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SCO Seeks Licenses Down Under

Posted by timothy on from the whatcha-eatin'-under-there dept.

WildCode writes "SCO is now targeting Aussies in its continuing Linux licence saga. According to the story, one Aussie organization has already signed up for the licence. The ACCC has no comment at this time but this certainly puts a twist on things as the ACCC were waiting for the results of the lawsuits in the U.S. before making any judgement. Personally I think its time for the ACCC to say to SCO 'wait for the U.S outcomes before taking action here.'" An anonymous reader points to another story at internetnews.com.

16 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. How much by VMaN · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How much money CAN they trying to salvage from the biggest backfire in recent history? ... ONE company per continent doesn't seem to me like it will pay the legal fees, and not to mention the destroyed reputation...

    1. Re:How much by HiThere · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Caldera was never a part of Project Monterey, that was the original SCO, now called Tarantella. And when Caldera bought SCO they specifically said that it was for the sales and distribution network, not Unix...and that their plan was to scrap the SCO Unix for parts to add to their Linux distribution.

      Then there was a change in management. I had thought that they would have a hard time doing worse than Ransom Love, whose community relations were...abysmal. But they have pulled off a truly stupendous coup. Of course, why they would want to do so is an interesting question.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  2. It just never ends with SCO by dot_borg · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The only companies more stupid than SCO are the ones falling for their FUD.

  3. Re:Personally, I think... by ciroknight · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm hoping you mean "Boycott all Unix" until SCO kicks the can.. Why boycott Linux? There's absolutely nothing wrong with Linux, and if SCO comes to you seeking money, give them the middle finger and get a lawyer. Odds are that very soon SCO will have to go to court... I'm just anxiously awaiting...

    --
    "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
  4. Sco still dropping by akaiONE · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't know about the rest of you, but to me this seems to be one of the late very desperate moves by the SCO to prove they have a business here.

    Lets just take a look at their current stock-price? This url [nasdaq.com] trully shows who's dropping here. It's for sure that SCO now seem desperate, and for a reason. Their business is dying, and so are their case.

    --

    "-Who said sit down?!"
    -- S. Ballmer @ MSDC 2003.

  5. Meanwhile, their stock... by dominiv · · Score: 3, Interesting

    is plummeting further and further. Check out

    http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SCOX&t=3m&l=off& z= m&q=l&c=

    or google to scox.

    Best to view the 3month graph, in a linear scale to get that good vibration...

  6. Return on Investment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While the lawsuits might not have any result in the long run, and will probably be turned down by the courts (depending-- I know very little about the facts of the case, and have no real pressing reason to find out more), it seems like in the short run, the could be very useful... for Microsoft.

    I mean, obviously Microsoft threw in some funding to this group to help sponsor the lawsuits. And they don't nessecarly have to succeed in order to have effect. Defending oneself from lawsuits is expensive and undesirable. Any moderatly to low executives now have more to worry about in any thoughts of migrating to Linux. This seems like it will help Microsoft in the short run.

    It seems like the time bidding might be all they need. If they can prevent massive pop-culture defections from Windows until the migration to 64 bit, they would most likely continue the prevelance of windows for a long time to come.

    How effective do you think this tatic will be for them.

  7. Working for SCO outside US by physick · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Imagine being a non-US regional director for SCO. You come to work one day and have a conference call with Utah:

    "Start sending out license letters."

    "But,.. but I have a meeting with N clients in the next week, we are closing deals on M systems."

    "Forget that. Send out license letters."

    Why are people still working for SCO?

    1. Re:Working for SCO outside US by arivanov · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And my point is that I will think 10 times before hiring an ex-SCO employee. So will 95%+ of the market and they will be quite likely to chose a non-SCO alternative even if less qualified.

      Leaving the actual SCO case aside it is a standard practice to not hire people working for companies involved in an ongoing intellectual property litigation.

      So anyone trying to jump ship from SCO will have to overcome the stigma of carrying bomb in their pocket.

      Even if they desperately want to jump ship they are not likely to be able to do it at the moment.

      --
      Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
      http://www.sigsegv.cx/
  8. Perhaps by buying a license....... by MrIrwin · · Score: 3, Interesting
    .....making it known and getting all that negative karma, you gain the right to sue SCO when it all caves in.

    We know SCO will go under but there will be possibilities of suing the companies who have been financing SCO to do this.

    OTOH, thinking about how much IBM are likely to hammer SCO and thier backers for them I don't think there will be anything left even in the upper layers of the pyramid;-)

    --

    And if you thought that was boring you obviously havn't read my Journal ;-)

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. Re:No surprises here by Kierthos · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes, true, it's still above the yearly low, but it's also far below the yearly high. And it's had one day in the last several days where it ended higher. (A whopping 0.04, no less!)

    The fact of the matter is, they're getting incredibly little money from licensing, they're having to continually meet payroll of their existing staff AND their lawyers, and the number of lawyers can't be decreasing if they continue to add lawsuits, without having won a judgement on a single suit yet. If they win a suit, which I seriously doubt will happen, their cash-flow problems will dramatically improve, but let's face it, a judgement in favour of SCO is, at a minimum, months away, if ever. It's far more likely to be against SCO.

    Then there's the little rumour that the SEC is starting an investigation, which does wonders for their stock price.

    Kierthos

    --
    Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
  11. Re:License this! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The courts haven't ruled anything. There was a settlement, which is different from a court ruling.

  12. Re:Other cases probably thrown out by mezelf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    On the other hand, winning the IBM case (if SCO were to win it) will take a lot of time and money. Since revenue from sales and licenses might not be enough for SCO to survive that period, they need something else. And winning cases mights just be their only option.

    At the same time, if a few judges (anywhere in the world) might go with SCO, it might give them some form of platform of precedents to use in other cases (like he IBM one). And they might need something extra, because it isn't really lokking good at the moment (most of their arguments having been knocked down by the Linux community and people like the ones behind Groklaw).

    In short, this might be a (desperate?) attempt to find some quick revenue and regain some lost momentum. But I don't think it will have any result.

  13. Why wait for the US? Germany didn't by NKJensen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why wait for a broken system to produce an answer?

    Germany told SCO to shut up or bring in some evidence. The aussies should do the same.

    It's still a mystery to me how the US legal systems works (or doesn't work)

    --
    -- From Denmark
  14. Re:SCO could probably make some real... by goatan · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Why oh why won't sco try this in the UK I would love to see the press reaction to this they would tear SCO and McBride apart.

    I don't mean to say that the papers have a clue about computers they would have a go at them just because it was an American company trying to sue UK one's

    --
    Saying Apple is better than MS is like saying Botulism is better than rabies.