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SCO Seeks Licenses Down Under
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.
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...
I'm just waiting for SCO to start sueing themselves.
The good is that we have the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
If SCO calls you, give them the finger and then report them to the ACCC. The Perth company, CyberKnights, lodged a complaint earlier on this month.
If SCO keeps going with trying to get UNIX licenses in Australia they should be prepared to face the ACCC.
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Where women glow and SCO plunders?
The previous chair of the ACCC (Allan Fells) wasn't popular with business, which in my view, meant that he must have been doing something right. The current chair (Graeme Samuel) doesn't seem to be so so proactive (or controversial), so they may adopt a wait and see approach. In any case, I am wondering if what the SCO group are attempting to do could best be covered by Fair Trading laws which, in Australia, are administered by the State governments. I guess the anti-competition aspect of SCO's behaviour could give the ACCC jurisdiction.
Justly or unjustly, rightly or wrongly, they have already paid a heavy price for their underhand techniques, in the form of the mydoom worm. This clearly shows how much anger and resentment the society has against this vulture of an organisation.
Under these circumstances, it is highly unlikely that their legal action will work anywhere in the world. Even if MS pumps more money into SCO to damage Linux, it will not save SCO.
SCO can't kill Linux. What doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger.
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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.
It's no surpise that SCO is targetting Aussies. Just have a look at their stock.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=scox
It's going down under!
And prepared to face us.
Give Kieran (SCO AUS CEO) a call or email and let him know what you think (politely)
His voicemail is answering at the moment - 'I am away from my desk' but he will listen to your message as soon he gets back'
Haven't tried his mobile yet....
Kieran O'Shaughnessy
Regional General Manager ANZ
The SCO Group
Level 11, 56 Berry Street
North Sydney NSW 2060
Australia
Tel +61 2 9440 7577
Fax +61 2 9440 7588
Mob 0419 66 00 16
email kierano at sco.com
web www.sco.com
Luckily, we have s202 of the Copyright Act which says that it's illegal in Australia to make groundless threats of legal proceedings. That is, you cannot say "buy a licence or I'll sue you" unless you are really in a position to sue and win. We also have a "loser pays winner's costs" rule in litigation, which means that once you've started to sue, you cannot discontinue without being ordered to pay the other side's costs.
Here is a one year version. It currently shows that SCOX rose pretty steadily relative to IBM until last September, and then it oscillated a bunch until January, when it started down. In this view, SCOX still hasn't gone below the relative position it was at last year.
Of course, there's also the short term absolute status, which currently shows SCOX under $8 and falling. I believe that's already below the critical panic level for Darl. Don't they have to put up some real money now?
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
According to this article in the Salt Lake Tribune, it needs to stay below 6.75 for 20 consecutive days. A little over a dollar to go. Buyback could be used to try to make a bounce, but I would hope that the threat of 6.75 would cause the stock to dip enough in anticipation once it is in the neighborhood and so the buyback is just throwing away more money.
No worries, mate
The soon-to-be-released MyDundee worm will take care of 'em SCO bastards in a hurry.
MyDoom is not a worm, THIS is a worm!
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots