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A Discussion of SCO's Fate With Groklaw's Pamela Jones

An anonymous reader writes "The SCO Group's current fate can be neatly summarized by the title of Pamela Jones' very first article on the case, back in May 2003 — 'SCO Falls Downstairs, Hitting its Head on Every Step.' In the intervening years PJ and Groklaw can be credited with unearthing and exposing many of the flaws in SCO's case, most notably, obtaining and publishing the 1994 settlement in the USL vs BSDi case. An article at the ITPro site interviews PJ about SCO, the impact of Groklaw and future of free software and the law."

8 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. An educated public by houstonbofh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is an excellent example of the power of an educated public. Groklaw would try to educated the public, not just grab a headline. As more people notice this, and it becomes popular / profitable, perhaps media can start to have more depth than a puddle. I think it is awfully nice to get more then a biased cursory glimpse at a story once and a while...

    1. Re:An educated public by blueskies · · Score: 4, Insightful

      [quote]How? The public had about zero effect on the SCO/Novell case.[/quote] Because it wasn't about the case anyway. It was all about the secondary effects and reducing Linux mindshare in corporations.

  2. Grass roots by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The rise of the Internet in the late 90s was promised by pundits to be a grand revolution of ideas and information. Frankly, it has turned into Eternal September more than naught. :P With Groklaw, it has shown what the promise of what the Internet could be. One person with an opinion and information could share with the rest of the world. With grass roots aid and collaboration, a personal blog has become THE resource of one case and, in some cases, a source of information about Intellectual Property law. Vivà la revolución!

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  3. Someone forgot to mention: hero by postbigbang · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dogged determination. Referential integrity in the face of astounding, if typical, high-priced FUD.

    Three Cheers to a friend of the open source community, diligent, tenacious, and gleeful in that determination.

    Integrity counts. Pamela Jones is a champion of the OSS community and the values it stands for.

    --
    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  4. That's one theory... by paladinwannabe2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Circumstantial evidence suggests, though, that she's just obsessive about her privacy, in a way that puts even the tin-foil hat crowd at Slashdot to shame. Certainly Maureen O'Gara went far enough to publish her address, after which the Pamela Jones living there moved suddenly... so there is a real privacy-obsessed Pamela Jones, who may or may not be the same as the one on Groklaw.

    Mostly, though, I'm surprised to see SCO employees posting on Slashdot- you'd think they'd be too busy looking for new jobs to troll here. Of course, if they are still 'working' for SCO, they might as well be browsing Slashdot during the day...

    --
    You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
  5. Something has to be done to fix the system by JustNiz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Darl Mcbride not only managed to drive a somewhat successful company totally into the ground in the space of 3 or 4 years but also managed to totally alienate them from the entire industry and turn the company name into a pariah. Nevertheless he has been personally rewarded in salary and performance benefits in millions of dollars in that time.

    We badly need to fix the system where incompetent shysters like him can't even get into that position, let alone be personally rewarded for catastrophic failure.

    I mean, what on earth were the SCO board thinking when they agreed his last performance bonus?

  6. Re:Give her credit by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ah yes, invoke a conspiracy theory. Whether there is a Pamela Jones or Groklaw is a front from IBM's legal team or it's Jesus Christ himself, the fact was that it demonstrated the lies and deceits coming out of SCO.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  7. How has scox failed? by walterbyrd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Scox was as good as dead before the scam - look at their financials, it's a verifiable fact. If not for the scam, scox would have been gone three years ago.

    Darl is making $34K a month, which is not bad for a small-time Utah scammer.

    Msft got 4.5 years of premium Linux FUD, for about $50 million - hardly pocket change for msft.

    BSF pocketed, at least, $50 million.

    Riamondi sold his shares in the high teens.

    None of the guilty have been punished in any way, and they are not likely to ever be punished.

    IBM has probably spent about between 50 and 100 million defending itself against the bogus lawsuit.

    Msft has sent this stern warning: "if you want to contribute to Linux, you better be ready to spend tens of millions in lawyer fees, and spend the next five years in court." Can you say "chilling effect?"

    People like PJ feel that they need to cheerlead. But, if you objectively examine the facts, I think you will find that in most respects, scox has already won.