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]."

Comments

Darl needs protection, does he?

[FyRE666]

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???

Re:Darl needs protection, does he?

[Ralph Yarro]

BTW, does anyone else think the SCO logo there looks like a big red beachball with Mickey Mouse's head on the side???

It's the world being eclipsed by, as you correctly recognised, a gigantic mickey mouse logo. It represents the ultimate triumph of intellectual property over sanity. I chose it myself.

Re:Darl needs protection, does he?

[DJStealth]

Shouldn't the title of the story read "SCO - EV1L, ....."?

In related news...

[cartzworth]

Darl is now a paranoid litigous bastard

Re:In related news...

[Lew Payne]

I'd be happy to help clarify some of these similarities, while correcting some of your statements in the process.

The Mormon/LDS theology is about Joseph Smith, who was able to translate "golden plates" he found buried in the forest (using a seer stone, similar to a divining rod, mind you) and thus wrote the Book of Mormon. One section in the Book of Mormon is the Book of Abraham, again translated by Joseph Smith from ancient Egyptian Papyrus purchased from a travelling huckster.

Science, namely Egyptologists, have clearly shown that Joseph Smith's translation of these documents (which were shown to be ancient burial scrolls and not an account of the life of Abraham) was not only inaccurate but also fradulent.

Among the things that we Mormons believe is that Adam (from Adam and Eve) is actually God (see the talks by former prophet and seer Brigham Young), that flesh-and-blood people like you and I (not spirits, mind you) inhabit our moon and sun (ibid) and that all other religions are "an abomination upon the face of the Earth" and their practitioners are "whores from Babylon" (History of the Church, Book of Mormon, Gospel Principals).

Mormonism has never paralleled, nor has anything in common with, traditional Christianity. The God of Mormonism is different than the God of Christianity, even though the same nomenclature is used to describe Him. Mormonism believes the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are three distince and separate entities, as opposed to the traditional views of Christianity. Mormonism believes there are three "kingdoms" of heaven which you must qualify for... belief alone is not enough to obtain the ultimate salvation.

Salvation in Christianity is based on faith and belief; works being the result of this. In Mormonism, it is based on works... you must do everything you can, or you will not achieve the ultimate salvation.

In Mormonism, if you are not temple-worthy, you will not be entitled to the highest form of salvation. In the temple, you will learn what amount to secret handshakes as you swear an oath to keep this to yourself. In the past, you had to swear an oath to Blood Atonement (... or let my throat be slit, where I shall bleed to death as punishment) (Biography of Brigham Young)... but now, to be politically correct, the Church changed it to something more people will accept.

In the Church, women are not equal. They cannot hold priesthood office, they are not entitled to the keys to the priesthood, cannot bless their family, and are not treated as equals. It is an interesting culture, accentuated by the individual quirks of different communities and States.

Overall, I've found it a fascinating community of people who otherwise wish to do good, but are kept ignorant of the true history of their Church and of their religion.

SCO:

[Realistic_Dragon]

"It's not a stock price drop, it's a temporary dip until we pick another huge company to sue."

SEC investigation underway?

[eddy]

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

Re:SEC investigation underway?

[DA-MAN]

Maybe someone should tip them off that Martha Stewart is involved. Sure she probably isn't, but that seemed to be the only thing that got the SEC moving.

Armed bodyguard?

[YetAnotherLogin]

He must know about ESR.

Re:Armed bodyguard?

[cmowire]

The way I see it, the last thing you want is to destroy the livelyhood and creative output of a bunch of nerds.

First, we take it personally in ways that other industries who have had attempts to destroy them haven't. Taking the pickaxe away from a coal miner or the torch away from a welder at an auto plant is one thing. Taking the paints away from an artist or the code away from the programmers is another thing.

Second, there are enough geeks who have varried interests in firepower. There's ESR and his "Geeks with guns". There's all of the crazy flamethrowers, flame cannons, high voltage tesla coils, etc. from the burner contingent.

Third, we won't be stopped if you take away our weapons. A gas grill and some machine tools can be turned into a variety of interesting weapons.

Fourth, we have been accumulating this knowlege ever since we found the Anarchist's Cookbook on the local BBS, so restricting further flows of information won't stop us. We have brother geeks in the other engineering fields to draw on as sympathizers. In fact, DeCSS has shown that the more you try to restrict the flow of information, the more folks who may not have cared otherwise now want to help share it.

Fifth, we understand the system better than some of the other displaced groups. The Detroit auto-workers would take out their agression by buying a Honda and publically smashing it. We do not have political ability, but I have no doubts that the angry nerds of the world will be able to pick the right targets.

What's preventing this from happening? Well, right now, there's still a promise on the horizon. People remember the last boom-bust cycles, the last time stuff was outsourced and we were still able to find jobs. Our hacker projects have kept us from blowing up at OS/360 and Microsoft and VMS because there *was* something that we could work on. Take that away, and we'll show all of the other groups that have used terror how things are really done.

