Slashdot Mirror
SCO - EV1, Licensees, Groklaw, Armed Guards
Camel Pilot writes "It looks like the CEO of EV1Servers underestimated the reaction to giving in to SCO demands and licensing Linux. I know we were looking for a new hosting home, and had EV1 at the top of the list, but now they are not even a consideration..."
An anonymous reader writes "InfoWorld has an article with more info on Computer Associates denying being a SCO Linux licensee." Also, Mick Ohrberg writes "Pamela Jones, creator of Groklaw, an independent legal research site, responds to some allegations presented by SCO CEO Darl McBride." Finally, an anonymous reader writes "According to the Deseret News, Darl McBride says he sometimes carries a gun because his enemies are out to kill him. He checks into hotels under assumed names. An armed body guard protected him at Harvard Law School when he gave a speech last month." Update: 03/08 20:17 GMT by S : cdlu writes "Now the SEC is unofficially confirming some interest in the SCO and Microsoft connection, according to Newsforge [part of OSDN, like this site]."
Soooooo, it was actually Darl? It would explain the dope, but didn't we all think it was crack he was on?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
According to the Deseret News, Darl McBride says he sometimes carries a gun because his enemies are out to kill him.
;-)
Hardly. The only thing Darl needs protection from is his own big mouth. Let's hope he never realises that while he's carrying his gun
BTW, does anyone else think the SCO logo there looks like a big red beachball with Mickey Mouse's head on the side???
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
Darl is now a paranoid litigous bastard
"It's not a stock price drop, it's a temporary dip until we pick another huge company to sue."
Beep beep.
An SEC staff member told NewsForge that complaints and tips about suspected under-the-table funding, stock-kiting, illegal insider trading, and money-laundering involving Microsoft or Microsoft-connected individuals to the financially struggling SCO Group have been coming into the agency with regularity since last August. Newsforge
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Darl McBride says he sometimes carries a gun because his enemies are out to kill him. He checks into hotels under assumed names. An armed body guard protected him at Harvard Law School when he gave a speech last month
Lets see... one guy pisses off a buncha nerds. He's afraid of firepower?
Uhh... Darl... the only thing you need to worry about is stuff like cracking your servers and DoS attacks. Both of which you have survived.
Really, if frivilous lawsuits caused people to fear for their lives, something is wrong witht his world.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Okay now that I've attracted ire from everyone without a sense of humor; It makes perfect sense for him to say that. SCO's success hinges on making people feel sorry for them. Making people feel sorry for Darl because he "has" to carry a gun is a big step in the right direction (along those lines) and most of the sheeple will fall for it, because they don't know the real story. Bravo, Darl, good work. See you in hell.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
He must know about ESR.
Check out the update at Yahoo.
From the article, The Islandia, N.Y., company, one of the biggest makers of corporate software, said that although it signed the licenses, it didn't pay for them -- and never would
Signed but not paid???
Free XBox, PS2
From the article: ... Any report that we made a cash payment of seven figures is highly exaggerated, and it disappoints me that that quote is out there in the media," Marsh said. "The contract that we signed with SCO specifically prohibits any party from discussing the economics of the transaction. If you have an agreement that calls for certain aspects to be protected, then you would hope that that would be respected." ..."
"
Like, SCO can read, understand, or comply with a contract; that they can be relied upon to disclose factual information, and that they're not in a media war. Give me a break. What the hell did you expect?
so now they can sue SCO and get their money back!
I like microcars
Darl McBride says he sometimes carries a gun because his enemies are out to kill him. He checks into hotels under assumed names. An armed body guard protected him at Harvard Law School when he gave a speech last month."
Yeah darl, and when I was 8 years old I too was a spy, and everyone was out to get me. trust no one you know. I'd sneak around under a blanket and surprise my parents with my leet disguise skills, only to quietly slink back into the darkness and surprise yet another family member.
By the time I turned 9 the whole attention seeking bullshit act left me and I started growing up. Try it sometime, it's not all that bad.
