Slashdot Mirror
Stay Lifted, Novell Vs. SCO Can Go Forward
A number of readers suggest we check out Groklaw, where PJ is reporting that a bankruptcy judge has granted Novell's request to lift the stay so that its trial against SCO can proceed in Utah. The judge concluded that Judge Kimball is the best one to decide how much SCO owes Novell, and that SCO cannot make any "reorganization" plans — including any "fire sale" of assets — until it knows this figure.
The system works..... it works slowly, it costs huge amounts of money, but it does work......
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
a bankruptcy judge has granted Novell's request to lift the stay
Yes, he's lifting the stay, much like one would lift the active portion of a guillotine.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I remember a quote where one of SCO's own lawyers said they were under a "death sentence" in Utah, so that's very appropriate. In fact, I was about to submit this exact story under the title "SCO's Stay of Execution Lifted" but I was obviously too late.
Now it will get REALLY interesting when we see how Darl's comments about the Utah judge come back to haunt him when they all have to go back there...
SCO has been a dead man walking for a long time now. It's just that we're finally about to watch their cremation. Anyone remember to bring marshmallows?
Almost restores my belief that the US Justice System is worth salvaging. Would fewer lawyers mean justice was served? This whole fandango has taken way too long.
If you don't like what I write don't be a CS and mod it down. Refute it.
Yea I can't spell. So what is your point?
I'm really glad. :) This means that SCO (and its investors) will actually have to atone for their ridiculous claims and the resources they have caused supporters of Unix and OSS to squander. Finally, they can pay back the world what they owe, rather than selling everything and making out with what they can.
It almost seems as if SCO is working for some anti-FOSS organization... I'm going to avoid any potential flaming by avoiding that topic... but they certainly seem like their first priority is not allowing Novell to acquire their assets, even when they will lose them anyway.
...ebbidee ebbidee ebbidee That's all folks!"
What type of champagne would you like? PJ should start taking orders now. I think a nice, private labeled bottle of Dom would be in order. Of course, when they do die, it will not be "news" and will be swept under the rug.
Of course, M$ could get a lot of milage out of this ifwhen SCO dies by "showing" that open source is poison and kills companies....
Of course the real question is how Maureen O'Gara spins this to favor SCO.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
doesn't Utah still use firing squads? the whole 'footbullet' thing makes more sense
I'm interested to read just what Darl McBride said. I just Google searched for it and didn't find anything.
Could someone please post links to some of the "horrible things"?
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
So, it seems fairly clear to this non-economist that SCOX is royally screwed. However, are there fates worse than bankruptcy? There have been a lot of (mostly wishful thinking) suggestions that SCO's board was doing all this as a big pump-and-dump and that it's only a matter of time until the SEC folks move in. As I'm wholly ignorant of such things, how likely is something like that to happen? I mean, it certainly appears to me that they committed a long list of sins, but are any of those likely to translate into criminal charges?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
"The system works..... it works slowly, it costs huge amounts of money, but it does work......"
Three simple reasons to say "the system" does NOT work:
Justice my arse! If the software industry worked as slowly as justice, and as expensively, we'd be using a $5,000 abacus instead of a computer.
Think of it - there's still all the BS appeals. Justice isn't looking all that appealing now, is it, unless you, like justice, are blind AND slow.
Kevin Smith on Prince
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
Didn't Microsoft pay for SCO to do sue IBM? And didn't Microsoft make a deal with Novell? So in some sense, Microsoft is battling itself! And only one will prevail... Microsoft!
I've said it for months now, and I'll wildly guess again:
1. SCO will owe Novell a bunch of money (money that it doesn't have)
2. Microsoft will purchase the remaining 'assets' from SCO. It doesn't really matter if they pay $1 or $1Million
3. Microsoft will do so to get closer to the following goals:
3a. MS now has a hand in the Linux game (possible bump in their stock)
3b. MS can now renegotiate/strengthen their position with Novell
3c. MS can now possibly resurrect the lawsuit or dredge up other scary FUD-alicious items out of what they get (remember it's the appearance of a problem, not an actual problem that makes corporate lawyers CIOs think twice about going open source)
3d. MS pisses off some open source zealots that already hated them (meh)
4. ???
5. Profit!
davejenkins.com |
In any case, just because Judge Gross is reserving the right to order a constructive trust for himself doesn't mean he won't decide to order one once Kimball rules anyway.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
I often wonder if Darl would be able to find work again after this little drama winds down. The optimist in me says no. Unless they want the same thing to happen to their company. But I have this feeling that somehow someone like this always finds a place.......
"Stay Lifted." I was wondering what that meant. For a minute I thought it meant, "Remain Intoxicated."
It warms my heart to see the care that Judge Gross has for SCO. Lifting the stay was to SCO's benefit. Judge Gross said so. In fact, he has said the same thing in other circumstances like, for instance, when he made it clear that he had no intention of letting the sale to York proceed.
Of course, Judge Gross doesn't think SCO's present management are acting in the corporation's best interests. If they were, they wouldn't be in his court would they?
Finally, it looks like SCO has played and lost its final hand. They can delay no more, and Judge Kimball is going to burn them to a cinder. They aren't just toast, they are carbon.
My rights don't need management.
Microsoft wouldn't touch SCO with a pole, regardless of length. First of all, it's SCO's creditor committee -- soon to be headed by Novell -- which gets to determine what happens with SCO's assets. Secondly, SCO doesn't have any assets worth buying. Kimball's decision made it perfectly clear that SCO's rights could not be used the way SCO was attempting to use them. Finally, Microsoft tries to leave the impression that any FUD is not coming from them, preferring to fund a cat's paw like SCO to do their dirty work. It would be far more likely for Microsoft to fund a patent troll to attempt to pull off an "emergency" purchase of assets from the bankruptcy.
