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SCO Linux Licenses Could Increase In Price
prostoalex writes "ZDNet UK says that, while SCO Group's legal department took a timeout from generating new lawsuits, their Linux license prices might be increased. 'Companies that license now may be able to do so cheaper than if they do so later,' [Blake] Stowell said. In the upcoming financials call, SCO expects to announce 6-figure revenue from its SCOSource division."
I haven't bought mine yet! I better rush out while they're still priced reasonably.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to just not by a license at all?
I mean, if they have sold 2 licenses at $700 a license, but upping it to say, oh, $1400 (nice ring to it :)) a license, they can *double* their revenue with no higher operating costs!!
At least that is how SCO probably is seeing it through the haze of their pipe dream.
Don't worry, Bill can afford it.
cat * >> sig
I think the only reason that SCO will be able to announce 6-figure revenue for SCOSource is because this is the fiscal quarter that they'll book the revenue from the EV1 scam - the first and to my knowledge ONLY large deal (other than the war-chest they got from Microsoft) they've ever closed.
.... Now, you forecast 10 to 12 this quarter, but that's mostly from the UNIX business, which ....
If this is the case, this does NOT indicate new deals, this does NOT indicate a new revenue source, this does NOT mean that did a dime's worth of business in the last 3 months - it's just when the revenue from their only decent deal some time ago hit the books.
A quote from the SECOND quarter conference call (Darl speaking to Maureen O'Gara):
McBride: We had a few deals on the SCOsource side, Maureen. You know with last quarter we had announced a major deal with EV1. That is not part of the revenue stream that we're reporting in second quarter. That revenue will start to be accounted for in the quarter that we're currently in.
O'Gara: Sorry. The EV1 revenues will show up on this quarter?
McBride: Yes. They will start this quarter, and they'll be booked over multiple quarters going forward.
Now, within that conversation, Darl claims to have deals in the pipeline:
O'Gara: Well, we'll see how that
McBride: Yeah, until there's a stream of revenue that comes out of the SCOsource side, we're not going to get in the business of handicapping or projecting the forecast of it. You know, the pipeline that Bert is talking about that is healthy right now is not really part of that 10 to 12. Once we have more predictability, then we'll start to get projections on that.
Notice he hints "10 or 12", but I suspect all he got this time was money from EV1. Looking forward to the conference call to see if anybody challenges his smoke-and-mirrors show.
What, are they still around?
I wonder how many figures their legal bill is. Somehow I suspect its a seven or eight figures at least.
Yeah, but what if nobody pays for it. How do they expect to generate 6-figure revenue from nothing? They have to win their cases first, and that doesn't seem to be that likely.
-paul
Pistol caliber is like religion: everyone has their favourite, and theirs is the only right choice.
So now this means that there's more money nobody's paying them. The good news is, current Linux users are paying even less. I mean if you used to pay 0 instead of $50, and now pay 0 instead of $100, that's practically the same as walking into the SCO offices and stealing 50 bucks!
...to get a Linux license. And who can afford to pick up all the liability they've accumulated in the last 16 months or so?
.. and out they come!
I know it has been said before and i will say it again...WTF are these mother fuckers smoking...are they completly retarded or something???
"SCOsource is the Linux users' shakedown program. Apparently, no one is paying up. It took in $11,000 last quarter. That's not a typo. President and CEO Darl McBride paid more lip service to 'increasing shareholder value,' but you really have to wonder about the viability of his vision when his firm's most engrossing initiative brings in less money than the guys who mow lawns in my neighborhood."
--the Motley Fool
Fuck it
Looks like this guy is going to have to get a new account. Such a pity.
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
He said you can do all sorts of stuff with it, and I'd sure hope so for that price. :P You can buy a PC with WinXP Home from Dell for that.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
The forgot to mention they included everything behind the decimal point, the decimal point itself AND the dollar sign in those 6 figures.
They are about to loose credibility in the biz world. The few companies that are willing to pay would accept the higher price, granted the company believes that they are using stolen linux code. Car insurance is car insurance, when one company has a monopoly I'm willing to pay any reasonable price for it. This is Basic Supply and Demand
They've ditched the whole currency scheme - now it'll cost 10 shares of Google stock per CPU.
How many employees does SCO have working on this? I generated six figures in the last few by months selling mouse pads to users coming from ads on a single website... If investors consider the ability to generate revenue a test of your worth, SCO should be considered quite worthless.
Seriously, I CANNOT wait for IBM to put these corporate terrorists out of our misery.
proper IT companies pay their boards in seven figures..