Darl McBride says he sometimes carries a gun because his enemies are out to kill him.
I am not entirely sure who would really want to kill him? I mean, this guy's stupidity is such that he shouldn't be put out of his misery but instead ridiculed and mocked for as long as we possibly can. We should use his actions in case studies on what -not- to do. He should be more worried of people pointing a finger and laughing then people pointing a gun and shooting.
Such is my Humble Opinion.
Sig? No thanks, I don't smoke.
Maybe it won't hold up in court, but at least it will burn off some of the cash SCO received and spread their legal team a little thinner.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
God help McBride if video games cause violence in people....
Sue the litigious bastards. They'd sue you.
Darl McBride, chief executive of SCO Group Inc., says he sometimes carries a gun because his enemies are out to kill him. He checks into hotels under assumed names. An armed body guard protected him at Harvard Law School when he gave a speech last month.
Darl McBride
Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system, calls SCO "the most despised company in technology."
The reason: SCO is claiming rights to the Linux open source software code that thousands of users and supporters say should have no owner. SCO brought a $50 billion suit against International Business Machines Corp. last year and last week turned on Linux users DaimlerChrysler AG and AutoZone Inc., suing for an injunction and unspecified damages.
"We are fighting the big battle," McBride said in a telephone interview from his office at SCO headquarters in Lindon.
McBride, 44, is pitting SCO against an industry it once helped develop. Less than two years ago SCO, formerly Caldera International Inc., was helping to form a standard version of Linux to compete with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows. Once McBride took the helm in June 2002, the company changed tack, hired attorney David Boies and began claiming that Linux users infringed on SCO's intellectual property.
Linux has attracted thousands of individuals and companies, some of whom see it as the only credible threat to Windows. Others use it because it's cheaper.
The software is now being used by companies ranging from DaimlerChrysler, the world's largest maker of luxury cars, to Lehman Brothers Inc, the fourth-largest U.S. securities firm by capital, to Google Inc., the world's most widely used Internet search engine. Lockheed Martin Corp., the world's largest defense contractor, also has servers that run on Linux as part of its computer network.
IBM pushes computers that run on the Linux operating system. Shipments of Linux-powered server computers, fast machines used to run Web sites, rose 53 percent in the fourth quarter, more than double the rate of Windows servers, market researcher IDC said.
McBride and SCO are more hated than Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, and its chairman, Bill Gates, according to some Linux backers. That's because SCO, once a backer of Linux, has turned around and attacked the essence of the system: its free source code.
"SCO are just complete hypocrites," said Jeremy Allison, co-author of Samba, an open-source software that runs a file and print service that SCO sells.
SCO says it owns the copyright to the Unix system and that parts of the Unix code have been copied into Linux. SCO is demanding payment from each user of Linux. Novell Inc. separately is disputing SCO's claim to Unix.
SCO claims IBM is distributing the Linux software containing its copyrighted Unix code. It claims companies such as Red Hat Inc. are building products using the same code. The company broadened its legal attack by suing AutoZone for using software that contains the code, and DaimlerChrysler for not certifying that Unix, which it obtained via license with SCO, has been used inappropriately.
DaimlerChrysler spokesman Han Tjan said he had no comment on SCO's suit. AutoZone Chief Executive Steve Odland declined to comment on the claims. IBM spokeswoman Trink Guarino said the suit is groundless and the company will contest it.
Linux, invented in 1991 by Torvalds as a student in Finland, found converts in part because it was a free, publicly shared operating system. Anyone can work on and modify the source code of Linux. By contrast, Microsoft licenses its Windows code only to select partners, which don't have permission to make changes.
McBride is getting the most heat from the thousands of volunteers who have worked on Linux over the past 13 years. They say SCO has no claim on the code.
"The real reason why people don't like SCO, and Darl McBride in particular, is that he is so dishonest," Torvalds, 34, said in an e-mail.
McBride has done battle before. He compares
As a young man, McBride participated in rodeo events and helped perform chores with his cowboy father, Pat. Together, they tamed wild horses. He graduated from Brigham Young University after serving as a missionary with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japan.
