Unsealed SCO Email Reveals Linux Code is Clean 733
rm69990 writes "In a recently unsealed email in the SCO vs. IBM case, it appears that an outside consultant, hired by SCO in 2002, failed to find copyright violations in the Linux Kernel. This was right around the time Darl McBride, who has before been hired by litigious companies as CEO, was hired. It appears that before SCO even began its investigation, they were hoping to find a smoking gun, not believing that Linux could possibly not contain Unix code. Apparently, they ignored the advice of this consultant."
Interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Gee, that sounds familiar. Seems to be a popular strategy in both business and *cough*cough*cough, government these days. Seriously though, this is a model that does appear to have some traction in a variety of fields in that if you press your case hard enough, and you convince enough of the right people, there is ground to be gained from simply sticking to your guns no matter what the reality happens to be. In my business, when you have a theory, you design an experiment to test it and collect data in an attempt to disprove that theory. When the data supports the theory, then you are golden. The way NOT to run business, science (or government) is to come up with a theory (or a desire) and then try to fit the evidence to support what you want. This of course is exactly what has happened with the SCO case, a couple of other business debacles in the news recently and interestingly, in the hunt for WMD in Iraq.
So we like consultants now? (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, while SCO's PR has talking about Linux (after IBM started implying it), this was ORIGINALLY a lawsuit about the derivative works from a company working with a Unix license that IBM bought. It was originally a breach of contract case, not a "Linux is a derivative work" case, it just got weird when they started flailing around.
Alex
The nail in the coffin? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Reveals Darl McBride is Dirty (Score:5, Insightful)
Because that's the example that's been set at the top.
Don't get your hopes up... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
this is a model that does appear to have some traction in a variety of fields in that if you press your case hard enough, and you convince enough of the right people, there is ground to be gained from simply sticking to your guns no matter what the reality happens to be
Important note: whenever a business/government tries this horrible tactic, they always fail. SCO's case is (has) colapsed, people all around the world view the US government as untrustworthy, etc. Sometimes it takes a while, but they always lose in the end.
News stories like this are just a nice reminder to everyone not to try tactics like this.
Re:advice to McBride.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Rhetorical question? Practical answer (Score:3, Insightful)
Because Darl is a lying cunt, that's why.
Re:Jail time (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Interesting (Score:2, Insightful)
In response to the yawns... (Score:3, Insightful)
There are very few universally accepted truths in this world, and it is nice to be reminded of them once in a while.
Insurance (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I got a friend named Guido who sells "insurance policies" too... his catch phrase is "Nice place you've got here... be a shame if anything should happen to it!"
Am I misreading the law, or does this actually qualify as extortion?
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't agree with that saying though. People who server in the military learn to take orders, perhaps really dumb orders. I don't want a society filled with those people; I am afraid we may have just that anyway.
Just because you have no case (Score:3, Insightful)
Especially if you have lots of lawyers and elitists who care nothing for truth and honor.
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:SCO doesn't use SCO products within SCO? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:so what would be good punishment for Darl? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Operating systems are Black Magic, Toqueville s (Score:5, Insightful)
Amen.
In this case, the 'simple' bit is a simple idea - only teams of programmers can make a kernel. It doesn't matter that it's incorrect, just that it's what the PHB believes. It is their dogma. All evidence presented to them is filtered through this belief, or just plain ignored.
Here endeth the lesson.
Re:Sounds like religion or "Scientific Creationism (Score:2, Insightful)
Media vs. Reality (Score:3, Insightful)
I think this happened to SCO on a grand scale - and they fed upon the media of the time and the desire for ANYTHING to stop Linux coming from MS and it's closest allies. They even got money from them. They got fame from the reporters like O'Gara. Their stock would go up when they reported more.
Fortunately, just because a newspaper prints it, it does not always mean it's true.
Too Little Too Late. (Score:5, Insightful)
Darl & his MSFT frineds DID get away with it.
My CEO's already convinced that Linux is dirty thanks to lots of Enderle reports that our microsoft rep among others seem to have refered him to.
My bet is that Darl's backers are already praising him and preparing a job for him in much the same way that Rick Belluzzo got rewarded for defeating SGI and HP.
Re:You Linux people just wait.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Truth will have no matter when the sued companies cave or go bust.
Yeah, sure. IBM is gonna go bust. Right.
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Insightful)
I had a relative on the other hand was in the Marines, he didn't think highly of his superiors and called them a bunch of Communists and brainwashers. He served his 4 years all the way to the end (he guarded Navel ships in the middle east bases before 2002 so was a bit jumpy), but his personal opinion was that you needed to people to make decisions on their own rather than follow orders since often times you will be in a situation in combat where you don't have time to call to get orders.
McBride is free and clear (Score:5, Insightful)
Ebbers (not Edwards) is one of a very rare elite -- wealthy white-collar criminals who are getting the book thrown at them. There are very few prosecutions in this arena. It's expensive, you are facing hordes of lawyers, and people wonder why you aren't hauling off murderers.
Ebbers is getting screwed specifically because he was involved in one of a handlful of financial cases that were so egregious that they caught the attention of the popular media, and hence the mind of the public. If you are a politician, and you represent a public outraged over some criminal, you do what you can to have the book thrown at that criminal.
Darl did not piss off anyone other than the statistically insignificant (if vastly disproportionate in influence in the tech world) members of the open source community. My mother has no idea that Darl exists, and there isn't really any way to pack his crimes into a one-sentence damning sound byte that appeals to the public(Ebbers had to deal with pictures of blue collar workers and the sentence "they lost their retirement money"). Nothing scares the shit out of a voting baby boomer like the concept of someone losing their retirement money.
Darl, IIRC, came off of the whole thing rather well, with no liability and plenty of money. And SCO was in the shitter already, so his rep is more of just a CEO willing to try some long shots when not much remains than the guy who killed SCO. He *did* manage the media rather poorly, getting personally involved instead of having a more competent spokesman involved, but that's really the only black mark against him.
Re:Linux is CLEAN! How about Windows. (Score:1, Insightful)
Perhaps.... but for the past couple years the MSFT and Sun (buy a legal SCO licensed linux from us) and HP (buy sco insurance from us) and SCO allegations have made our corporate risk guys move to Windows and froze our move to Linux.
Now that Linux is in the clear, it'd be nice to see them apply that same standard to other software.
Re:Making Sure The Guilty Pay Their Price (Score:5, Insightful)
This country needs to be cleaned out. Its starting. We got Ebbers on the finacial front, along with Arther Anderson. Soon we'll have Rove or someone from the WH on the political front. Now McBride on the tech front and his lawyers on the legal front.
So much corruption, but at least some opportunities are opening and making an example out of these people goes a long way towards justice and keeping others from doing the same.
Re:Reveals Darl McBride is Dirty (Score:1, Insightful)
I mean, for the past 20 years or so all we've heard from people is how "at least our presiden't didn't..."
Man, I feel sorry for you Democrats and Republicans who haven't figured out that both of your parties are going down the shitter. Now if only you'd wise up before you took America with you.
I'd like to live in the America I was born in again, where at least I could go out and piss off foreigners when I talked about how great America is, because they knew I was right.
Now it's all lies, thanks to both of your parties.
Re:Operating systems are Black Magic, Toqueville s (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem was, you didn't listen to him. If you did, you would have heard him clearly say;
Re:Interesting (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, here you are talking tough, but you're too scared say who you are, you Anonymous Coward.
Re:Reveals Darl McBride is Dirty (Score:4, Insightful)
I long for the days of a president who got a bit of nookie on the side. It's a far better situation than a president who fucks us over, fucks others over, and generates piles of dead bodies. On the other hand, my fossil fuel stocks have been kickin' ass -- even with today's hit on speculation China will not consume as much oil as it has been. Anyway
Re:Reveals Darl McBride is Dirty (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you seriously saying that since Clinton lied about getting a blowjob, it is OK that the Bush administration lied about intelligence to justify going to war? Don't forget, Clinton got impeached for his lie by the House, but not convicted by the Senate. Given the fact that the repurcussions of Bush's lie is so much greater (we are at fucking war and there was no uranium purchased from Africa, no WMDs, no connection to 9/11), shouldn't the consequences be greater? Maybe Impeachment, Conviction and Jail time? I would say one day for each death that has occurred during the Iraq war - that should work out to between 30 to 300 years.
Sorry to not have much of a sense of humor about this, but the repurcussions of this lie are just too tragic and painful.
The smoking gun... (Score:2, Insightful)
Not just the lawsuit (Score:5, Insightful)
- it appears that scox's showing of the code to select journalists, who signed an NDA, was a stunt specifically designed to decieve the public. No wonder there was an NDA.
- it appears that scox's showing the code in Las Vegas ScoForum, was not just a mistake, it appears to be another possible deception.