OS revenues are close to nil, and thus far SCOsource is damn near a bust.. Give or take some pocket change from Dollar Bill up in Redmond.
Dump while you can, 'cause the pumping isn't going to be good for much longer..
... spend 7-8 figures on lawyers I guess thats one way to lose your figure ;p
I mean, that will mean all those licenses they have charged for will effectively have been fraudulent won't it? That's kinda illegal in most parts of the world, so what will SCO do? Refund everybody? haha right.
raise your hand.
In the late 1970's Microsoft licensed UNIX source code from AT&T which at the time was not licensing the name UNIX. Therefore Microsoft created the name Xenix. Microsoft did not sell Xenix to end-users but instead licensed the software to software OEMs such as Intel, Tandy, Altos and SCO who then provided a finished version of their own Xenix to the end-users or other customers. SCO introduced its first version of Xenix named SCO Xenix System V for the Intel 8086 and 8088 in 1983. Today SCO Xenix is one of the more commonly used and found versions of Xenix.
Linux was based on Minix. A UnixLite OS designed to run on PCs. However, it was really only a teaching tool. Andrew Tanenbaum repeatedly refused to add the new (legitimate) features the users and even developers asked for. Linus Torvalds set out simply to add functionality to his own version of Minix (the copyright allows use to do so for your own personal use, but you cannot sell or distibute it).
Over time, in adding functionality to Minix, Linus Torvalds found that he had created an entirely new kernel. I was very similar to Minix but used none of the Minix source code. Torvalds had originally called it freax, for "`free' + `freak' + the obligatory `-x'. The operator of the FTP server where Linus' new kernel made its debut didn't like the name and simply called it Linux (Linus + Unix). People seemed to like the name so it stuck.
I pledge to provide Linux licenses for 1/2 of whatever SCO is offering.
No joke. I really will.
Why, is the ABS module propogated with SCO software?
I'm dying of curiosity to see what these guys will do next.
Somebody put a muzzle on Darl and his output has been quite limited. It used to be that he could spout first class fantasy every couple of days. Maybe his lawyers told him to shut up or they would quit working for him. Or maybe somebody pointed out that he is just a slip of the lip from going to jail.
These guys are more creative than even Bill Clinton was when he denied having sex. I almost admire them.
If the license fee was $5 per copy of Linux they might actually get enough people to make them more than $11k.
Seriously, WTF? Did they let the asylum out?
$1000.00 has six figures y'know...
'This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it' - Eeyore
They are tossing in licenses with other product deals so they can't say that SCOsource is actually creating all of the 6 figures.
This is slightly OT, but it's in regards to SCO.
A week ago at SCO Forum, Rob Enderle gave a keynote speech entitled "Free Software and the Idiots Who Buy It." Mr. Enderle employed repeated logical errors, accusations without evidence, and ad hominem attacks. He materially confused the meaning of Free Software, as well as assigning physical threats to the Groklaw / Free Software community without proof.
I have written a paragraph by paragraph critique of his keynote, and it is available at my site (Part One and Part Two)
I welcome and appreciate feedback and comments on it. I jokingly refer to the paper as "Logical Fallacies and the Idiots Who Use Them," but did my best to keep the text proper professional.
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
That stuff is gold!
http://saveie6.com/
FOAD SCO!
Gag me with a penguin.
Hello everyone, welcome to the Fiscal Q2 SCO conference call. Mr. McBride, you may begin.
McBride: Uh, yo McB here. You guys better pop open a couple foamers because I've got some totally bitchen' news to tell you. In fact I got a couple brews right here in the minifridge. Joe you want one? Okay, that's cool, maybe later.
Okay, so I'm totally stoked to announce our SCOSource revenue last quarter was $699.000.
That's right, six figures baby! Hoowah, gimme a high five Joe! C'Mon Joe.. man you really need to loosen up.
Thanks to Mr. B. Illgates, who bought the license this quarter. Enjoy your new Linux Mr. Illgates. He totally put us over the top this Q. 10-4 for the 10-Q Mr B! WOO! HIGH FIVE!
I am just totally rockin!!!!
last time i checked:
anything * 0 = 0
maybe they are just going to charge their UnixWare customers an extra $1400 when they bundle in the 'Linux IP' license
Everyone should believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer.....
$1400.00, now count the digits...
$1234.56
IW4M.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
what SCOsource revenue they have now by EXTORTION, I say they're already generating revenue from nothing.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
WTF are these mother fuckers smoking...are they completly retarded or something???
