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Caldera Software Linux

SCO Invokes DMCA, Names Headers, Novell Steps In 770

Sparky writes "We've already heard that SCO have invoked the DMCA via 'letters sent to select Fortune 1000 Linux end users.' The specifics come via a copy of the letter reprinted at LWN.net - they've decided that they own the copyright to about 65 header files contained in Linux - largely errno.h, signal.h and ioctl.h." balloonpup also notes "CNet News has reported that SCO has reported a fourth quarter loss of $1.6 million, owing mostly to hefty legal fees in its war against Linux. SCO said they would have reported $7.4 million in earnings, if not for the $9 million payout to their lawyers. Way to go, SCO!" Many readers also point out a Groklaw article indicating Novell has registered for the copyrights on multiple versions of Unix with the U.S. Copyright Office, so that "both the SCO Group and Novell have registered for UNIX System V copyrights for the same code."
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SCO Invokes DMCA, Names Headers, Novell Steps In

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  • by unixbum ( 720776 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:31PM (#7787719)
    so does this mean that my errors are copyrighted matierial?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:33PM (#7787742)
    Darl?
  • Law is Hard (Score:5, Funny)

    by moehoward ( 668736 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:34PM (#7787749)
    This stuff is too complicated for me to understand. Why didn't a slashdot editor add a quirky, sarcastic, biased comment so I would know how to think?

    I don't want to read all those links. Is there any way that I can make fun of Microsoft based on any of this? That would make it easier. TIA
  • by Genghis9 ( 575560 ) * on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:34PM (#7787752)
    ...and deploy them to SCO headquarters. There are WMD's (weenies of mass dumbness) in that building and they have to go, NOW!
  • "We've already heard that SCO have invoked the winged minions of hell via 'voodoo dools shaped like the CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies.' The specifics come via a photo of a doll made to look like Samuel J. Palmisano of IBM - they've decided that they own the souls of about 65 CEOs running Linux - largely IBM, HP and Ford." balloonpup also notes "CNet News has reported that SCO has reported a fourth quarter loss of $1.6 million, owing mostly to hefty witchdoctor and soothsayer fees in its war against Linux. SCO said they would have reported $7.4 million in earnings, if not for the $9 million payout to the Prince of Darkness. Way to go, SCO!" Many readers also point out a Groklaw article indicating Novell has been praying for the souls of CEOs running Linux with the Holy Catholic Church, so that "both the SCO Group and Novell have claimed the souls of the same people."

  • login.h (Score:5, Funny)

    by mios ( 715734 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:36PM (#7787779) Homepage
    I think I'm going to file a claim that I own a copyright to login.h ... this way, everytime anyone logs into their system I should be entitled to some roylaties ... this should work ...
  • by FunWithHeadlines ( 644929 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:38PM (#7787788) Homepage
    Poor SCO, no one takes them seriously any more. "We own Linux-- er, UNIX, um I mean, some of it, or do we Novell? And we're going to sue everybody in existence for theft-- uh, copyright violations of this code-- oops, not that code, don't look at the man behind the curtain, we mean this code over here -- what? not that code either? OK, I mean these header files -- um, you can't copyright ideas, you have to patent them, and we have plenty of patents -- we don't? Well, we'll be threaten-- um, sending letters to our partners (aren't you happy to be doing business with SCO?) telling to to keep their noses clean and line up for a nose inspection -- what, Novell just copyrighted the same stuff we claim to have copyrighted? Don't tell the judge that! Yikes! What's our stock doing now?! Quick read this press release about, um, yeah, that's it: we just got DDoSed, um, Again! Yeah, that'll work....what's that you say? How much are we paying our lawyers for this nonsense? It's contingency, people, don't worry. Contingency all the way...except for the huge fees we pay along the way...and 20% of the company...but otherwise not much -- and yes, that just wiped out any chance of profits in this quarter, but don't worry, next quarter the legal fees go up and we still don't have any licensees yet. But step right up with $699 and you can be the first on the block to say you got rooked--, uh squared yourself with the law-- um, not really the law, with our lawyers, yeah, that's it."
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:38PM (#7787796)
    SCO said they would have reported $7.4 million in earnings, if not for the $9 million payout to their lawyers.

    So SCO has changed from a technology company to an employment agency for lawyers? I'd be interest to see what the step was just before "Profit!"
  • by Quixadhal ( 45024 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:39PM (#7787807) Homepage Journal
    ...comes great responsibility.

    If SCO wants to claim ownership of things in errno.h, then I want monetary compensation for each and every segfault, since they are now SCO's responsibility, not mine!

    Boy, no more having to double-check pointers in my code, whoo hoo!
  • by NialScorva ( 213763 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:39PM (#7787810)
    There needs to be some equivalent to Godwin's Law for the DMCA. How does "Given enough time, all legal battles in the tech industry will invoke the DMCA. This generally means that all constructive arguments have ended."
  • by Deagol ( 323173 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:42PM (#7787837) Homepage
    Tell me about it. I have on my desk two checks from Citibank: $0.24 and $0.35. They are the results of some lawsuit against Citibank and AT&T Universal Card.

    I don't know how much I really got screwed (hell, I didn't even know there was a lawsuit -- I wonder how they even found my current adddress!). The letter states it was "not practical to provide individual caculations" for the refunds. Yeah, right!

    I know sure as shit that the lawyers got a hell of a lot more than two checks totalling less than a dollar!

  • Dear Santa (Score:5, Funny)

    by neurojab ( 15737 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:42PM (#7787839)
    Dear Santa,

    My christmas wish is for the SCO stockholders to wake up and realize they're being taken for a ride. That way the rest of the world could get on with their lives without worrying about being bitten in the ankles by Daryl McBride. For Daryl, I wish a long stay in the relaxing resort for his kind of folk known as Utah State Prison. I wish for him a large roommate named Bubba.

    Peace.
    An ordinary Linux user.
  • by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:43PM (#7787845)
    SCO said they would have reported $7.4 million in earnings, if not for the $9 million payout to their lawyers.

    Damn, can I use that excuse? I would have been in the black this month if I had not had to pay my bills. But seriously, this really tells a great deal of SCO's financial picture. Their money is running out. Their legal bills are mounting. This letter is nothing more than it appears: Desperation to get any last revenue that they can get.

    On another note, has anybody looked at the headers that SCO has mentioned. I'm willing to bet that some of them are legacy to BSD not SCO.

  • by eln ( 21727 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:43PM (#7787847)
    I've been practicing to be a psychic so let's see how I'm doing so far...

    I see these men having big problems with the SEC in the future.
  • by gotem ( 678274 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:44PM (#7787855) Homepage Journal
    take a sip everytime the letter says "copyright"
  • by kalidasa ( 577403 ) * on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:45PM (#7787864) Journal
    Next, they'll be asserting ownership over stdio.h and Hello,World.

    #include <stdio.h>
    int main()
    {
    printf("Hello, Darl\n");
    return (0);
    }

    Hey, did I just violate a SCO license?
  • by EricTheGreen ( 223110 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:46PM (#7787868) Homepage
    This is just step #2 in their master plan. The final claim will be ownership of the '\n' character.
  • by RetroGeek ( 206522 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:47PM (#7787879) Homepage
    I'd be interest to see what the step was just before "Profit!"

    ??
    Profit!
  • by MachDelta ( 704883 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:47PM (#7787880)
    Lobotomy?
  • by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:47PM (#7787882)
    Error numbers, IO control function names, and abstract type specifications? Repeated 6 times, once for each platform?

    This is a joke. Less than a joke - this is like the framework of a joke, without the topics or punchline filled in. It's like Microsoft hiring Yakov Smirnoff [yakov.com] to sue anyone on Slashdot who had a .sig that could be seen as somewhat like his humor style.

    Ryan Fenton
  • by Libertarian_Geek ( 691416 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:48PM (#7787889)
    When all of this is said and done, TechTV needs to do a "Behind The Music" style documentary. Just let your imaginations run wild on this one. How about some ideas? Darl with a bad comb-over talking about how the technical community turned their backs on him during his cry for help. An exclusive interview with Tux.
  • by herrvinny ( 698679 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:48PM (#7787890)
    Wow, two SCO stories in one day. It might be better just to dedicate a brand new /. section on sco (sco.slashdot.org or caldera.slashdot.org, etc).

    Yes, SCO is definitely going down. Anyone have new ideas on what I should put up on SCO Report [ibmlawsuit.com] or SCO Countdown [scocountdown.com]?

