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Not Quite Dead: SCO Linux Suit Against IBM Stirs In Utah
An anonymous reader points to a story in the Salt Lake Tribune which says that
The nearly defunct Utah company SCO Group Inc. and IBM filed a joint report to the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City saying that legal issues remain in the case, which was initiated in 2003 with SCO claiming damages of $5 billion against the technology giant, based in Armonk, N.Y.
That likely means that U.S. District Judge David Nuffer, who now presides over the dispute, will start moving the lawsuit — largely dormant for about four years while a related suit against Novell Inc. was adjudicated — ahead. What kind of issues? In addition to its claims of IBM misappropriation of code, SCO alleges that IBM executives and lawyers directed the company's Linux programmers to destroy source code on their computers after SCO made its allegations.
The company's other remaining claims are that IBM's actions amounted to unfair competition and interference with its contracts and business relations with other companies.
IBM has remaining claims against SCO that allege the Utah company violated contracts, copied and distributed IBM code that had been placed in Linux and that SCO created a campaign of "fear, uncertainty and doubt" about IBM's products and services because of the dispute over Unix code.
Is this "Throwback Tuesday"? I had to re-read it a few times to make sure I wasn't reading a VERY old article...
Seriously, is there no limit to this barratry-fest? Surely the judge must tire of it eventually.
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
I didn't realize that there were fjords in Utah.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
It's the only way to be sure.
OK, that was easy, but, seriously? SCO is still... acting up? Moving? I thought that thing (and the other... er... thing) and the one before that were settled?
Like, drive a wooden stake through its heart? Bury the head and body separately? What is wrong with the world when fsck SCO is still at large?
Come on, IBM, do everyone a favor: crush them like a bug. Please. I don't know, open a Kickstarter or something, I'll send you money and you a send me a Big Blue T-Shirt with little penguins on it. Please, make it stop. Please, I beg you. Pleeeeeeaaaaaaseeeee, I can't take it anymore! It's not the suspense, it's just the sheer idiocy of it all.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Can't IBM just buy whatever remains of SCO for scrap and shoot it down for good ?
That would be the only GOOD thing that would come out of this action by SCO and IBM. :)
You can't kill the undead! The only good thing about SCO is that it was from Santa Cruz, CA. A nice place where we lived when we (my wife and I) decided to get married about 40 years ago...
I doubt that Anita Sarkeesian ever wants to be seen in the same camp than SCO. It's just a silly attempt of you to try a "guilty by association".
If this goes on much longer, this lawsuit will have a longer lifespan than Duke Nukem's development hell.
SCO, taking the idea of vaporware to a whole new level.
Ahhh, fond memories!
who is the sadistic ambulance chasing short fat attorney with the gin blossoms and seersucker suit thats convinced poor SCO to give this another go? Dear god man let the dead have their peace!
Good people go to bed earlier.
I hope they kept everything, SCO was going to start destroying stuff in 2013.
http://www.groklaw.net/article...
Curiosity was framed; ignorance killed the cat. -- Author unknown
We asked a gentleman by us, if he knew what cause was on? He told us Jarndyce and Jarndyce. We asked him if he knew what was doing in it? He said, really no he did not, nobody ever did; but as well as he could make out, it was over. Over for the day? we asked him. No, he said; over for good.
...
Over for good!
When we heard this unaccountable answer, we looked at one another quite lost in amazement. Could it be possible that the Will had set things right at last, and that Richard and Ada were going to be rich? It seemed too good to be true. Alas, it was!
Our suspense was short; for a break up soon took place in the crowd, and the people came streaming out looking flushed and hot, and bringing a quantity of bad air with them. Still they were all exceedingly amused, and were more like people coming out from a Farce or a Juggler than from a court of Justice. We stood aside, watching for any countenance we knew; and presently great bundles of paper began to be carried outâ"bundles in bags, bundles too large to be got into any bags, immense masses of papers of all shapes and no shapes, which the bearers staggered under, and threw down for the time being, anyhow, on the Hall pavement, while they went back to bring out more. Even these clerks were laughing. We glanced at the papers, and seeing Jarndyce and Jarndyce everywhere, asked an official-looking person who was standing in the midst of them, whether the cause was over. "Yes," he said; "it was all up with it at last!" and burst out laughing too.
"Mr. Kenge," said Allan, appearing enlightened all in a moment. "Excuse me, our time presses. Do I understand that the whole estate is found to have been absorbed in costs?"
"Hem! I believe so," returned Mr. Kenge. "Mr. Vholes, what do you say?"
"I believe so," said Mr. Vholes.
