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SCO Group Files For Chapter 7

Posted by Soulskill on from the it-just-goes-on-and-on-my-friends dept.

New submitter rkhalloran writes "The remnants of the failed litigation engine that was the SCO Group has finally filed for liquidation under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code. 'There is no reasonable chance of "rehabilitation."' Groklaw describes the recent filing (PDF) thus: 'I will try my best to translate the legalese for you: the money is almost all gone, so it's not fun any more. SCO can't afford Chapter 11. We want to shut the costs down, because we'll never get paid. But it'd look stupid to admit the whole thing was ridiculous and SCO never had a chance to reorganize through its fantasy litigation hustle. Besides, Ralph Yarro and the other shareholders might sue. So they want the litigation to continue to swing in the breeze, just in case. But SCO has no money coming in and no other prospects, so they want to proceed in a cheaper way and shut this down in respects to everything else.' I guess that means the lawyers will suck the marrow from the carcass and leave the bones to bleach out in the sun."

9 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. good riddance by gmack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hopefully this will be a lesson to other companies who compete using lawsuits rather than customer service.

    1. Re:good riddance by jd2112 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Well, Apple has that lawsuit going on right now... so I don't think they've learned any lessons from this yet.

      Well, Apple does have more of a case with the rounded corners thing than SCO had with it's 'stolen' source code...

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    2. Re:good riddance by FireFury03 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If they're making scandalous sums off of android and Linux that just means android and Linux are worth scandalous sums of money and then some. It legitimizes the platforms just that much more. Patents run out so the racket can't last forever and when it's over Linux will still be there. How much are they making off of windows phone again?

      By the time the patents have run out they will be obsolete and will have been replaced with something else that MS is claiming they own. The problem isn't that Linux might be infringing MS patents, its that MS will never tell anyone what those patents are to give Linux a fighting chance of avoiding infringement. Someone needs to call MS's bluff and go to court over this so the patents get exposed. Companies that threaten alledged infringers but won't say what is being infringed really should have to forefit those patents.

      --
      http://blog.nexusuk.org
    3. Re:good riddance by gmack · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Buying the portfolio would have been settling and it's also exactly what SCO(TSG) wanted them to do but IBM has a scorched earth policy when it comes to lawsuits. When sued, IBM will call in the lawyers and fight for every penny even if the resulting litigation is more expensive than the settlement would have been. It makes each lawsuit more expensive but it discourages others from trying and you can see the result: IBM doesn’t' get sued anywhere near as much as other tech firms.

    4. Re:good riddance by oakgrove · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Someone needs to call MS's bluff

      B&N did and apparently it worked out pretty well for them.

      By the time the patents have run out they will be obsolete and will have been replaced with something else that MS is claiming they own.

      True that but every Android or Linux unit that shifts may be 5-15 dollars in MS' coffers but it represents one atomic unit of less direct influence they have over the market. I'd rather they get a patent fee than an in the field Windows license.

      --
      The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
  2. Re:sigh. by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, but the chapter 11 bankruptcy administrators earned a lot of money and ensured that none of it went to actual creditors.

  3. Re:... and on this day... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... not a single f_ck was given.

    SCO got on the shitlist of many a person and corporate entity with their senseless trolling. I'm surprised that it took this long for them to finally hit rock bottom.

    The reason why it took so long was the huge injection from BayStar and the cash train from Redmond. If you know anything about what really went on just look into how and why Novell/Suse is surviving this nonsense. Fact is the real target of all this crap was RedHat and the server side of Linux and the main antagonist was and still is Microsoft.

      Sco was just a fishing and fud throwing expedition and to a large extent it succeeded. Windows has gained server market share because of all the fud. The money channelled into Sco from Microsoft to do all this bullshit is small change in comparison to the market sales they gained in the high end server game.

  4. Re:... and on this day... by LordLimecat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are reasons to choose Windows over linux.

    Reason the first: Exchange.

    Incidentally, I think Ive found a good way of figuring out which posters have a clue: those who say that their product / OS / device is the best option for all scenarios, dont.

  5. Re:... and on this day... by subreality · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If someone is reading at a company with a filter so invasive that it's counting the number of fucks on a random web site, then perhaps they shouldn't be reading slashdot at work. I'm generally not very profane, but I will not bowdlerize myself for the convenience of people fucking around on paid time.