Mormons never lie. Especially when they are wearing the magic underwear.
"According to the Deseret News, Darl McBride says he sometimes carries a gun because his enemies are out to kill him. He checks into hotels under assumed names."
Looks like baseball bats won't work in this case....
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
The first rule about the Tin Foil Hat Club is: "Don't talk about the Tin Foil Hat Club."
It's not surprising that anything SCO would sign would contain limited disclosure clauses. But, since Darl has clearly tried to claim that EV1 gave SCO $1,000,000+ in cash, and EV1 seems to want to stomp that down... can't EV1 sue SCO for breach of the agreement just a few days after it was signed?
According to Newsforge there is likely already an SEC investigation ongoing.
Also, to plug my own horn, I've written up a few things on the financial dealings. Most are from August 2003, but the most recent relates to the Anderer memo.
That's not so easy. EV1 doesn't have root over its customers boxes. They're not a managed hosting service. Therefore, forcing customers who don't want to switch OSes would be a messy process.
This is so over the top!
First lines of the article:
Darl McBride, chief executive of SCO Group Inc., says he sometimes carries a gun because his enemies are out to kill him. He checks into hotels under assumed names. An armed body guard protected him at Harvard Law School when he gave a speech last month.
Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system, calls SCO 'the most despised company in technology.'
...later...
In January, McBride's unlisted home telephone number was placed on Slashdot.org, a pro-Linux Internet site, which led to harassing phone calls on Super Bowl Sunday. Hackers also targeted the company's Web site with the Mydoom virus earlier this year, causing the company to shut down the site.
McBride said he sometimes carries a gun, declining to specify the type, and travels with armed guards. The gun is licensed, he said. Security officials have told him that convicted felons are behind the death threats, McBride said.
Lookie! It's the juxtaposition trick! Darl says, "I feel threatened," then mention someone (Linus) saying something threatening. Talk about linux advocates attacking making harassing phone calls, then mention unspecified convicted felons making death threats.
A classic example of propaganda I've ever seen one...
How long until he shoots himself in the foot?
echo 'Header append X-HD-DVD "0x09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0"' >>
SCOX is down 2% today, reaching a new low for 2004. The stock has been in a screaming dive since December, dropping from 19 to 11.
Its really our emotional response to threats. No different from any criminal threatening your hopes, dreams, your work, career or family.
EV1Servers should have simply waited until the SCO v. IBM was finished the appeals.
We've been desperately saying this - all we want is facts. Cold hard code with clear attribution and this has not been forthcoming from anyone to date.
EV1Servers have been tarnished because no-one knows who to trust right yet. For me if Torvalds says he wrote that code then he did and it stays that way until he says "Oh yeah I remember, I copied that from an old Computer or DDJ magazine or found it on a FTP site." or something equally absurd.
While I think you're correct that there has been a lot of 'bad' or 'uninformed' complaints, I know that there have been some informed too, especially concerning Jonathan Cohen.
One thing that indicates that the SEC is doing something (whatever scope) is that SCO has been late with some documents concerning the Bayster/Royce-deal. The contract says that they only to SCO non-damaging way for them to be late with this particular filing is during a SEC investigation. Someone else should post the details since I'm a little fuzzy on those...
Belief is the currency of delusion.
I'm thinking that 'Ole Darl may have made the final plunge into the Tin Foil Hat club.
Speaking of tinfoil hats, the following from a long, somewhat boring, analysis of SEC docs that SCO has filed:
# Jul 2002 McBride is hired
# Aug 2002 Morgan Keegan is hired
# Aug 2002 Caldera changes name to The SCO Group
# Sep/Nov/? 2002 MS memo discussing using intellectual property as an attack against open source is floating around in Germany and later publically
# Oct - Dec 2002 SCO later admits to beginning to look at its own intellectual properties and first makes noise about UnixWare binary libraries.