"And that thus the suit lapses and melts away?"
"Probably," returned Mr. Kenge. "Mr. Vholes?"
"Probably," said Mr. Vholes.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Why not, she's already in the same camp of "people we wish to hear less from"
... but my kneejerk reaction is to find the remaining SCO layers, some strong hemp rope and a stout oak tree.
Seriously though, nothing cries out for Tort reform like this nonsense.
Somebody shoot the zombie in the head!
This post triggered me and gave me PTSD.
I say give SCO the $5 billion so we can have this great entertainment continue for another 100 years! Could we buy better entertainment? Would we not be happy to see IBM have to pay out $5 billion and bring down the current regime?
Maybe a laminated stake through the hear (wood & silver soaked in garlic and holy water). Then stuffed in a coffin placed in a double hulled container, the container gap is filled with holy water and garlic juice. Put into a rocket and launched into an orbit near the sun. Even then I would be willing to bet it would get out and return.
Panic now, beat the rush!
When I came here to look at the article, the ad rotated right underneath was for "New Relic".... how appropos...
somebody take a wagon load of hickory stakes and a box of silver bullets to Utah and kill that vampire once and for all !
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
The SCO that was from Santa Cruz is currently Tarantella, now owned by Oracle (via Sun).
The SCO we all know and hate was Caldera, which was a scummy outfit even back when they were a Linux distro.
Is it sexist to say Sarkeesian really has the most terrible dress sense? I think she bought those stupid earrings from a magician's fire sale.
That it was a JOINT filing says to me that the lawyers got bored, and were looking for another way to pad their fee base. In cases like this, as another commenter pointed out, only the lawyers win.
Furthermore, they lose if the case stops.
Wouldn't that be a tragedy?
AC
PJ's all booked up
Is it groundhog day all over again? Do we need to startup Groklaw.net again just to finish up the details. I wonder what Pamela Jones (aka pj) thinks of a whole new round of litigation.
When this debacle broke out several years ago, SCO was seen as the most dangerous threat to Linux. But things have changed, and in hindsight I think that the threat posted by SCO was actually quite minor.
For example, it's of my opinion that systemd has caused far more harm to the Linux community than SCO ever managed to do, and perhaps ever could have done. Systemd has, without a doubt, split the Linux community into several camps. It has provoked animosity the likes we've never seen before, even within a community where heated debate and disagreement was common.
Debian, once seen as the most stable and reliable Linux distribution, with one of the most cohesive communities, has suffered particularly badly since switching to systemd. It's no secret that its reliability has since dropped far below expectations (the many systemd-related bug reports and mailing list postings confirm this). This has driven many users to seek alternatives, including Slackware and even FreeBSD. The Debian community is in shambles, not only from the technical issues surrounding systemd, but also the many political squabbles that took place while choosing systemd.
On a personal level, SCO never interfered with my desktops and servers. Yet systemd has prevented them from booting properly on numerous occasions. Systemd has done more harm to me and many others in Linux community than SCO ever did, or probably even ever could have done.
I'm no fan of IBM, but SCO will just burn through that $5 billion and do nothing good with it. Their time is over. If they had any chance at producing a good product, they would have a long time ago. Just let them die. Sorry.
A license from SCO?
Come on dude, all that money you paid just went directly to the lawyers who now are using it to file another pathetic round of "legal actions". PLEASE just stop buying their stuff. If you need help porting your legacy application off of their platform let me know, I'm sure we can arrange to get it done for you. Not to mention that the hardware you are using has to be nearly 20 years old now... Time to let this garbage go..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Does anyone else see a similarity SCO and the recent Arduino drama?
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
IBM ordered source code to be destroyed?
Just what would that even accomplish? I get the source code to the Linux kernel with every set of CDs/DVDs that I've downloaded or purchased over the years. Is SCO seriously going to argue that that source code has been magically cleansed of the code that IBM allegedly ordered purged from IBM's developers' computers? That would only make any sense if IBM offered a Linux distribution -- tweaked, I assume SCO is thinking by the code they are alleged to have stolen from SCO. (SCO thinking... ha ha ha... I crack myself up.) Wait... I've never heard of an IBM Linux.
I stopped thinking about SCO and their delusions years ago. Looks like their legal department -- and that's likely all that's left of the company now -- hasn't and is still sitting in their office dreaming up conspiracy theories. It's all they can do now. Hell, it's all they've ever had.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Court: do you have evidence IBM stole your code?
SCOX: nope
Court: case closed.
Instead, the case drags on 13 years while scox plays "hide the ball" with evidence.
Gamergate punks fuck off.
