plans to carry on with the lawsuits. Best line was one student who when Darl asked if he was impacted by MyDoom.A e-mail virus answered 'No, I use Linux'." One MIT student has a write-up of the event as well...

18 of 425 comments (clear)

  1. Oh Darl, when will you ever learn? by __aavhli5779 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Erica's question (the second to last, as McBride claimed "that girl really wants to ask a question") was "You've said you like the GPL, that you distribute GPL products, and that people should be able to contribute however they want. Why then did you claim in December that you believe the GPL violates the constitution, and US patent and trademark law?"

    McBride's response was essentially "look, over there, something shiny! next question!"


    Seems like the MIT students did a nice job putting him on the spot, but it's obvious that ol' Darl is pretty adept at deflecting any criticism or challenging questions and changing the subject when he finds the current one uncomfortable.

    What will it take to get him to address all the contradictory statements and lies that he and his cohorts seem to spout at every opportunity?

    Perhaps it's time to try to get that court date pushed up :)
  2. Not a bad idea by phaetonic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Go to Harvard, spread FUD, gain support from future investors/business people and hope they support SCO in the future, if SCO is still around.

    1. Re:Not a bad idea by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Go to Harvard, spread FUD, gain support from future investors/business people and hope they support SCO in the future, if SCO is still around.

      I never bought any SCO products and after the childish behavior they've displayed in handling this situation, I never will. If by some miracle they're given the power to decide on the fate of Linux I will wipe every system I have and put FreeBSD on it. SCO will never receive one nickel from me or any company I support.

  3. Anything you say will be taken down and used ..... by Performer+Guy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Daryl doesn't seem to be aware that his public comments may impact the trial. It's like the guy genuinely doesn't care about th eendgame as many here have observed.

    It must be pretty frustrating for Linux contributors to be attacked by a guy who is using the fruits of their labors on his own Linux system.

  4. Excellent! by DrugCheese · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We should organize more protests involving the giving away of free software.

    Now if they threw pig blood at them it would've made mainstream news. But something good and worthwhile to humanity? that's not news

    --
    *DrugCheese rants*
  5. The Important Part by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Lowest stock price for SCOX since August 2003.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SCOX

    At $13.54 at time of this posting, and has even gone down so low as $13.18 for the day range.

    -Joshua

  6. The part I do not understand... by John+Seminal · · Score: 5, Interesting
    McBride said that while Linux is the compilation of thousands of people donating their time and programming skills to improve kernel code created by Linus Torvalds, SCO deserves compensation for the improvements it made to Linux.

    I thought that the whole point of open source is so nobody can take the software, change it, and then sell it as their own. I thought any changes made became the property of the project, for everyone to use.

    For example, in the GPL it states:

    You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.

    --

    Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."

  7. The Abbreviated Text by Scoria · · Score: 2, Interesting

    'Defending Intellectual Property Rights in a Digital Age'

    "Rather than go out and just say, 'Let's go sue everybody now,' we're coming out with a well-thought-out program." - excerpted from WLTSIM

    --
    Do you like German cars?
  8. 'No, I use Linux' by mumblestheclown · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Funny, I use Linux too, and nevertheless mydoom affects me substantially. for example, my ISP's mail servers are slow as hell because of this crap. So slow, that I couldn't even get to my mail for much of today.

  9. CItation for the record by Performer+Guy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "..claims that a member of the linux community claimed that a high-level linux hacker was responsible for at least one of the attacks (I'd love to see that citation). "

    This was Eric Raymond acting as self appointed champion and bull in a china shop during an earlier attack.

    http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2003- 08 -25-010-26-NW-CY-LL&tbovrmode=3

    Personally I think Eric Raymond is a darned fool for saying 'we' etc as if this was a community effort. Eric saying he's ashamed for us all plays right into SCO's hands. This was not the community, it was one lone criminal acting for themselves. Presenting it as something else is both inaccurate and damaging.

  10. SCO brings a "sharpshooter" to a Darlnote... by kuwan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I got this off of the SCOX yahoo board:

    'Electronic terror' in Linux's shadow

    You'll find this about 2/3 of the way through the article:

    When SCO Group chief executive officer Darl McBride appeared at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas in November to deliver a keynote speech at CD Expo, the company brought a sharpshooter along for protection.