# Jan 2003 SCO creates stronger language to indemnify its officers of criminal activity
# Dec? 2002 - Jan? 2003 At some point Boies is brought in, likely via Morgan Keegan, to negotiate license/stock deals with Sun and Microsoft
# Feb 2003 Morgan Keegan clarifies its arrangement with SCO and includes language indicating they are anticipating an IBM buyout, though without naming IBM specifically
# Feb 2003 Boies finalizes his agreement with SCO to sue IBM
# March 2003 IBM lawsuit
# Jul/Aug 2003 Anderer joins
# Oct 2003 Anderer e-mail penned
# Oct 2003 PIPE deal
# Nov 2003 Boies has no one from law firm at key press conference
# Nov 2003 Boies gets 20% of PIPE deal
# Dec 2003 PIPE investors get veto power over Boies payouts
# Nov/Dec/? 2003 16 to 20 million deal discussed by Anderer never happens
IAALS.
It hasn't been covered yet although I've submitted the article yesterday and it is still pending but the most significant development in the SCO debacle is here, this broke on Saturday, basically Opinder Bawa, SCO's senior VP in charge of technology and development has been advocating the use of the Unix ABI with Linux and linking to a downloadable module to help SCO's ABI work on Linux, both admitting that Linux is thoroughly incompatible while encouraging what they've been implying is infringing use. This is quite stunning considering that SCO has been implausibly claiming copyright over Linux ABI headers.
And of course groklaw has news today that the SEC may be taking an active interest in the Microsoft SCO relationship on various grounds.
Any time SCO comes up for discussion, I have noticed the subtle jibes at Linux usually by AC's. There is nothing wrong with educated discussion but I have a great fear the the FUD is creeping into /. - beware of anybody that posts AC to this forum. If you are afraid to state at least your /. name, then don't post. I have already put AC's at -6.
Stay tuned for new sig...
"Yes. Disney is infringing upon our trademark. And no, we can't show you the other ear."
End Reader Licensing Agreement
c k/index. html
By reading this, you agree not to sue me and not to use this information in any illegal manner.
Here's all the contact info you should ever need for Mr. McBride.
The SCO Group
355 South 520 West
Suite 100
Lindon, Utah 84042 USA
801-765-4999 phone
801-765-1313 fax
Contact SCO online
http://www.thescogroup.com/company/feedba
Darl C McBride
1799 Vintage Oak Ln
Salt Lake City, UT 84121-6539
Darl's home phone #: (801)424-2006
Darl's office phone #: 801-932-5820
Email Darl: darl@sco.com
That Marsh, of ev1.net, may have underestimated the backlash, but it doesn't say what kind of exodus there is from ev1.net. As an example, Illiad at User Friendly noted that UF is run on ev1.net servers, but he doesn't think it's worth it to switch. We like to think a lot of people are leaving ev1.net, but I'd love to see real numbers.
That said, I know there's at least one person leaving: Illiad can stick around if he wants, but I'm not letting any more of my money flow to SCO. I'm getting out, and cancelling my ev1 account at the end of the month. I hope I'm not the only one; my hundred bucks a month isn't all that important, but a bunch of us together are.
See y'all over at ServerBeach or one of the other hosting companies.
-JDF
Never try to extort more than it would cost to have you killed ;)
There's an upside to this: maybe now we can him arrested for armed robbery.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
Dirty dirty company. They know that this deal with SCO has a good chance of indirectly benefitting them by fucking over their competition. See, here's the deal...
SCO wants a "big dog" in their portfolio: A high-profile licensee that they can use to scare smaller guys into submission. So they go to EV1 and offer them a really good deal for licenses. And EV1 figures, hey, we're only having to pay pennies on the dollar for these licenses, and it's going to give SCO a lot of ammo for taking out *other* hosting companies...
So what do they have to lose. They pay off SCO for an amount that really doesn't make a whole lot of difference to their financials, and the SCO guys look more credible, giving them a little more of edge for attacking EV1s competitors. This line of reasoning cannot have escaped the people making this deal, and it wouldn't be suprising if SCO explicitly used this argument to convince EV1 to buy.
