EV1 Servers CEO Responds To Customers

Retalin writes "EV1 CEO Robert Marsh gave his customer base a written explanation for the purchase of his decision to purchase a SCO License late last night. The most interesting quote was this: "It has been argued by a Linux Journal reporter that I have essentially called the various GPL Linux developers plaugerists. This is false as I would never make such a claim against them. They are some of the brightest minds for whom I hold a great deal of respect.""

Comments

The purchase of his decision

[Temporal]

... a written explanation for the purchase of his decision to purchase a SCO License...

Ah hah! So it's true! SCO bribed him into doing it!

What? Just a typo? Oh... uh... right. I knew that.

Who you callin' a plaugerist?

[Snart Barfunz]

What an itiod! It's people like him who give snodware delevellers a bad mane.

Re:Who you callin' a plaugerist?

[jfengel]

I've actually been a devoted Kernighanist my whole life, but I have nothing against the Plaugerists. We might join together in our fight against the Ritchieists!

Well...

[No_Weak_Heart]

Can't speak for you, but I would be most upset if someone called me a plaugerist. Not sure what that is but it just sounds dirty.

Re:Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, come on now! You mean you don't know?

A "Plaugerist" is one who plays the very rare musical instrument known as the plaug, or plauger. As everyone knows this is a cross between the bagpipes, the harmonica and the old english crumhorn.

Old statutes, still on the books, prohibit the playing of the plaug at or near the full moon, or anywhere within 1 mile of a breeding colony of horseshoe bats. Audiences generally contend that it sounds best when either played, or listened to, underwater. Some extremists advocate it's use only in all helium (or other inert gas) atmosphere for the best effect.

It led, via a very convoluted path, to the expression "plaug and play", now I believe, claimed as part of the IP license which you can buy from SCO.

Re:No articles. No server. Just slashdot.

[TheDigitalRaven]

What's the use of a hosting company that crumbles at the first sight of a slashdotting anyway?

You said it yourself. Karma-whoring.

Rampant Plaugerism

[kahei]

'Plaugerists'? Now, if he'd accused them of plagiarism he might have had a point, but to accuse them of supporting Dinkumware is a bizarre move indeed!

Curse those plaugerists, with their Standard Template Libraries and their cheery Australian charm...

Certain IP from SCO

[Serious Simon]

We did, however, license certain IP from SCO

"Certain"? Did SCO actually tell them what IP they are licensing?

I thought not.

Now I know EV1 is a pushover

[baryon351]

Now I know EV1 is a pushover, I have sent them letters in the name of my company advising them that an unknown but substantial piece of software that they are running infringes on my IP

I cannot reveal the nature of this software, but my company and I have identified thousands of pieces of it running on EV1's servers.

As EV1 have not indicated to me that they are not running such software (and as with SCO, the burden of proof is obviously on EV1 duh) then I have no option but to request the payment of $1599 per deployment of my IP on their systems. This comes to a total of $65,900,000 (some of their machines are running multiple instances of my IP).

All fees will be waived if they provide proof they are not running my IP, which I do not believe they will be able to do. I expect payment within 90 days. If payment is received, I will not take legal action against EV1.

(yeah I'm joking but damn, how far can protection rackets go once the weak cave in)

Re:Eh

[jejones]

It is a big deal. SCO is basically now running a protection racket, and these folks knuckled under. That is fundamentally wrong.

"Then they came up with what they called the Other Other Operation, in which they would threaten to sue a Linux user if he did not buy a license. This, for the Piran^H^H^H^H^HMcBride brothers, was the turning point."

"Plaugerists?" "PLAUGERISTS?"

[dpbsmith]

That sounds to me like high praise, and that's the fair dinkum.

It's nice to know that the GPL Linux programmers are reading the C++ Programmers' Journal, programming on purpose, and following the elements of programming style.

I hope they'll all keep Plauging away at it.

Suing SCO

[AngstAndGuitar]

I hope he'll sue SCO for the price of his worthless licenses after SCO loses it's IBM case. :)

Re:What they did

[blinkylights]

What they did is called CYA.

CowardlY Acquiescence?
Capitulate to Yammering Assholes?

Re:The CEO can't afford a spellchecker?

[blinkylights]

Maybe EV1 should invest in a good Administrative Assistant:

"Actually, Mr. Marsh, it's spelled 'p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m.'"
"Perhaps, Mr. Marsh, we should wait and see whether SCO survives their suit with IBM."
"No, Mr. Marsh, I don't think this email is from a real exiled Nigerian Prince."

dude, where's my license?

[Colonel Cholling]

SCO already has like $60 million on hand and our small fee would not go very far defending an action such as this, much less prosecuting one.

"dude, they've got, like, way more money than that, so like, we figured it was like cool and stuff."

SCO or no SCO, I wouldn't want to do business with a company whose CEO has the spelling and diction of a twelve-year-old sk8r.

Slashdotted already!

[Mirk]

The site is slashdotted already. Here is the text of the open letter:

Dear EV1 Users,

We were smoking crack. Sorry.

Yours, etc.

Brief, to the point. I like it!

pimping around with mcbribe

[codepunk]

I heard that yesterday he was pimping around with Mr
McBribe at some conference. That seems like a guy with the Linux community good will in mind. If I had just been extorted out of a million dollars the last thing I would do is follow around the CEO with my lips attached to his ass.

Plaugerists?

[Mirk]

From the article:

It has been argued by a Linux Journal reporter that I have essentially called the various GPL Linux developers plaugerists. This is false.

Hmm, I'm not sure about that. I certainly learned a lot from P. J. Plauger's books, not least The Elements of Programming Style (co-written, of course, with Brian W. ``Water-Buffalo'' Kernighan). Does that make me a Plaugerist?

Also from the article

[Mirk]

Marsh says:

In every step building the EV1 business, I've had to make decisions that I believed in my heart were in the best interests of my clients and my shareholders.

Shame he didn't use his brain instead.

Purges for Dummies authored by Stalin!

[Hiigara]

Excerpt from the second page of the thread:

"If this was a publicity stunt then it's probably not a very good one, considering that now most slashdotters are going to be vehemently against EV1, so while they'll get the traffic it won't be translating into sales for the most part (it may for some, not all slashdotters hate SCO, but I imagine it's a fairly small percentage of the total)."

There... is... evil... among us!

We must hunt down the dogs and purge the SCO supporters! ...

Okay done. :)

Re:It's a big deal for other reasons too

[RobertB-DC]

EV1 has become famous as a porn hosting site:

Well, at least now I know *why* I only pay $12/month (after "fees") for dialup: My surfing is subsidized by porn.

If you plugged that into a spreadsheet, wouldn't that be a "circular reference"?

Re:Grammar?

[bullestock]

"...various GPL Linux developers plaugerists..." (What are those? People who transmit the plague?)

No, Plaugerists are of course the followers of C++ guru P. J. Plauger.

Re:no, Mr. Marsh, what you've done...

[emurphy42]

This sounds like Czechoslovakia in 1938 claiming that giving up part of their land to Germany relieved them of worries about Germany's territorial ambition. That worked out so well for Czechoslovakia, didn't it?

I hate to have to remind you of Godwin's Law (I really do think this was a boneheaded move on EV1's part), but...