    And they call the Linux community fanatical! :)

  11. The best part: by tundog · · Score: 2, Interesting

    At this point we've strayed so far from his original copyright infringement claims that I believe the audience is a bit lost, recognizes this as FUD, and appears to be leafing through our handouts.


    ROTFL

    --
    All your base are belong to us!
  12. Re:What kind of students were they? by abe+ferlman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, let's be clear, there will be a loser: Microsoft. They're obviously behind this for two reasons:

    1. The bulk of SCO's funding since the beginning of the lawsuit has been from Microsoft
    2. Microsoft has softened their public FUD about linux. They're trying to let someone else play bad cop because they know when they criticize linux unfairly it makes others jump to the defense of linux AND blame Microsoft- when someone else does it for them, the first still happens but the second does not.

    It's obvious to informed observers, but not to the press.

    The winner so far seems to have been Novell though - people are beginning to see that they are being unfairly maligned, their stock has been climbing like gangbusters.

    --
    microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
  13. Re:Tomorrow, the judge rules by jpetts · · Score: 2, Interesting
    If SCO tries to temporise again, I think that that run a serious risk of pissing of Judge Cindy Wells. In the hearing on 5 December, the first thing that the judge said in the courtroom was:
    Judge: Intention is to grant IBM's motion to compel delivery (interrogatives 12 and 13) . Plaintiff to file responses within 30 days. Postpone discovery until compliance achieved. There is a protective order in place
    (taken from court minutes).
    It appears from the transcript (which you can find - along with the usual excellent discussion - on Groklaw that Judge Wells' patience with SCO is growing thin. It is reported on that page (admittedy by a probably biased observer) that:
    Judge Wells seemed to have little patience for the filibuster She stated that the proceedings needed to conclude before noon (probably lunchtime!), but with both sides having a chance to state their case. She interrupted McBride several times to help focus him back on the point of the hearing. She was very fair and direct. She gave McBride every chance to convince her that she should not grant IBM's motions. She brought up several points that weren't directly addressed during arguments, indicating that she had read and absorbed the material, and noticed some of SCO's antics. She especially did not seem impressed about handing over the code on paper, rather than in a useable format. McBride remarked that he believed they had resolved that problem.
    --
    Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
  14. Re:Harvard's reputation is forever tarnished by BCW2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Stanford? The place where anyone can drop a class for any reason on the last day of the semester? All GPA's were made meaningless by this school!

    --
    Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
  15. One comment I'd like to have seen made... by hankaholic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I really wish that when Darl stated that the GPL hadn't been tested in court, someone had pointed out that neither had SCO's assertions.

    At least one argument they're using against the GPL can be used against the claim that anyone should pay them $699 per CPU.

    --
    Somebody get that guy an ambulance!
  16. Saint Thomas Moore by argoff · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Anyone renember St. Thomas, where when the king forced everyone to change to his religion, he disagreed strongly, but tried to declare that he was in full compliance of the law - because the law gave him the right to be silent.

    In a way, this is what's happening today. I am confident that the GPL here is not in violation of the law, but I am also confident that copyright monopolies do not belong in the information age and must go. And the GPL is the license most true to that spirit.

    PS: St Thomas was executed, inspite of his attempt to stay within the law by being silent. There's a lesson to be learned from this.

  17. Not answering questions about SAMBA by JonnyRo88 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was blown away when someone asked him (paraphrased): If you believe the GPL license is unconstitutional, what right then do you have to distribute SAMBA in your products.

    At this they said (again paraphrasing): Samba is good, we dont believe that Samba is tainted in any way.

    They did not answer in any way what right they have to distribute Samba if they believe that the GPL is invalid. If the GPL is proven invalid (unlikely), it does not mean that the work suddenly becomes public domain. They cant seem to admit to the fact that they are basically screwed either way.

    I would highly doubt that SCO could come up with a clean room implementation of the SMB protocol in any reasonable span of time that they could incorporate into their products. And imagine the reduced value of an SCO OS platform if it did not have open source tools like samba embedded.

    I would cherish the day that Darl & Co goes up to the Samba developers to negotiate a seperate license and those developers tell them to go to hell. They will never do this even if it is shown that they have no right to distribute Samba because their core business is no longer software development, but litigation.

    --
    The Ro Factor - Jeep/Linux Weblog