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Groklaw's PJ Says SCO's Demise Greatly Exaggerated

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the still-looking-for-a-fat-lady dept.

blackbearnh writes "Last week, the net was all abuzz with speculation that SCO was finally gone and done for. With the final judgment in SCO v. Novell in, and SCO millions of dollars in the hole to Novell, it seemed like the fat lady had finally sung. But like most things in the legal system, it isn't nearly that simple. O'Reilly Media sought out Groklaw's Pamela Jones, and got a rundown of what's still alive, and why a final end to the madness may be many years away. 'Summing up, it looks bleak for SCO at the moment, but let's enter the alternate realm of SCO's best-case scenario in its dreams: in that realm, SCO wins on appeal, which one of SCO's lawyers indicated might take a year and a half or five years, and the case is sent back to Utah for trial by jury, which is what SCO wanted (as opposed to trial by judge, which is what it got), then everything listed above (except for the IPO class action) comes alive again, presumably, depending on what the appellate court decides. Then SCO is in position once again to go after Linux end users, as well as IBM, et al.'"

23 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Please by whisper_jeff · · Score: 5, Funny

    Make it stop. Please. I beg of you.

    1. Re:Please by blackbearnh · · Score: 5, Funny

      Too late, SCO's been off the market for a while. Just before they went under, I bought 10 shares at 0.50/share, then paid the $15 to get a physical certificate so I could frame it and put it in my bathroom, along with the rest of the toilet paper. Which is why you can find my name in various court documents in the SCO Bankruptcy, since I registered as a creditor. I'm getting bumped off, though, because they challenged and I don't have the time and energy to do all the hoops to stay on the list.

    2. Re:Please by thermian · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I agree. They can only keep this going with money. They don't have any, so it's not going to be five more years of crapola.

      SCO is dead.

      SCO have become what was suggested to them, a company that only does legal action. The employees and directors are getting paid well during this time.

      Other companies who like the idea of Linux in a quagmire have provided money for 'licences', and will continue to do so.

      --
      A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
    3. Re:Please by blackbearnh · · Score: 5, Informative

      According to multiple folks I consulted, I'm still a creditor, I'm just the VERY last in line to get anything. Which, practically speaking, means I'd never get anything anyway. But it was an easy way to get copies of all the bankruptcy proceedings, since they had to send me a copy of everything.

    4. Re:Please by blackbearnh · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Oh yes, they were lawyers, albeit providing advice pro bono. One is even a bankruptcy attorney, who gave me explicit advice how I could have stayed in the game had I wanted to make the effort.

    5. Re:Please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...frame it and put it in my bathroom, along with the rest of the toilet paper.

      I don't think that's how you're supposed to use toilet paper.

  2. In other words... by girlintraining · · Score: 4, Funny

    In other words, SCO is a zombie. It can't be killed by normal litigation. Argh, kill it with fire! Do it now!

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:In other words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Just remember that cutting off the head won't kill it. Its arms and legs will be gone but the head will still be around biting and yelling at people, like Jack Thompson.

  3. OT but I don't care by halcyon1234 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    WTF is up with the userpage! It was bad I get slapped with the dumbass firehose-with-Idle's-stylesheet, but now I don't even have a tab for my comments.

    If I want Firehose, I'll go to to Firehose. (I don't, and wont)

    If I want Idle, I'll go to Idle. (I don't, and wont)

    If I want my userpage to be a clean, simple and informative interface, I'll click on my username in the upper right. Oh wait, I can't!

    If you want to dick around with the userpage, fine. Just give me a checkbox that says "opt out of this crapfest" like you did with the index and comments.

    --
    UTF-8: There and Back Again
    1. Re:OT but I don't care by JCSoRocks · · Score: 4, Insightful

      holy crap I was about to post the exact same thing. The style sheet is the least of it. I still haven't even figured out how to tell if anyone's posted a reply to any of my comments. Now you have to click every comment... and reading my entire comment on my user page is just useless. I already know what I said, I'm looking for the replies. This is supposed to be a "discussion" not "oooh, shiny, look at all the cool crap I wrote. I must be awesome. So awesome that every time I go to my user page I want to read what I wrote over and over."

      When idle got jacked it didn't bother me because I almost never go there... but user pages? really?

      --
      You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
    2. Re:OT but I don't care by WiiVault · · Score: 3, Insightful

      To add to this the comments page is no longer rendering correctly on iPhone Safari firmwire 2.2. The overlays on the right block the comment scores.

    3. Re:OT but I don't care by JCSoRocks · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The comment scores are all goofy now anyway. They all appear to be one less than the actual score when you're reading the comments in the discussion thread.