  • Breakdown (Score:5, Funny)

    by chaoticset ( 574254 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:51PM (#7787919) Homepage
    Profit for SCO's lawyers: 9 million
    Earnings for SCO: -1.6 million
    Watching SCO die and set a precedent for anybody who tries stupid legal things with Linux: Priceless
  • by taniwha ( 70410 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:54PM (#7787948) Homepage Journal
    yeah one guy at work remarked this morning "cool now I don't have to check error returns ..."
  • by Robotron2084 ( 262343 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:55PM (#7787957) Homepage
    Hopefully this can help you understand the situation:

    Penguin Blood Ninja Fiasco!! [ubergeek.tv]

    Shameless self plug....
  • by Dr. GeneMachine ( 720233 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @02:55PM (#7787958)
    Hey - if you can't bash M$ based on any of this, you might try bashing the french, the democrats, the republicans, arguing pro/contra gun control or advocate the libertarians. There are so many popular troll contests going on at the moment! Sign up and join one!
  • by jd ( 1658 ) <imipak@yahoGINSBERGo.com minus poet> on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:00PM (#7787996) Homepage Journal
    I wasn't reading clearly, or something. I could have sworn the title read "SCO invokes Devil, Hades steps in".


    On second thought, maybe that wasn't so inaccurate.

  • by demigod ( 20497 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:01PM (#7787999)
    Hence forth this shall be know as NialScorva's Law.
  • by roomisigloomis ( 643740 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:04PM (#7788030)
    Two farmers are fighting over a cow. One grabs the cow's tail and pulls while the other farmer grabs the cow's head and pulls. This last for a long time. While all this pulling is going on, the two farmers' lawyers sit in the middle and milk it.
  • Screw this (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:06PM (#7788038)
    I'm pulling out my Commodore 64, so I don't have to put up with all this BS. Oh. Wait. It runs Microsoft Basic.... damnit, there is no escape!!!
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:10PM (#7788075)
    I've never seen anything so obscene in my life. Do the world a favor and run everything you type through a spell checker.

    articals - articles
    clame - claim
    alowed - allowed
  • by SoTuA ( 683507 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:12PM (#7788100)
    It seems to me like Darl finally ran out of decent "outrageous claims" and he couldn't keep the profits coming in... bye bye bonus, darly baby! And say hello to Ramiro(*), your cellmate in your new bars-in-the-windows stone hotel!

    (*) Your regular six feet tall, three hundred pound heavy "host" on a proper federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.

  • by symbolic ( 11752 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:16PM (#7788125)

    But it's more than likely a bunch of straight, heterosexual, penile/vaginal-obsessed junkies not only wrote it, but voted it into law. Let's keep things in perspective here.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:24PM (#7788193)
    The goatse guy, obviously :)
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:26PM (#7788222)
    It's a damn good thing that the earlier versions of Mac OS were based in Pascal then! ;-)
  • by ca1v1n ( 135902 ) <snook.guanotronic@com> on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:28PM (#7788238)
    The caldera logo isn't enough. We need to be putting these stories on sco.slashdot.org
  • by syusuf ( 91554 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:31PM (#7788263)

    $ cat /bin/false
    #!/usr/bin/sh
    # Copyright (c) 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 AT&T
    # All Rights Reserved

    # THIS IS UNPUBLISHED PROPRIETARY SOURCE CODE OF AT&T
    # The copyright notice above does not evidence any
    # actual or intended publication of such source code.

    #ident "@(#)false.sh 1.6 93/01/11 SMI" /* SVr4.0 1.3 */
    exit 255

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:31PM (#7788265)
    Stop! Stop!! You're violating the SCO license!
  • HAhaha... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:33PM (#7788281)
    Whoever it was must have had a HUGE majority by overriding Clinton's veto.

    OH wait... he didn't veto.. it... oh yeah...
  • by ameoba ( 173803 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:34PM (#7788297)
    Personally, I think the DMCA should stand. What we need to do is get the STFU passed into law so we can have headlines like:

    SCO, "DMCA"; FSF, "STFU"
  • by dmeranda ( 120061 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @03:42PM (#7788362) Homepage

    This is off topic, but your macro itself has problems. It permits its use without a statement-terminating semicolon. It is always best to define multi-statement macro blocks with a do-while loop as:

    #define return(x) do{ ..... }while(0)

    Notice no semicolon after the "while(0)". This makes it an error to omit the semicolon after the macro's use, and thus behaves more like an actual function in syntax. Oh, and this is one case where you really DO want the parenthesis around the return "value" x inside the macro, since "x" is not a variable but a macro argument which could contain a semicolon.

  • by pyros ( 61399 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:03PM (#7788528) Journal
    Louis Black highlighted the differences between Democrats and Republicnas best when he said "A Democrat sucks, a Republican blows. A democrat won't let me keep my money, but a Republican won't let me spend it on drugs and hookers, so what am I supposed to do with it?"
  • by gillbates ( 106458 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:05PM (#7788544) Homepage Journal
    Smithers: Did you hear? "Loser Pays" has now become law; if we sue someone and lose, we'll have to pay their legal fees!

    CEO: Perfect.