How dare you ask that question. It should read as follows:
These guys are smoking dog shit...their mothers(I guess bastards can't have a mother) dropped them on their heads daily as small children.
Please don't ask questions. When you ask questions it appears that you don't have the answer.
When they say 'six figures' are they including the decimal places?
($699 + increase) * 0 licenses sold is still $0.
How can SCO legally collect money for something they merely claim to own?
Shouldn't they have to actually own it before they can take people's money?
$000,000.00
I think the financial world's penchant for integral numbers saved SCO a little face here: if you allow digits to the right of the decimal, it is actually a 99.87% drop in revenue. That's better than Ivory Soap and their "99 and 44/100th's pure" of yesteryear.
I guess SCO is gunning for a new meaning of "five-nines" - a 99.999% drop in revenue.
-paul
Pistol caliber is like religion: everyone has their favourite, and theirs is the only right choice.
Don't buy a license, don't support SCO and most importantly don't give them any money to defend this business practice in court; it's cheaper and it helps out in the long run.
- MbM
I say they are fool of bullshit.
mousetrap@pop.com.br
He has some kind of followup on Linux Insider. Which, by the way, is not necessarily an aptly named website. They seem to have lots of anti-Linux articles.
OH NOES WHERE IS MY SHOT GUN!?
Next I'll find Mcbrides ass hole.
ignoring us will be a better deal than ever!" said Stowell.
Act now while these prices last!
on which side of the decimal??
SCO licenses will hit rock bottom once SCO goes bankrupt from losing court cases
Blake must be feeling a little down and out now that Rob Enderle is apparently competing with him for the SCO Information Minister position:
Here is one of Rob Enderle jewels from his SCO keynote:
That is why I stood up for SCO; they were being attacked because they were vulnerable. Those that attacked them did so because they could in a clear effort to deny the employees, the stockholders, and the customers of SCO their rights and, as a number of veterans have reminded me from time to time, heroes died for those rights and I believe it is our.... No my, obligation to uphold them.
One can only smirk at the twisted logic of coupling poor vulnerable SCO with the heroes who died for our rights... Not only that, SCO is proud of this address that they host it on their website . If I were them I would take it down immediately and claim I was hacked and the site was defaced.
.....a beowulf cluster of these things!
get it while its hot, this deal won't last for long.
I'll pay when SCO can publish their proof in the form of source code publicly on the internet. Heh, or I'll most likely just steal from them until that block of code, which probably doesn't exist, was removed from the Linux kernel.
I just love stealing software, it reminds me of the good old days on Windows.
chill out. clink on another link. it's amusing to some of us.
Goodness who modded this funny? It's WAY WAY off-topic political BS. And not even good political BS at that. Guess that's what happens when you give mod points to those with little brain. Now to stay on topic. What makes SCO think someone will pay MORE for SCO Unix? From what I have seen its about a generation or two behind Solaris and AIX in features and scalability and not even as good as the current Linix Distros in many ways and Linux is FREE. Oh well just another example of backwards thinking, like "hey let's sure IBM over the fact we own UNIX and that they put our UNIX in Linux. They'll buy us out, and we'll make millions I tell ya.". NO ONE beats IBM in court.
I fail to understand...
1. They release their own linux distro (Caldera) making their code GPL.
2. They say that linux infringes their IP, although they have GPL'd it (They haven't proven that it is true anyway).
3. They try to convince everyone that the GPL is ilegal.
4. Their latest Unix distro is full of GPL software.
Please help me understand, perhaps I am too simple minded to ascertain their logic.
Cheers,
Adolfo
It doesn't just apply to individuals, but businesses as well. I can't believe ANYONE has fallen for this scheme and paid for these fake licenses to begin with, much less falling for this "fees are going up, better get 'em while you can" farce. It's the oldest trick in the book.
The parent asks a legitimate question. The wonder is that some of the 'mainstream' press actually bothers to cover SCO's crud. The real gold is over at groklaw.
When I take over the world, there will be a $20 'Existence surcharge'. If you pay now though, you can recieve the discounted price of $7.99 and a 2 liter Mountain Dew.
---
WARNING:Slashdot karma not redeemable in the afterlife.
You should (or maybe you have) read the thread on Groklaw about Enderle's "speech". Perhaps you wouldn't mind contributing your analysis to the other on the site.
Tht just means I have to ship them more Monopoly money.
Damn, and I had enough to survive Boardwalk before this...
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
License, or I will type license AGAIN! . bored now. That's it. You are banned. [00:01] *** ChanServ sets mode +b for #linux, SCOsAlEz
Drop me a line at:
Key ID: 0x54D1D809
Big deal $1,000.00 that's "six" figures...