Like O.J. and and V. Putin vowing to find the "real killers."
Better Call Saul
Seriously? This is a real thing? Fuck the current Tort system...
Physics is nothing like religion. If it was, we'd have an easier time trying to raise money!
If it weren't for the AC my "Days since last Sarkeesian Incident" counter would still be counting, instead of writing 68 to the database and resetting to 0.
I know because I called, and asked to buy a license - twice.
I suspect that selling a license to something you don't own is seriously illegal.
Microsoft was behind it all along.
Who do you think arranged all these just-in-time multi-million dollar "loans."
For Microsoft, $100M is nothing. Less than the cost of one commercial.
A successful Linux smear campaign for $100M is a bargain.
Keep in mind that most of the remaining case is IBM suing SCO. most of the other part has gone away( but not all.).
Who has won the case of SCO v. IBM? Why, IBM's lawyers, of course.
Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
Almost two years after the last time I logged in and this *STILL* isn't dead?!?
I call it 'The Aristocrats'
According to SCO's website:
Wasn't it proven that Novell owned any and all copyrights involved here? How long do you get to publicly libel someone (like everyone who uses Linux) before a judge can order you to cease and desist that idiocy?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Use nylon.
There's nothing wrong with spreading FUD. That's a standard business practice.
Pripyat Circuit Court.
"The case involves SCO's claims that IBM misappropriated code from the Unix computer operating system software, owned by SCO."
NO, SCO (formerly Caldera Systems) owned a version of Unix that they bought from Novell, besides which Novell still retained rights.
Unix Tree
Yeah, where are my OffTopic moderator points when I need them...
We are the 198 proof..
> Novell was in fact the owner of the UNIX copyrights, not the SCO Group.
That is not quite true. The ruling was that SCO (the original Santa Cruz Operation) had not purchased the copyrights from Novell, and had thus not passed them on to The SCO Group. It made no comment about whether there were, in fact, any protectable copyrights existing in Unix let alone who would have owned these.
In many cases parts of the source of Unix may have failed to have been copyrighted, may have been released to public domain, or may be owned by others, such as Berkeley and a whole host of third parties.
Hundreds of years ago, both parties would choose their best man, and it wold be settled on the field of battle. No appeal. Just think about how much less corporate malfeasance there would be if CEOs and board members had to defend themselves with a broad sword.
A mystery man or woman updated the SCO timeline on Groklaw:
http://www.groklaw.net/staticp...
Unfortunately, no update of the legendary PJ comments. But the timeline shows that the judge granted partially and dismissed partially an IBM request for summary judgement in Dec. 2014.
Appeal to jurists with Pacer access: please report on SCO-IBM fight of the last two years. The case was revived (with IBM's consent) the same day Groklaw shut down.
The SCO Group (not SCO) execs have a planned stock sale in the works or they would not be making these disproven claims.
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
Just think: if there are fjords to pine over in Utah, then it stands to reason that there are seester biting moose as well. This could be the first sign of Armageddon...
You win the Internets for today, Sir. That is all.
Remember too that Red Hat has a libel case against SCOX that was put on hold behind this. The likelihood of any payoff is slight, but it's on the list of liabilities to the BK trustee.
That is not dead which can eternal lie/And with endless lawsuits even death can die.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
for x in listOfSynonymsForWorse:
print("{} than a bad zombie movie".format(x))
John_Chalisque
Darl Mc Bride, the failed salesman who attempted to sue his past employer joined Caldera Systems a dying Unix/Linux vendor, talked the aged & infirm owner into trying to sue their own customers as a revenue source using bogus claims of 'owning' Unix. Untrue, they were a licensee who incidentally didn't pay the license fees to the the true owner (Novell). When that didn't work he then launched a claim of IBM copying code from Unix into Linux & sought a huge financial remedy all the while knowing that his company did not 'own' Unix & that there was no code copied. In effect copyright/patent trolling with no IP/patents to go to war with. That this was doomed to failure was never in doubt but along the way Microsoft found a need to pay $100 million in 'license fees' to Caldera now renamed 'The Sco Group'. Some very murky venture capitalists in the shadows tipped in obscene amounts of money into this scam also. IBM & others fought back in court & refuted this drivel. TSCOG ran away & hid in bankruptcy rather than pay Novell what it was due. Curiously the extremely well paid bankruptcy administrator was highly motivated to keep pressing on with the fictitious claims in litigation. This scam was attempted in other countries where Caldera had offices but was immediately slapped down by courts in those jurisdictions. Only in America could this nonsense be allowed to go on for 12 long years & still running... American judicial system is a joke!