Having said that, I think that everybody is currently more interested in Darl being a failed businessman (And indicental picker-up-of-the-soap) than dead. Because, overall, that's just more fun.

can they get their money back?

[microcars]

from the article:

Along with the PR backlash, Marsh said he is also disappointed that SCO officials have spoken to media outlets about the financial terms of the contract between SCO and EV1.

"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."

so now they can sue SCO and get their money back!

Go darl. most of us got over it when we were 8.

[baryon351]

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.

Why Kill Him?

[meplaysocr]

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.

How EV1 can get back on board.

[Jaywalk]

The answer is easy. Do what every other self-respecting Linux sponsor is doing and sue SCO. They had a contract that said the financial terms would not be disclosed. SCO disclosed the terms. Breach of contract. SCO implied that EV1 thought the SCO case had merit. So add slander. Then maybe donate some cash to that fund that was set up to protect Linux users.

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.

Re:How EV1 can get back on board.

[Zocalo]

Actually, I think the EV1 announcement has inadvertantly done SCO *far* more harm than good. The senior execs at SCO must have been thinking the announcement would be taken as a ringing endorsement of SCOsource and lead to further revenue, otherwise why make the announcement? Also, they certainly need a boost for SCOsource - after all, it is supposedly their new cash cow and just $20,000 revenue in the last quarter according to their last financial is hardly a good sign, is it?

So, we have the gleeful announcement from SCO/EV1 that a seven figure sum has been paid to SCOsource, cushioning the ~10% fall in stock price after somewhat grim financials and announcements of the latest lawsuits. However, we also have the biggest backlash you could possibly imagine; EV1 has kissed goodbye to a few million dollars (a no refund clause is in the contract), lost an unknown amount of custom to its competitors and been tarnished with the same brush as SCO. You'd have to be a complete moron to consider buying a SCOsource license for "protection" and risk having your customers find out now, which leave less funds for the lawyers.

SCO Chief

[Digitus1337]

God help McBride if video games cause violence in people....

Nice

[big_groo]

"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."

Sue the litigious bastards. They'd sue you.

Paging Major Dick....

[LittleGuy]

"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....

Re:Hmm....

[RLW]

The first rule about the Tin Foil Hat Club is: "Don't talk about the Tin Foil Hat Club."

Should EV1 sue SCO?

[LostCluster]

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?

Re:If I were EV1Servers...

[LostCluster]

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.

Propaganda, victim complex, or both?

[greg_barton]

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...

He carries a gun?

[Wingnut64]

How long until he shoots himself in the foot?

Dow Jones / WSJ finally picking up on this

[Animats]

See Clarification - CA Signs Licenses.. This Dow Jones story is very negative on SCO, and it appears on most stock-related sites, although it's not up on Bloomberg yet.

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 the users emotions not legal or technical.

[openmtl]

The response is emotional because the SCO threats have no legal basis (until proven in the current court cases), have no technical basis (until source code is actually revealed which to date SCO have not.

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.

Re:Already slow with 26 comments, here's a mirror

[PCM2]

McBride has done battle before. He compares his fight with Linux supporters to the time when his family caught thieves stealing cattle from their ranch in Utah.

Really? I'd more compare it to the time he sued his own employers over his personal compensation package.

Re:Give me a break!!

[Planesdragon]

Lets see... one guy pisses off a buncha nerds. He's afraid of firepower?

You obviously know a different set of nerds than I do, FK.

The more zealous the linux geek (in my 10-person sample), the more of a gun nut they are.

SCOpe unknown.

[eddy]

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...

Speaking of tinfoil hats. . .

[isn't my name]

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

Re:Hmm....

[Lane.exe]

If this is your first paranoid delusion, you have to make your own hat.

In other SCO News...

[Performer Guy]

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.

The SCO logo?

[ghakko]

"Yes. Disney is infringing upon our trademark. And no, we can't show you the other ear."

As the saying goes...

[Zone-MR]

Never try to extort more than it would cost to have you killed ;)

EV1 looking out for #1, looking to screw #2...

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:Give me a break!!

[Speare]

USA != world

Okay, twit. I'll bite.

We live in a world where a pregnant woman can be convicted of a stoning offense, just because the man decided not to marry her. Nigeria.

We live in a world where people participating in an anti-tyranny march to the capitol will be shot from rooftops by the minions of a guerilla warlord who will "protect" the country from violence. Haiti.

We live in a world where a well-respected and popular female government official is slain by knife while shopping in a department store. Sweden.

We live in a world where bloodshed happens for unjust and unjustifiable reasons... in every country there is, and every country there ever was. Even your country.

Maybe McBride has been HELPING Linux all along!

[motown]

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...

Re:MOD PARENT DOWN

[Sick Boy]

Or at the very least, change the text into the "Symbol" font.

Darl McBride: A Latter-Day Saint?!

[rcb1974]

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!

Would make for an Interesting arrest

[GQuon]

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.

Darl's Gun

[Rob Riggs]

Darl McBride says he sometimes carries a gun...

It's a shotgun.

Both barrels, both feet, every time.