So basically, EV1 rolled over because by being the first to pay they get the best deal and ensure that other Linux-based companies are going to get fucked worse than they are.
This was an exceptionally greedy and selfish move, and should speak volumes about those in charge of the company. Evil, evil, evil. Shady deals made for the sole reason to screw over as many people in the industry as possible, all for the sake of more power and money.
Does that sound like a company that *you* want to support?
In Darls mind he's Jack Wilson (Jack Palance) saying to the Linux world "Pick up the gun!"
Where as in reality he's the Iraqi Information Minister saying that the allies are being routed whilst the tanks roll up behind him.
Worst
The NewsForge story is nothing of the sort. The only comment by the SEC is that there have been a flood of complaints coming in with regularity over the past few months. The bulk have come via the web. IOW, all the folks who post a link to the SEC complaint page in /. stories have had people follow up and fill out the form. I assume the 'regularity' refers to the fact that people hit the page as often as /. posts a new story on SCO.
Not saying it isn't necessarily a good thing, but it's not exactly 'news'.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Yes, you should fear geeks with guns. At last years Penguicon, ESR (Eric Raymond, keeper of the Halloween doc) hosted a geeks and guns session at the local gun range. The highlight of the session was that I got to shoot ESR's colt 45 commander which also shot by Linus himself.
So my advice is to take threats from geeks with guns seriously. I saw their targets and their shot groups were tight.
Groklaw is reporting on a Newsforge article that the FTC is investigating the apparent SCO/MS link exposed in the Halloween X document. I guess that some things are too obvious for even the Bush administration to totally ignore.
The FTC will not officially acknowledge it, but their comments made by officials indicate that the deal (possibly among others) is definitely on their radar.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
That is, if SCO goes under with debt, then Canopy should have to open their coffers for IBM/RedHat/et.al.
I expect that is correct, if IBM can pierce the veil.
The more interesting question is if SCO declares bankruptcy, who gets whatever IP rights they do have. (And realize that based on the Novell contracts, I don't really think they have any.) BayStar and the Royal Bank of Canada both get priority in liquidation--priority over and above IBM with a court judgement, I would imagine.
Do they get it? What if the MS connection alleged in the Anderer memo is proven? Then, do they get it? Does Canopy get it because they have a loan to SCO that is secured and, I believe, their lease to SCO is also secured.
This is an important question.
Can't sleep, pengiuns will eat me...
... :)
Can't sleep, pengiuns will eat me...
Can't sleep, pengiuns will eat me...
# fuser -v
#
No, seriously, folks. Hear me out.
As a suitable allegory, let's consider the South Park episode "The Chicken Lover".
(***A little spoiler-warning here for those among you who have not yet seen this episode.***)
Officer Barbrady comes out with the secret that he is in fact illiterate. This is a humongous blow for his self-esteem, and he is no longer convinced that he can maintain L&O througout the town with this impediment.
Of course, this couldn't have come at a worse time, since the town is meanwhile being terorized by an as of yet unidentified Chicken Fucker.
A weird hippy-type bookmobile worker gets involved and provides the Officer with clues, forcing the Officer to learn how to read in order for the clues to be useful to him.
To sum up this long story, Officer Barbrady eventually tracks down and apprehends the Chicken Fucker, revealing his true identity. To the shock of the people on the scene, he turns out to be none other than the bookmobile worker himself!
As it turns out, he purposely started performing those heinous crimes and passing on clues, in order to encourage the Officer to learn how to read. Successfully, as it now turned out. The Officer can now read (albeit barely) and has regained the respect of the good townspeople of South Park, by removing a dangerous freak from the streets.
Unfortunately for the "Chicken Lover", no one ends up sympathizing with him, in spite of his good intentions. He ends up sacrificing his freedom and whatever standing he had in the community in order to help the Officer. Even the latter doesn't show any appreciation as he ruthlessly hauls the perpetrator's sorry ass to prison.
