SCO Linux Licenses Could Increase In Price

prostoalex writes "ZDNet UK says that, while SCO Group's legal department took a timeout from generating new lawsuits, their Linux license prices might be increased. 'Companies that license now may be able to do so cheaper than if they do so later,' [Blake] Stowell said. In the upcoming financials call, SCO expects to announce 6-figure revenue from its SCOSource division."

in related news

[spacerodent]

I wonder how many figures their legal bill is. Somehow I suspect its a seven or eight figures at least.

Re:"Six Figures" is just $ from an old deal!

[nihilogos]

I heard they were bundling an SCO source license in with their Unixware stuff. So they can count Unixware sales as SCO source as well.

$5 licenses

[Anonymous Coward]

If the license fee was $5 per copy of Linux they might actually get enough people to make them more than $11k.

Enderle: "Free Software and the Idiots Who Buy It"

[Landaras]

This is slightly OT, but it's in regards to SCO.

A week ago at SCO Forum, Rob Enderle [enderlegroup.com] gave a keynote speech entitled "Free Software and the Idiots Who Buy It." Mr. Enderle employed repeated logical errors, accusations without evidence, and ad hominem attacks. He materially confused the meaning of Free Software, as well as assigning physical threats to the Groklaw / Free Software community without proof.

I have written a paragraph by paragraph critique of his keynote, and it is available at my site (Part One [fallinggrace.com] and Part Two [fallinggrace.com])

I welcome and appreciate feedback and comments on it. I jokingly refer to the paper as "Logical Fallacies and the Idiots Who Use Them," but did my best to keep the text proper professional.

- Neil Wehneman

Re:Oh no!

[SourKAT]

That's supply and demand for you! ... oh wait, too much supply, no demand ... WTF kind of economics is this?

Does not compute

[adolfojp]

I fail to understand...

1. They release their own linux distro (Caldera) making their code GPL.
2. They say that linux infringes their IP, although they have GPL'd it (They haven't proven that it is true anyway).
3. They try to convince everyone that the GPL is ilegal.
4. Their latest Unix distro is full of GPL software.

Please help me understand, perhaps I am too simple minded to ascertain their logic.

Cheers,
Adolfo

Check out LamLaw.com...

[talks_to_birds]

...if you want a second opinion without the overhead at Groklaw.

And the good news is: this guy *is* a lawyer.

http://www.lamlaw.com/ [lamlaw.com]

His take on SCO's increasing their SCOSource license fees:

• "...I guess SCO lawyers do not to see this motion [Novell's motion to dismiss] coming their way because someone suggested to SCO management that they should increase the price of those SCO licenses
• to help scare at least one more linux customer into paying license money while the SCO legal scheme goes down in flames. Or maybe I should say gets hosed with cold water."

t_t_b

Re:Oh no!

[msobkow]

Personally I believe that everything coming out of the SCO "press releases" has degraded to demonstrating a completely delusional lack of contact with reality. Rather than just shooting them, maybe we should lock them up and pump them full of thorazine for their own safety.

Re:Only works if people pay.

[d34thm0nk3y]

wrong...

0 in base 0 is 1

heh...

Re:Oh no!

[Stephan Schulz]

6 digits! Did Microsft buy a few licences or something? I doubt the EV1 deal can bring 6 digits, and there isn't really anything else they can count as SCOSource revenue.

I think they are still milking the EV1 deal - this is the quarter in which (some of) this revenue should finally be on the book. It has consistently been toutet as a 6-figure deal.

And notice that they have not said that they have a 6 figure income this quarter, just that they are going to report it.

All in all, it again looks like they have no new income from SCOSource this year.

Re:Oh no!

[shanen]

You mean you haven't bought your shares of SCO stock yet? They're certainly priced reasonably. Since they broke through the $5 floor on short transactions, they've been sinking pretty nicely.

Oh, you mean you want to buy SCOX shares to sell at a profit ? So sorry. That seems rather unlikely. Nothing to stop them from sinking to penny stock level now...

I like the comparative views against IBM, their "favorite" target. This one shows the 6-month view, in which SCOX is about 70% below the starting point [yahoo.com].

Here we have the 2-year view, which gives you a pretty good perspective of the entire lawsuit bubble [yahoo.com].

Finally, here's a big-picture 5-year view which shows what really happened since the IPO bubble burst. On this one, the lawsuit price response looks like a rather trivial burp [yahoo.com].