      --
      You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
    4. Re:OT but I don't care by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's broken on Konqueror and OS X/Safari and Firefox. We didn't want you to feel left out.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    5. Re:OT but I don't care by orclevegam · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm glad someone other than me has noticed it as well. I clicked on my use page to see if anyone had posted replies to any of my comments the other day and thought at first that I had clicked on the firehose or worse, Idle. I did something I've never done before for the simple fact I didn't know what else to do, and posted a journal entry asking what the fuck happened to the user page.

      Please, do what you will with Idle/Firehose, no one really reads those anyway, but leave the user page alone, it's genuinely useful... or at least it was till you fucked with it.

      --
      Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
    6. Re:OT but I don't care by Rhapsody+Scarlet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Same here. I happened to like the old userpage, now all I've got is this pseudo-idle mess with the actual posts crammed into a little corner. I didn't ask for idle, I didn't ask for the firehose, I asked for a user page!

      I think this is a sign that Slashdot has well and truly fallen for Incessant Redesign Disease, where they just have to change the design of everything every now and then to 'keep it fresh'. Nevermind if no one complained about the old design, or if you can't actually think of any way to improve on the old design, you've got to keep it fresh!

      Note to the Slashdot staff: You know all those +5 modded rants about Vista? You're doing the SAME FUCKING THING. If the site design needs changing, we'll let you know.

    7. Re:OT but I don't care by blackest_k · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed
      I want mine back as it was. This is a pretty pointless post in itself
      but really the only way to get noticed is if enough of us bitch about it.

       

      --
      Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
    8. Re:OT but I don't care by u38cg · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Reading between the lines, it's pretty obvious that the /. crew have lost control of the site except on editorial matters. This post ought to convince you, if nothing else will. Note in particular the time interval in which those employees posted.

      --
      [FUCK BETA]
    9. Re:OT but I don't care by Jimmy+King · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I just hope they can save it, unlike the last website I frequented that this happened to. thespark.com was originally run by some college kids with a sense of humor and some tech skills. It was awesome for years. Then some corporate overlords flashed lots of money at them and like any sane young group of people, they sold. Then it started going downhill. Then the original people got tired of it going downhill and quit. Then it went downhill really, really fast.

    10. Re:OT but I don't care by halcyon1234 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Bookmark: http://yro.slashdot.org/~jcsorocks/comments

      1. I don't need another bookmark. That's more clutter. I already had a perfectly good clickable link to my comment section built right into the page. It was called "the goddamn design".
      2. Even if I did bookmark, it still has lost functionality. The layout is crammed. It's jammed up with Idle-layout crap. And it doesn't report the same information it used to.
      3. Even if I overlooked all that, the link you provided isn't to my comments, so it wouldn't work.
      --
      UTF-8: There and Back Again
  4. The One by Tyrannicsupremacy · · Score: 4, Funny

    I sure hope this SCO doesnt start killing all the other fantasy dimension SCO's and absorbing their power...

    --
    http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png
  5. Bologna. by Weaselmancer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    PJ, the arch-censor of Groklaw, desperately needs you to believe this

    To believe that it's possible, or to believe that it's probable?

    It seems like if she was looking for job security she would be arguing that it's probable. Instead she's arguing that it's possible. And we all know what possible means. I have a lottery ticket in my pocket. It's possible I've won. Sure as hell wouldn't call it probable though.

    And FWIW, Groklaw does far more than merely keep an eye on SCO. Just the other day there was a good article about the Bilski ruling over on Groklaw. The Groklaw front page also has items about the cyberbullying case, and Harvard having a youtube channel.

    If there's one thing PJ has probably learned from following the SCO story from the beginning is that you don't put all your eggs in a single basket.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  6. Boggled by polyomninym · · Score: 3, Insightful

    After years of hearing about their BS tactics, trying to sue all sorts of businesses, I don't even know what they do anymore. I'm partly joking, but you rarely hear anything about them beyond court cases. Usually, you hear about a company doing something dumb/stupid for a while, then you hear about some product they are releasing or something new they are doing; you know, like companies that provide a service or a product. Not with SCO. I just don't understand how any company like that could ever expect new customers or continued contracts with any dignity. I know they shot themselves in the foot so many times, but most companies I've seen do this in the past are at least worked on something substantial while lawsuits continue. end rant

  7. Just noticed something else... by sootman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    HOLY FUCK! As if the new user page weren't bad enough, it mixes the classic green color scheme with whatever the theme is for the current subdomain, if you happen to be on one. You thought http://slashdot.org/~CleverNickName looked bad? Check out http://yro.slashdot.org/~CleverNickName or http://games.slashdot.org/~CleverNickName or http://it.slashdot.org/~CleverNickName!!!!!

    Orange links on green? My eyes! Ze googles, zey do nossing!

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.