So I was thinking, Darl McBride possibly knew all along this SCO lawsuit would be bogus (after all, what individual with even a spec of a brain wouldn't, right?).
Perhaps he knew that in order to protect Linux from future lawsuits, the best thing he could do was to sacrifice his company (which was going downhill anyway) as well as himself by setting a precedent with a lawsuit so outrageous, that Linux would HAVE to come out on top, deterring any future legal action by other parties.
In the end, SCO will most likely have been crushed beneath IBM's elite legal team, while Darl McBride will have lost all respect and sympathy throughout the software industry. He might even go to jail. If he purposely went through with the anti-Linux-campaign while realizing all of this in advance, then it will have been a brave, selfless, yet unrecognized act of self-sacrifice for the good of the open-source community.
Poor Darl... Darl, the Chicken Fucker...
"Oooh, does that mean we get to kick some puffy white mad zionist butt?"
Or at the very least, change the text into the "Symbol" font.
Does narcissism count as a hobby? --Shawn Latimer
May I carry a concealed firearm in California? Except in extremely limited circumstances, you may not carry a concealed firearm on your person in public unless you have a valid CCW license. CCW permits are issued only by a county sheriff to residents of the county, or by the head of a city police department to residents of that city.
I live in another state and have a permit to carry a concealed handgun that was issued in my home state. Does my permit allow me to carry a concealed handgun while in California? No. Weapons permits from other states are not valid in California.
The City and County of San Francisco is downright parsimonious in issuing CCW permits:
San Francisco is the toughest city in California, if not America, in which to be granted a CCW permit. Currently there are only five permits issued to non-law enforcement personnel in the city. (as of June 2003)
So if Darl carried his weapon concealed in San Francisco, and he has not obtained a permit from Sheriff Hennessey (a reporter could easily ask), he's broken California state law, and should go to jail or at least pay a stiff fine. (Had the weapon remained in a locked container, he would be okay.)
sulli
RTFJ.
According to the Deseret News article, Linus says: "The real reason why people don't like SCO, and Darl McBride in particular, is that he is so dishonest."
The article also says that Darl McBride "graduated from Brigham Young University after serving as a missionary with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japan."
Whats up with that!? So this guy is a Latter-day Saint AND a returned missionary?! Latter-day Saints are supposed to be HONEST. This tidbit of information about Darl is particulary upsetting to me because I'm a member of the Mormon church too except I'm a huge linux fan and very anti-SCO. I even served a mission and went to BYU like he did, except I only went for a year before transferring into Cornell.
My point is that not only is Darl is a discrace to the linux community but also to the church. LDS Church members who aren't "honest in all their dealings with their fellow man" are supposed to be forbidden from entering temples. Therefore, this guy should get excommunicated ASAP if he hasn't already because he's tainting the church's image!
Alternative 1
....
[A public place.]
SEC agent: Mr. McBride, you're under arrest for fraud. Please come with us.
SWAT sniper: Subject 1 has a gun under left arm. Advice caution.
SEC agent: Please hand over your firearms.
Darl: This firearm? [Whips out gun, pointing it at SEC agent. Darl's body guard does the same.]
[Cue: Hans Zimmer music.]
They stand pointing each other's guns at each other, shouting.
SEC agent, police officers and Darl shouting at each other: Put your guns down! No, you put yours down.
ESR and RMS are hiding under a table, witnessing it all. They have to save the day etc.etc.
Alternative 2
SEC and FBI agents approach SCO headquarters.
In A.D. 2004
Search was beginning.
Darl: What happen ?
Security guard: Somebody set up us the search warrant.
Secretary: We get signal.
Darl: What !
Secretary: Main screen turn on.
Darl: It's You !!
SEC: How are you gentlemen !!
SEC: All your evidence are belong to us.
SEC: You are on the way to prosecution.
Darl: What you say !!
SEC: You have no right to resist make your time.
SEC: HA HA HA HA
Captain: Take off every 'gun' !!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move 'gun'.