Although more traditionaly I'd call 100,000 six figures and for whatever reason 1,000,000 can be called six figures too and that's not that impressive at all either. $9,999,999 wouldn't be enough to have made it worth the hate would it?
I am emailing with PJ, and she has expressed interest in linking to my write-up.
Groklaw is how I found out about the speech.
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
I am sure Microsoft is relieved that they are all paid up.
If you're a Unixware customer, make sure you ask to have this $699 or whatever unnecessary piece removed from your cost.
By removing the expensive Linux component, it should make the Unixware part quite affordable. (free?!?)
These SCO idiots are going to end up going to jail for some of these shenanigans ....right?
Companies that license now may be able to do so cheaper than if they do so later
And as Capone's racket was being shut down, I'm sure there were some great last minute deals on protection offered, you know, before Capone got really mad and decided to triple the price of business insurance.
Too bad SCO oops'ed and sued one of their own customers (DM). Guess owning SCO products and licenses actually makes you MORE likely to be sued than less. Sigh... maybe they can recount lawsuits like Boies did with elections. They've certainly tried enough different courts to pray for at least one outcome to pin a few more million share sales on. Gotta prime that pump somehow and press releases ain't cutting it any longer.
I was $199 away from getting that license and now this happens! Looks like I need to go find(create) some security holes in Mozilla to pay for the increase in SCO's Linux fee.
First they demand a fee for Linux and now they are raising the license fee!?! What are they going to do next sue their customers? Oh wait...
By accident, they hired an account, and he discovered that the trading rate for a dollar is 110 Yen. By converting their earnings into Yen, their 100,000 USD contract becomes 11 million Yen!
But that trick will only work one quarter, you say? Not true -- at 1,916 Venezuela Bolivares to the dollar, their measly 11,000 USD this quarter becomes 21 Million VEB!
Okay, you say -- two quarters, tops! Anything more is inconceivable. Nay, I retort. At 1,463,000 Turkey Liras to the dollar, they just need to sell one 1,400 license to report over 2 BILLION TRL in earnings.
EXECUTIVE: "Sir, our evidence was laughed out of court again."
DARL: "Figures..."
A little later...
EXECUTIVE: "Sir, our lawsuit against IBM was thrown out of court!"
DARL: "Figures... guess I better sell my stock now."
EXECUTIVE: "Yeah, it's about as high as it will ever be. Our products are being laughed at for being so obsolete in today's market."
DARL: "Figures..."
A little later...
EXECUTIVE: "We're gonna have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy."
DARL: "Figures..."
EXECUTIVE: "Looks like the SCO empire is crumbling quickly."
DARL: "Figures..."
EXECUTIVE: "Also, there's some SEC guys outside. Said they wanted to talk to you."
DARL: "Figures..."
Great..glad you Grok with us now..See ya over there..
That's some great work. A very nice, thorough analysis. Seems like Enderle has a bit of the O'Reilly in him!
I've noticed a lot of trolls being modded funny of late.
When they lose their lawsuit (note: I didn't say 'if'), of course they will refund the money, no? I mean, a well-respected and morally sound company like SCO, I have no doubt at all they will. No?
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
I was having a miserable today. I slept in and missed an appointment, I've got bill collectors crawling up my ass and I haven't had a date in over three years. But then I read what those wacky lawyers at SCO are doing and I had a good belly laugh.
I needed that. Thanks SCO!
wtf?! are they still around?
Really... When I read the title, I hoped that the foot icon was inside the history's page... maybe simoniker is starting to lose his sense of humor... well... any SCO is better than no SCO... I guess... (sorry about the ellipsis excess... that's my tick)
you can hear the sound of everyone not giving a shit.
sco tries to boast themselves up, thus far they've been the big bad wolf who has TB.
"I'll huff...and I'LL PUFF.... and I'l *cough coughcoughgagcough*"
*everyone sits there yawning*
"Wait! lemme try again!"
...me selling my pants for $100,000.
It doesn't matter, I can charge what I want because nobody's going to want to buy them anyway.
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
Vote for me. :) (actually, I'm not running for anything.)
The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.
and they are all 0 :(
So, this increase in revenue from these highly sought after Linux 'licences' means, they can start paying their legal bills now
Last week I was willing to pay $0 to SCO for a license, but in the face of potentially increasing fees, now I'm willing to pay ten or twenty times that amount!
boy I didn't see this increase coming - better talk to my cfo and tell him to dig deeper for the sake of sco.
