Slashdot Mirror


SCO To Counter Groklaw With 'Fair' Coverage

linuxwrangler writes "Tired of being 'flamed, dissected and dismissed' on Groklaw, SCO has decided to fight back. SCO's site, scheduled for launch on November 1, will be called prosco.net. Just yesterday SCO CEO and favorite /. whipping-boy Darl McBride gave a speech comparing the software industry to the 'wild west' and warning companies that they must protect their intellectual property or risk being 'sacked by open source-touting bandits.'"

13 of 557 comments (clear)

  1. Good 'ol Darl... by Chordonblue · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess when you can't fight on the side of truth then you can always try and rewrite it after the fact.

    See Darl? This is why the old guard from Caldera warned you not to go after the 'open source crowd'. Your page of lies will be dissected by hundreds of others on Groklaw. The best thing is, this time instead of shooting off your mouth, your words will be in some web cache.

    Choose your topics wisely Darl. You will be watched...

    --
    "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
  2. Re:We HAVE to slashdot that site! by tntguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As annoying and frustrating as it can be, idiots of this caliber must be allowed to demonstrate why those who know better, know better.

  3. prosco? by Jaywalk · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Okay, so let me get this straight. Since they can't get people to believe SCO's spin when it's reported via credible news sources, they figure it's going to get a better reception when posted on an admittedly self-serving web site? I know it's standard on Slashdot to assume that the PHBs will accept anything they read, but even a PHB (or at least most of them) would have to know the difference between news and spin when the site's name is Pro-SCO. Somebody would have to be deliberately looking for SCO's spin even to go to this site.

    If anyone actually reads this site it's only going to be for the comic relief.

    --
    ===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
  4. Free? by MynockGuano · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The open source movement says that proprietary software shouldn't exist. They say that the operating system should be free, but that's a slippery slope," McBride said. "There's 12 million developers worldwide, are you gonna let their work be free?"

    Yes?

  5. Re:Sounds More Like.... by ccharles · · Score: 5, Insightful

    McBride the sheriff of Naughtingham?

    No, Robin Hood actually stole from the Sherrif. That would suggest that Linux actually stole code from SCO. I think we're all pretty confident that that hasn't happened.

  6. Custer's last stand... by 955301 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As long as we're comparing to American western history, let's take a more comparable example: General Custer.

    1. Rumor has it the guy was a lunatic by the time he decided to attack the natives. Check.
    2. He and his little army set out to battle against an opponent with a larger head-count. Check.
    3. The natives didn't have a choice: Custer was pretty much set on attacking them no matter what they did. Check.
    4. The natives were fighting for existence. Custer for glory. Check.
    5. The end result was the glorifying of Custer and a signature point in the demise of the Native American population. Let's hope squashing SCO doesn't backfire into some sort of us against them attitude with big business.

    --
    You are checking your backups, aren't you?
  7. Good Analogy McBride. I like it. by Speak+Forcefully · · Score: 5, Insightful

    McBride is right about it being the Wild West, but it's more like the railroads vs the farmers and small merchants. The rail roads would come in and pull all kinds of stunts to get what they wanted and at times wipe out entire towns, usually under color of law with the sheriff working to further their interests. I've lost count the number of Kevin Costner-type movies that were made about such subjects, with the good guys coming out as something less than winners.

    McBride is merely a sheriff working for his boss (Microsoft, Sun, etc) and looking to bring some good old "law" to The West on their behalf. I have no idea what to call IBM and Novell. They'd kill us tomorrow if it suited their interests, but I guess for the moment they are the gun slinging Clint Eastwood types that have a disdain for the townsfolk, but really, really, really hate the corrupt sheriff, his henchmen and the railroad goons. I guess we should be ... sort of thankful.

    So McBride's notion about it being The Wild West is actually pretty accurate, with SCO representing the interests of the railroads and robber barons.

    Why do you think when you were getting shafted in the old days the term often used was "This was a railroad job" or "We railroaded those guys off the map" and so on... it was because the railroads had lots of power and generally screwed over the little guy.