Captain: For great evasion of justice.
Replay Waco situation with search [David Koresh] replace [Darl McBride].
Only this time, after SCO set fire to their complex, they are rescued by Microsoft helicopters.
Army general: The fire was a diversion! Cancel the fire rescue! Call the air force! Bring some artillery etc.
Actually, this would make a kick-ass anime.
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
The newsforge story about the SEC finally beginning to investigate both Microsoft and SCO is, if I see this correctly, going to be one of the biggest shakeouts in recent corporate history.
/. for years) such as Gartner induces me to think it was probably Microsoft who first approached McBride.
I was one of the people who, last year while no one was taking Microsoft involvement seriously, posted that there was a good chance Microsoft was involved based purely on the case of what the motivation was behind the whole SCO lawsuit. Now that SCO's case has been shown to be a mostly hot air campaign of lies and public FUD, considering that SCO has yet to openly show a single case of obvious infringement in court, I think it might have well gone off along the following lines:
SCO was losing both money and marketshare rapidly up until last year, having failed to persuade IBM to continue on project monterey after Caldera bought the rights from the original SCO, and thereby having no modern product and only an installed base of legacy customers whp were looking for other sources in any case. I think that while the original idea might have come from McBride himself to make a legal case for Linux chaos, I would think that probably, one of the first things he would have done is to approach Microsoft, or else he was approached by Microsoft very early as part of Microsoft's FUD campaign aginst Linux.
The benefits for Microsoft are obvious, as it would bring in, at the very least, doubt into the minds of PHB's who were considering Linux adoption. The fact that the SEC might be investigating Microsoft for funding analysts (something which has been obvious to just about everyone here on
I would think that Microsoft offered SCO and McBride a very Faustian kind of deal: Carry the legal and above all PR campaign against Linux and especially IBM (who has given an enormous amount of credibility to Linux) and Microsoft would save SCO's and McBride's collective asses. The amount of money involved is small change for Microsoft.
The fact that McBride is as stupid as the original Faust character, is easy to spot when one looks at other companies who have trusted or sold their souls to the Microsoft machine. Where are they today?
The reason that I think it might turn into a huge wopper of a case is because, when the threads unravel and Microsoft's tactics are displayed in court, they will not only have been guilty of breaking the antitrust agreements, but also numerous felonies involving the charges mentioned at newsforge. On top of that I can see this one going all the way to the top at Microsoft because I can not see any such huge campaign not being known and sanctioned by Bill and Steve personally.
And when I look at the current legal mood involving Worldcom's Ebbers and Martha Stewart and the punishment handed out, I don't think that there will be the same mercy applied as there was during the anti-trust trials.
It's a shotgun.
Both barrels, both feet, every time.
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
Yes, you too can enjoy this one. If you're running Windows you can accomplish this just by shrinking the icons in your task bar to the right size, other people may need to SHRINK their browser window until only the first 11 letters of this article thread are visible. And then what do you get?
SCO - EV1, L
Yay, that was fun!
inbred Mormon.
-1, Redundant
Trolling is a art,
Security officials have told him that convicted felons are behind the death threats, McBride said. So, if he knows the identities of the people threatening him, why doesn't he a) get a restraining order against these people or b) have them arrested. Or could it be this unsubstantiated claim is yet another part of their FUD campaign? How could you know that they are convicted felons without knowing who they are?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
"The polygamy crap" that you see on the news now is grounds for excommunication from the Mormon church, but until about 1890 it was official church doctrine (you couldn't reach the highest level of heaven - which enabled you to become a god yourself - unless you were a polygamist). But the church changed it's position (current doctrine is that polygamy is only for the hereafter, but will get you excommunicated if you do it here and now). But there are a number of Mormon-ish splinter groups who believe that the Mormon church was correct before 1890 but went astray when they abandoned polygamy, and said splinter groups adhere (more or less) to the official pre-1890 Mormon doctrine.
For the record: I live in Utah, I'm not Mormon, but I pay attention to their position.