I am running low on toilet paper I better take a license.
The Weasel's name is "Darl"!
Would everyone pipe down? This all makes perfect sense - it comes down to basic supply and demand. As the demand for SCO licenses has decreased, so the cost must significantly increase.
Of course, once it gets to the point where SCO's customer base closes on zero, the price will soar toward infinity. The good news for Darl McBride is that as the cost of Linux licensing approaches infinity, SCO will only need to sell one license to become the wealthiest company on Earth.
The SCO sales team is swarming around the EV1 Servers building as we speak.
what
And the good news is: this guy *is* a lawyer.
http://www.lamlaw.com/
His take on SCO's increasing their SCOSource license fees:
t_t_b
I'm on PJ's "enemies" list! Are you?
Regarding the "aren't worth the air they breathe" part (in your section 1), I don't think Enderle was saying that was a quote *from* Groklaw, but rather that Groklaw should feel free to quote *him* on that, i.e. "a direct quote *for* Groklaw".
You have to teach the kid to "just say Gno".
BSA: "Would you like a free Software Audit"? me: "No, thanks. My software is all Free".
Here's an error in your interpretation, I think:
Enderle said "I have a serious problem with people who are abusive, particularly those who use any excuse to cross the line into physical, emotional or verbal abuse. In my view this is uncalled for and the people who utilize this practice, this is a direct quote for Groklaw, aren't worth the air they breathe."
You commented "I have been unable to find the quote of aren't worth the air they breathe on Groklaw either through Groklaw's search or a use of Google."
I think the intent of his statement was that he was making a statement which Groklaw is encouraged to quote and to pass on to their users.
-- thinkyhead software and media
In addition, your quoting of "Linux folks are ... paid more than" in part two changes what Enderle was saying. What he *does* say is that "Linux folks are not only *not* paid more than their UNIX counterparts". By leaving out the "not", your sentence appears to suggest that the UNIX workers shouldn't work on Linux because they'll be wage slaves for making more money, when it seems more likely Enderle was appealing to fear by saying that they *shouldn't* switch to Linux or they'd suffer a paycut.
Just because they may cost more doesn't mean they'll be worth more (as far as business value)... Don't sellers usually lower prices to get rid of inventory that doesn't sell well?
If you want to get a licence later on you will need to give them enough money for them to recover from bankruptcy.
All that SCO are doing is to take the expense of their lawsuits and divide by the number of expected purchasers of their license to come to an amount that will allow them to break even.
I tried to do the same calculation to get an idea of how much Linux is going to cost but I keep getting a divide by zero error....
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
Do we need a reminder that Darl has said on many occasions that he claims to see SCO's legal antics as the software equivalent of the RIAA's lawsuits?
Nice analogy, except there is actual copyright infringement going on with the RIAA and SCO has yet to show us ANY copyright infringement.
Never argue with an idiot, people might not be able to tell the difference.
Really it's enough just to call him insane.
evil is as evil does
Before I have even read Enderle's rant or your dissection off it, I must admit that I am a bit dissappointed by this (from your page):
--
Minor typos and all profanity in the original have been corrected or removed
--
As stated I haven't even seen yet what you have removed, but I ask myself "Why would you remove his misspellings, and even more important, his profanities?".
Please understand me when I say this - I am not attacking you, but to me that kind of editing suggests an I-am-better-than-thou attitude which is totally irrelevant to the issue in question.
It seems like mixing religion or morals into what basically is a scientific exercise, thus it TO ME constitutes an even greater violation than the words 'bullshit' et. al. could ever do (in fact using the phrasing 'bullshit' or even worse does not constitute any violation to me whatsoever, It's just color to words and it speaks amble of the speaker).
I try to imagine your reasons, but all I can come up with is some parental discretion motif. Either that or religious zealotry.
The teenagers who are likely to even glance at your (no doubt splendid) work, will probably master profanities to a much wider extent than what I can even imagine Enderle is using, and the spelling errors - well if they can't spell properly at that age, YOU will not be the one who robbed them of that ability.
BTW it also seems counterproductive to your intended goal, which I believe to be: Expose this man and his views for what you think he is: A pompous fool.
Now I'll have to read both your dissection AND the original, if I want to get a complete picture of the way this man talks, and I'll be thinking all the time that you messed with your source. I simply don't understand you did that.
Other than that - I look forward to reading your work, it's just this 'oh no, he said ****' and the constant *beeps* in US american television shows that annoys me. You guys give us Jerry Springer, but you won't let us her the screwed up cast say *BEEP*. The real insult to decency is in the show itself, not in what language they use. The same - I imagine is the case of Mr. Enderle's ravings.