  8. Re:We HAVE to slashdot that site! by d34thm0nk3y · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Besides, if the site does get slashdotted McBride will just claim it was "hacked" by Linux zealots.

  9. It's a Red Herring! by kuwan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't you see, this is SCO's next step in their vexatious litigation strategy. They're going to launch their Pro-SCO site and open up the forums. Then when the masses of FOSS supporters flock to the forums to debunk all of SCO's claims, SCO will be secretly recording their IP addresses, personal information, etc.

    Then they'll take their newly acquired information and track you down so they can sue you! Then they'll be rich Rich RICH!

    MWAHAHA MWAHAHAHA MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

  10. What kind of mind control is Darl under? by francisew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder if he's also waiting for aliens hiding behind a comet to come and rescue his business from all the 'open source bandits' who want to rob real developers everywhere of their work.

    Has he not yet realized that open source doesn't mean that developers can't be paid. Does he not realize that there is a commercially viable business model for open source and free software? Doesn't he know that open source doesn't mean free?

    Darl, wake up: you are crusading against something that will only end up helping people!

    I bet that the '12 million developers worldwide' would prefer to see SCO invest their litigation costs in actual software development.

    That kind of money (multibillion dollar lawsuit ) could produce a valuable open source software package. heh. With the right business model, they might even be able to turn a profit without suing the pants off everyone they can point a stick at. more heh.

    If "the new gold is IP," why is it costing SCO so much to have enforced? It's alchemy they are after, not mining. Unfortunately for them, lead doesn't become gold without great expense.

  11. Appalled by the ethics of SCO... by neurocutie · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Darl McBride gave a speech comparing the software industry to the 'wild west' and warning companies that they must protect their intellectual property or risk being 'sacked by open source-touting bandits.'

    Nevermind the legalese and who can "win" lawsuits...

    I was reading a recent review of SCO's Unixware. The review seemed fair, objective and Unixware didn't come out too badly, BUT it was amply clear that the MAJOR reason that Unixware is still a product that one wouldn't be totally crazy to deploy, the MAJOR reason that Unixware could be viewed as even somewhat competitive is OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE, the OSS packages such as Samba, Apache, Open-SSH, etc that SCO "grabbed" from OSS to make Unixware a credible product.

    So here we have SCO borrowing HEAVILY from OSS, not paying a dime for key, strategic software that form the basis for whether Unixware is even slightly competitive on the market, and yet SCO is crying that OSS is 1) bad for the industry, 2) is stealing their oldy-moldy SysV code. I just find that APPALLING. Those guys have no shame, really. They should be GIVING BACK to OSS something for all the software they have taken into their own products, rather than trying to claim IP rights to this SysV, invalid as their claims are. This "all TAKE, no GIVE" approach of theirs to the community is the ultimate in despicable behavior.

  12. Go ahead, make my day by lildogie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    SCO could get in trouble with the SEC if they misrepresent their standing in court on their website.

    Besides which, the judges are noticing SCO's public statements, and if SCO contracticts what they're telling the judge, or what the judge is telling them, they could annoy the judge.

  13. MSN NEWS REPORTS SCO IS WINNING THEIR IP CASES! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's not funny.

    MSN can't post links to Groklaw. SCO's anti-Linux FUD that M$ bought is failing. M$ needs a way to spin these latest developments and send up more FUD signals.

    First SCO puts up a site to blow smoke up our collective asses. We don't bite, but we're not the target audience.

    Next M$ has MSN announce "news" stories along with links to case analysis on SCO new sites. Again, the few of us who actually visit MSN to see the FUD shake our heads and laugh at the unbelievable remarks. Unfortunately the ignorant masses buy into it and repeat it as truthful objective news.

    M$ ends up with much more FUD bang for their buck while SCO prepares to spin their bankruptcy in a way that squarely places blame on FOSS. FOSS killed SCO, you're next!

    Hey, maybe SCO can charge MSN freelance fees for doing stories for them! That'll help resupply SCO's dwindling war chest!