    Smithers: WHAT?! Do you know what this means?

    CEO: I know EXACTLY what it means. It means we'll hire the most expensive lawyers we can find. It means that no one will risk paying a million dollars in legal fees if they lose their ten grand lawsuit against us. It means when we sue people, they'll settle because the cost of losing just got higher. It means that we can rip off the customer even more! We'll have the best lawyers in the country - we're bound to win, and we'll make our victims pick up the tab! Yessss, this is EXACTLY what we wanted....
  • by frostman ( 302143 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:11PM (#7788592) Homepage Journal

    Dear EricTheGreen,

    Your recent Slashdot post, titled "Re:not just Linux..." and currently moderated at +4/Funny, is in violation of the DMCA.

    As you are probably aware, we have granted the general public a limited license to the character '\n' and this license does not include its representation in "escaped" format ('\n').

    We hereby order you to remove the comment or to change it so that the copyrighted character in question is displayed in its properly licensed format, namely:

    Be advised that this also applies to any posts you may make in the future, regardless of how they are moderated, and that similar restrictions apply to the character '\r' to which we own the copyright jointly with the Microsoft Corporation.

    Failure to comply will result in legal fees.

    Sincerely,

    Dewey, Cheatham & Howe, on behalf of SCO.

  • by terminal.dk ( 102718 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:24PM (#7788689) Homepage
    post copyrigthed code here ?

    They will soon come and close slashdot down.
  • by Platinum Dragon ( 34829 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:24PM (#7788691) Journal
    Someone at Groklaw pointed out that the MS Word version [lwn.net], hosted at LWN, still has the good ol' properties saved. Kevin McBride apparently created the document, with the last modification being made by "bstowell"--presumably, Blake Stowell.

    Nice to see that $9 million in legal fees is going to great use.
  • by Tackhead ( 54550 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:31PM (#7788741)
    > Didn't your Momma tell you not to click on strange sigs?!
    >
    > Long ago I quit clicking on slashdot sig links. *Especially* when it has goat in the link text :P

    This is a SCO thread. Pictures of Darl McBride may be repulsive, but they're definitely on topic.

  • by Pitawg ( 85077 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:35PM (#7788772)
    Make an original file, program, or image, run it trough a one-time-hash using the DMCA text. Have a friend post on some site how to crack your file using the DMCA text. Would it not reuire the DMCA to be banned?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22, 2003 @05:38PM (#7789454)
    How interesting that in all this invective there wasn't one comment about the pejorative use of the word 'gay'.

    Well, until yours, anyway. Comments like "the DMCA is gayer than the YMCA" don't really bother me, and I'm gay. For real, even.

    The word means different things to different people. I don't get offended when the six year olds on South Park use "gay" pejoratively, because (alas) six year olds in the United States really talk like that.

    Apparently so do the six year olds on slashdot. :)

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22, 2003 @06:54PM (#7790173)
    EOK = 0, /* I'm OK */
    EPERM = 1, /* Screw you, your not the owner */
    ENOENT = 2, /* Nuttin there dude */
    ESRCH = 3, /* Indigo Montoyo not found */
    EINTR = 4, /* Bugger. */
    EIO = 5, /* I/O bugger */
    ENXIO = 6, /* Indigo Montoyo's address not found */
    E2BIG = 7, /* Argument too long, seek councling. */
    ECHILD = 10, /* My name is indigo Montoyo, you can kill-9 my parent process, but you can't kill-9 my children, they don't exist. */
    EGAGAIN = 11, /* bugger, no room. */
    ENOMEM = 12, /* bugger no memory. */
    EACCESS = 13, /* Bugger off - your access is inadquate. */
    EFAULT = 14, /* Bad pointer value, very bad pointer value */
    ENOTBLK = 15, /* bugger, no blocks */
    EBUSY = 16, /* Bugger off, i'm busy. */
    EEXIST = 17, /* Bugger, it's there already. */
    EXDEV = 18, /* Hey bozo, try symbolic linking. */
    ENODEV = 19, /* The device number is buggered. */
    EINVAL = 22, /* General bad argument bugger. */
    ENFILE = 23, /* Bugger, too much shit open. */
    EMFILE = 24, /* Bugger, too much shit open for this process. */
    EFBIG = 27, /* Bugger, file too big. */
    ENOSPC = 28, /* Bugger, system is full of shit. */
    EROFS = 30, /* Bugger, can't write */
  • by Ancil ( 622971 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @07:26PM (#7790425)

    What do you do if you are locked out of your house or car?
    Buy a new house or car, of course. The law was written by the people who make houses and cars; what would you expect?

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire

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