****
Disclaimer: I blatantly assume you are an US American, because that's where censorship of bad words is most widespread in MY sphere of communications. I apologize if I am mistaken.
Also I am not a native english speaker - I probably commit a slew of misspellings and bad phrasings.
Lastly - the censorship of foul mouthed wordings is IMHO pure bovine manure, but I will not let that retract in my enjoyment of what seems to be a fine work of yours.
Regards
Off reading...
Check out my PHP Url Validator
"700 bucks isn't a lot of money to throw at a potential problem to go away."
Ummm... yeah.. if you have only 1 linux server.
However, only a fool would buy a "licence" from SCOG. Darl and company have ONLY sued their business partners and former customers. You buy one of these things, you are painting a big fucking bullseye on your business.
Their licence allows you to use binaries only. No kernel source allowed. Download source from kernel.org to patch a critical flaw (hey they have happened in the past) and you violate the terms of the licence... you get sued.
Scrap your former server to replace it and forget to wipe the hard drive? You get sued.
Add a second server, you get sued.
Go to a dual CPU box and get sued.
etc etc etc.
These people are fucking scumbags. Small businessess should avoid them like the plague.
Wow. I always thought Rob's writings were a little out there, but reading his speech he's fucking nuts! This guy is so full of himself, so out of touch with reality, so misleading, and so abrasive! How the hell do you argue with someone like that? The guy should be crowned King Troll.
We haven't heard much from Laura Didio lately. Perhaps she's just too sane for the likes of SCO.
That is exactly where one can make an stand.
If you fail to do so then other companies will see a fertile ground to make businesses plans out of extorting money.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
If they had a better pricing structure in place from the beginning, SCO might have earned as much as $15,000 instead of $11,000.
That Copyrights aren't the same as Patents. Users typically aren't actionable for past and current infringements of Copyright unless they themselves are guilty of willful and active infringement- and typically don't owe anything on it. The worst that could have ever come out of this whole thing would be that SCO was right, there was some infringing code and it'd have to come out to be legit under the GPL- once that happened everything would be back to complete normal for the end-users. The only people that would be actionable and possibly facing stautory damages would be the guilty parties of the active act of infringement, not the contributory part. Worse, since SCO's pretty much made a botch job of their enforcement of any possible IP rights by way of keeping it secret- you're supposed to tell the infringers what they're infringing upon so they are obligated to stop. Failing to do so may be an estoppel on their pursuing anyone that currently is infringing- and may cause them to lose rights to the alleged IP with regards to it's use within Linux.
$700 to throw at a potential problem- no, that's not a lot.
$700 to throw at a NON-problem (which is what this is, no matter how you slice it...) is far, far too much.
I can't see what you've said as being really insightful- what you've said is valid, but only in the context of a possible or probable problem and SCO's just not a reality and they're about to be NUKED from orbit by Novell. If Novell gets that Dismissal with Predjudice, I expect that the whole damn SCO mess will implode within a day or so- they didn't own the IP rights at the beginning of all these cases so they're actionable under the Lanham Act and pretty much all of their cases go *POOF*, including the IBM one (since Novell executed their rights per the APA to waive any issues regarding contract or IP with regards to the SVR4 source base...) with SCO facing countersuits and suits regarding their obvious Lanham Act violations, Copyright infringements, and Patent infringements.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Depends there is one born every minute. Of course not everyone of them has a billion dollars but by the law of averages some of them must have. I hear George W. Bush is pretty rich.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Are SCO really this stupid?
Why do they think double, tripling, or even a 1000 fold increase will mean people will by more Linux licenses?
I am now worried.... no, no please 'hear'[1] me out. Noone can be this/that stupid for this length of time. There must be something up their slieve, there must be hidden plans in the works, even if it's MS funded FUD, purely to slowdown Linux's momentum and cause confusion in simple-minded management, to give MS time to build a faster, better, more effective FUD system[2]. There must be.....
For crying out load even Saddam Hussain wasn't this stupid.
Jaj
[1]Or to be accurate 'read'
[2] Effective FUD is cheaper, and more profitable, than good software.
Unlike big companies most small business leaders will have to deal daily with scams like this. Advertising in never published magazines. Bills for goods never deliverd. Goods delivered that were never ordered. Scam insurances.