Oh, wait . . .
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
It's like a horny 800 lb gorilla being doped up with aphrodisiacs being let loose to rape a guy with broken legs forced to wear a gorilla suit.
this is going to be entertaining.
the irony is McBride looks like he's one generation away from being a gorilla.
Oddly enough, they are looking for .NET programmers here. Also note that their development is in New Delhi. Perhaps the Indians don't realize the type of company they are working for?
It shouldn't even be called justice, but whatever it is, it is blind, deaf, slow, dumb and expensive.
You can't handle the truth.
I believe O'Gara is claiming that Gross made a gross mistake, and that his decision will be overturned.
You do not realize the puddle of stuff they have stepped in the BK court. They are now in a position that if its deemed their not acting in the best interest of their creditors, the management will be replace. They will then be replace with people who will determine the best path for a orderly shutdown into chapter 11 after the ruling in Utah. That you can be sure of.
It's not clear that the bankruptcy judge is going to allow a constructive trust to be imposed.
OTOH, since SCOx can no longer dispose of it's assets without approval by the bankruptcy court, a constructive trust may be less needed...perhaps.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Pamela Jones turns me on but I can't find her picture anywhere on the net, post if you have one please ! ;-)
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
The reason SCO was able to do that is that while the system is designed to thwart foot-dragging by defendants, it doesn't do as much to prevent foot-dragging plaintiffs.
Right. But in bankruptcy court, that's reversed. The debtor isn't in charge. The court, the U.S. Trustee, and the creditor's committee are. Notice how, since SCO declared bankruptcy, their wierd legal moves have been shot down fast. SCO's "emergency motion" for a quick sale - deferred by judge without even asking SCO. Quick asset sale to York under wierd conditions - withdrawn once the creditors objected. Novell lawsuit - unstayed.
Judge Kimball's calendar has an open day on December 11.
The matter of disbarment and other "lying through your teeth when there was no evidence at all" sort of lawsuits is yet to come.
Then again, many may play the Ken Lay Gambit, and simple die out from under the charges.
My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.
TV Judges are Like Televangelists look the part, thats ALL.
Want to see a real Judge in action go watch the DVD set of the OJ trail, not the current one the Judge Ito one. Long grueling boring and accurate. if "Judge Judy" who is as much a Judge as Judge Reinhold, were to act that way in a court room she would be rightly disbarred (i.e. Benched).
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
How tough are you now, Darl? You thought you could play the lawsuit lottery against anyone who's ever said the word "Linux" but guess what? Linus has more resources at his disposal than even the Borg up in Regmond. So do the dozens of international corporations and governments that are using, developing, or otherwise supporting Linux. Not to mention that all your lawsuit succeeded in doing was generating lots and lots of press for Linux. And as the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity. So I guess there's only one thing left to say: Nanny nanny boo boo!
Am I the only one who read "stay lifted" and immediately took a bong rip?
Thus when Judge Kimball decides how much of the fees were for SVRX, that amount will be Novell's property that SCO never had title to.
So Novell will get priority for that amount over all other creditors for that amount.
But it is all based on a lie! The lie that the payments were for license fees!
In the action in Judge Kimball's court, no party has motivation to tell the truth about these fees. Novell does not want to say that the payments were not really license fees, because Novell wants that money. SCO can not tell the truth about those payments, because it would expose SCO executives to Lanham act charges. Thus, no party has motivation to tell the truth about those payments! The people that will be hurt by the judgment that the fees are not license fees (the other creditors) are not parties to the suit and hence have no right to speak!
Once the legal system gets to IBM's case (if it ever gets there), IBM may find itself in this category. But IBM is not interested in the money per-se, it wants to kick the $^&* out of SCO so that no one else ever wants to try to extort IBM again. Since Novell is helping kick the @#$% out of SCO, IBM is probably happy!
But what about SCO's other creditors? What about the poor programmers that work for SCO? What about the electric company for that matter? What about SCO's non-management witnesses? These people should not be punished for Microsoft and SCO's lie!
Probably.
I think that it only works if it includes those that funded this. It was not mcBride. It was MS and Sun. Once we see those at MS and SUN in prison with McBride, then and only then can you say that this works. Until then, it will show that all you need to do is not get your hand dirty.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I see the MS/SCO parrots are not quite dead yet... Pining for the salt lakes, maybe ?
In Soviet Russia, our new overlords are belong to all your base.
After Judge Kimball burns SCOX to a cinder, there is hope that something good can come from the remains...
I prefer to believe that the license Sun bought was, as they later claimed, in preparation to making Solaris free software. They even hinted at it at the time.
Look you mentally insufficient SCO hack, your company lost because it had a business plan that was nothing more than extorting ill-conceived licensing fees.
It must be tough to be a dim-witted SCO astroturfer when the company barely exists and is about to be delivered lock, stock and barrel to Novell.
What a pathetic rube you are, you twisted piece of rotting monkey flesh.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Reduce, reuse, cycle
I could believe it except that the "license" that Sun bought was overvalued by 19 million (a few USB drivers code was worth less 1 million) and it included a bunch of stock in SCO that was later sold. McNealy has always been a sleaze bucket. He is no different than gates or ellis.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
... as soon as it is, SCO will sue them.
So is Darl on the hook for violated the Sarbane Oxley act when he released financial numbers inflated by money that was illegally converted?
"Otherwise your new Vista computer would be a brick."
Kevin Smith on Prince