SCO will just get filed with everything else. If a small business just starts handing out cash to everyone who claims they have a right they would soon be a bankrupt business.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I cant help but think that SCO should have set their *cough*blackmail*cough urm .. licences to something extremely low (say in the region of dollars). They actually might have been able to persuade more people of their *cough*lies*cough* ahem ... cause. This may actually of helped back up their campaign in court. As it happens its clear that they are bent on only one thing ... self destruction... And I think the world will be a slightly better place without them.
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
This article and the two articles above it appear as:
& cid=1714551/
Index:
Posted by on Thursday August 12, @03:57AM
from the dept.
to me on the main page - what's more, although I can see the comments for this one, if I click on either of the two above I just get "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."!!! WTF is going on?
I realise I'm not the only one who's experienced this bizarre phenomenon as a Google revealed this post - which strangely no-one bothered to respond to. http://features.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1130
Ten minutes ago I couldn't ping most of the US servers (am in the UK) though I'm guessing that's a separate issue rather than the beginning of the Apocalypse!
andy.
As the licenses are a complete fantasy anyway (they have to trick people into taking them... for nothing), they might as well go for the biggest publicity bang-per-buck.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Faulty memory.
In other words, he has descended to the levels of the tiny minority of zealots that send him abusive or offensive email. Actually below that level, since he has said it in public.
That's counting the decimal point, right?
As in 1.000000 ?
Dear [insert company/user here],
.
It has come to our attention that you have been a very naughty person, having not paid us for the privilege of running our IP on your machine. If you are a user of any Unix product, you may well have already paid for a license, however, you have still not paid the SCO Source [tm all rights reserved, copyright, spelled in blood, sacrificed a goat] license tax...errr fee to ensure that we will not sue you in the future on some trumped up assumption.
If you are a Linux user, then know that you must and will pay us for using our IP in the software that you did not write. We wrote it. We own it. All your Kernel are belong to us! Linus Torvalds didnt write it, he stole it from us. You need to pay it now, or else.
With that in mind, and ignoring current litigation, we, the SCO Overlords, have decided to be unquestionably generous to you, the rest of the computing world. We hereby claim rights to any and all computer code that is written to operate on any machine with a silicon based chip, board, or copper wire. As such, for a limited time only, you will be able to purchase a license from us to continue using our work for the low low current price of $699.99 US, not counting VAT for your Europeans.
If you fail to pay the ransome.. err tax... err.. fee within 22 days, the cost of each license will become . .
. . . 1 MILLION DOLLARS!!! If you fail to pay then, we will unleash our trained horde of litigant monkey ninja assassins to your doorstep, and we will persecute, I mean prosecute you and your company, your children, your grandparents, parents, adn your best friend's sister's hairdresser until you give in and settle with us for 7.95 cents, at which point we will publically announce that you and everyone you have ever known has paid for a license, wether or not you acutally USE or even OWN our products.
Failure to comply will result in legal action, as SCO will file a reverse class action, suing everyone in the world simultaneously for infringement.
You have been warned.
Thank you, and have a SCO day.
Blake Stowell, Darl McBride, Old Hob.
"Our funds have never taken part in toxic or death spiral convertible financings of any sort" -BayStar's managing partne
Buying a license from a company who sues its customers for license violations that are not in the license is not a smart idea.
If I wanted to be the target of a lawsuit, I can do that for free. Why would I pay a few thousand dollars for the privilege?
How does something, which has no intrinsic value, increase in price?
This post encoded with ROT26. If you can read it, you've violated the DMCA. Handcuffs please, sergeant.
After reading the speech and the critique, Rob Enderle comes more across as a someone who has serious personalty disorders which borders on paranoia, rather than a serious analyst. Has anyone done a background check on him? What is this situation which Bill Gates supposedly saved him from? What credentials does he have, other than a big dirty mouth?
It just makes it easier to calculate how much they are not making. Since they won't be able to afford any accountants soon, this is really important.
I would think they won't sell a hundred more at any price. But since there are stupid people out there they might sell 10.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
Rob Enderle's keynote speech is real long on invective, name-calling and verbal abuse. It is also real short on facts.
If Rob was ever really ranked number one in influence for most of the last decade then it certainly wasn't for this kind of yellow journalism.
One of the key facts that Rob Enderle (and SCO for that matter) ignores is that this entire thing could be settled in 10 minutes. All that SCO needs to do is to show the offending code. The source for Linux is available; just show what lines were copied from SCO's code and prove that it was indeed copied from SCO's code!
So let's see, at $700 per license, that means they've sold between 140 and 1400 licenses, which absolutely sucks sales-wise. I wonder what the marketing costs were for that? I have a feeling that reading SCO's revenue report may be the best laugh I get all month!
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
i admire your patience, that was so rediculous i stopped reading after a few paragraphs.
that guy needs a shrink, urgently!
Six Figures? Haven't they only made like $11K?
I guess the put it on the books as $011000.00.
I think their lawyers are starting to get smart and require actual money instead of stock options. Gosh, I wonder why? Anyone that has tracked SCOX since January knows. :-)
Never underestimate the power of negative press, especially self inflicted.
SPAM solution made easy: 1 spammer, 5 cords of rope, 5 hourses, and fireworks. Be creative.
Thanks very much for posting this - it was interesting not only as a rebuttal but also as a list of examples of logical fallacies - i.e., identifying the various false dichotomies. Very educational.
Thanks much!
The Army reading list
You're funny, and there is some truth to that.
However, I took extra care not to debate him, but simply to show the sheer pervasiveness of his faulty logic.
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
You are right and I will correct this in my critique.
Thanks!
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
Do you think they were counting the decimal places in this figure? I'd be willing to bet they've made at least $1000.00 with this stuff. that's just two people buying a license, after all.
You raise some good points.
First off, I have decided to reinstate the typos (they'll return soon). I will just let those go, even though they annoy me.
However, I am going to keep the profanity out. It's not that the profanity bothers me personally, it's that I know the profanity would bother others.
Specifically, PJ of Groklaw has stated her disdain for it (and she might link to my article), and a large portion of my personal audience is "far right" Christian.
Is it morally wrong to swear? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. But I've decided that that particular battle is not worth fighting. I'd rather put my efforts into other things, such as showing Enderle's inconsistencies.
I hope this makes sense.
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
Thanks for the compliment on my patience :).
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
I appreciate the compliment. Thank you.
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
I appreciate the compliment, and I assume you mean Bill O'Reilly, as opposed to Tim O'Reilly :).
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
You are correct and I am changing the essay to reflect that.
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
I read PJs story on this, and I felt the same when she addressed the profanities. If anything, his far too colourful language betrays him. He who must use language to guise, rather than convey, his message, is not that well off in the first place.
I am far from a 'far right' Christian myself, as you have probably gathered. And one of the things that bothers me about some this worlds major religions, is the way that regulating others behaviour seems to be an integral part. Regulation is in order to a certain extent, like general law enforcement, so that we don't kill and steal too much from each other, but it can be and often is taken too far, very often in the name of a Deity.
I am sidetracking the issue here, I apologize.
Thank you for your dissection, I thoroughly enjoyed the dispassionate way you dismantle his 'stream-of-consciousness' nonsense. Logic is a wonderful tool against nonsense. You had me chuckling all the way, even though I know the core topic is hardly a laughing matter.
Splendid job !
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I think he just took a moment to sharpen his shovel with that Insider article (here, for those with broken scrollbars). Can't wait to see how much deeper he digs his hole with his next public episode.
This is going to be the biggest train wreck since Circuit City put out Divx six years ago.
This sig no verb.
Now it'll be twice as worthless.
Moderation Total: -1 Troll, +3 Goat
The Linux OS kernel is distributed under the GNU GPL (GNU General Public License.) As of now, there is no proof that the license is not valid. Basically, the GPL is a set of conditions under which the user of a work can exercise the rights that are normally granted only to the copyright holder. There might be an issue as to whether the user could acceptably understand the license, but this might not be an issue. It would not be a good idea to assume right now that the license is not valid.
As of now, there is no proof that the Linux software incorporates any proprietary code. However, it is not OK for a company to impose their own restrictions on how people use GPL-covered Linux code. See this article. This code cannot be combined with any proprietary code. A company can produce proprietary code, but they cannot authorize it to be combined with the Linux code unless the code to be added is GPLed. Requiring people to obtain a license from the company to use the Linux software (even if the Linux software came from the company) is not a good thing. It is possible (though not certain) that using an unauthorized proprietary version or derivative of the Linux software could lead to copyright violation liability. In this case, the violated copyrights would be those of individuals and companies who contributed code under the GPL. This should not be taken as discouragement from using the Linux software-only obviously illegal i.e. restrictively sublicensed copies should be avoided.
Accepting a license could also encourage behavior that is not necessarily justified.
Come on, when was the last time you read Musical notation of the # symbol being shap without it being super-script, yet everyone who puts it in doesn't even attempt to super-script it, which means it's a hash symbol, c-hash.
Ok I'm a C++ evangalist and many of the C# features look good on the surface but uguly underneeth.