- apparently scox filed the law suit in bad faith, right from the begining.
- scox letters to 1500 businesses, demanding payment for the scox code in linux, appears to be an attempt at outright extortion.
- scox execs enriching themselves by selling scox in the high teens appears a blantant stock scam.
- mcbrides numerous public statements about millions of lines of code, appears to be somewhat less than truthful.
Especially especially if you have msft's $$$ (Score:4, Insightful)
behind you.
Scox would not have been able to pull off the scam without lots of help from msft and sunw.
Re:advice to McBride.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Lose? (Score:5, Insightful)
Face facts, SCO was a company whose stock price was floundering. Then Darl came along, ginned up a lawsuit, and multiplied it manyfold. He also got real revenue for the company from "sales" of "licenses" to Microsoft. He's already a multi-millionaire as a result. And despite how slashdot members feel, it's extremely unlikely he'll ever see any jail time.
Big name spammers are much the same. We may all hate them, but they've done very well by themselves. What's the worst that most have them have seen from their billions of dollars of theft of service? A slap on the wrist.
Same thing for Bush and Rove. Had either been remotely honorable or honest, Bush wouldn't have won reelection. Tell me, how is is losing?
Face facts: evil tactics are often winning strategies. Especially because our collective tolerance for corruption is so high (and going higher).
Re:Apex of Values? Hah. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Apex of Values? Hah. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Reveals Darl McBride is Dirty (Score:1, Insightful)
God I love right-wing-zealots like yourself. As if getting some head is in the same ballpark as launching war.
I yearn for the days when the only thing I have to worry about from my president is "lying" about a blow-job instead of diving into a war.
I also love to see the W's numbers drop, as if that drop is due to the 49% of the country that did not vote for him. No it's that 51% of the country that is somehow changing it's "mind" about W.
If W has one thing going for him it's honesty. He told you zealots what he wanted to do, you voted him in, and he is doing exactly that. If you don't like the war or the health care or the social security or the environmental policies that are resulting from your vote then look no further than your own misguided vote.
It's not W who is responsible for the current problems we face, it is the conservative right wing establishment who voted him in.
Re:Reveals Darl McBride is Dirty (Score:2, Insightful)
I suppose next you're going to say that none of europe participated in the war because France didn't since as we all know, there's no Europe outside of France.
Re:Reveals Darl McBride is Dirty (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Reveals Darl McBride is Dirty (Score:4, Insightful)
Aside from that, the same crowd that lambasts Bush for 'allowing' the various scandals that erupted after he took office (including the three I mentioned) all really built up during the Clinton administration, something they seem to ignore. For that matter, Ebbers was driving companies into the ground back when Reagan was in office, so there's something to say about the government's (in)ability to keep track of this no matter who is in office. If they're going to blame the Bush administration for allowing deception to become acceptable because it's "the example that's been set at the top," they need to keep in mind that the example is not new to the current occupants of the White House.
I will admit that I was unclear in things. While my intentions were not trolling as I see them, such posts are often seen as trolls by much of the mainstream Slashdot crowd. But sometimes one man's intentions to provoke thought are another man's begging food for the troll.
I also commend you greatly for keeping an open mind, and being mature enough to be able to bring up a rational conversation after your initial response. I took no offense at it, primarily because my political thoughts are all over the place as demonstrated above, and as such I am routinely chased by conservatives and liberals wielding devices intended to induce mass conflagrations upon my person. I simply clarify my views, and hope that others understand me better later on. I am pleased to find another one. People such as you are rare. In fact, I think I shall add you as a friend -- my first one ever.
SHALLT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOR (Score:2, Insightful)
"Thou shallt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." It is one of the 10 commandments given by the Lord to the Isrealites in the desert. It means that the Lord told them not give false testimony, or render false accusations.
Now dear slashdot mod me down another 2. After 2 years and 100 posts, "Thou shallt not kill" costed me the only mod points i had.
Lawful Orders Only (Score:1, Insightful)
Like, clean up the inside of a tornado damaged wharehouse that was literally leaning at a 45 degree angle. Boy he was pissed when we all just stood around staring at him like he was a moron. Which he obviously was.
Or the multiple times I have refused officers (everything from butterbars to a 3 star) entry into a munitions operation because they had no valid munitions reason to be there. They get really ticked... For some reason the brainwashing worked on some of them, and they think they are god or something.
You are not liable for refusing to follow an Unlawful order. You are liable if you follow it, knowing it was unlawful. If you didn't know it was unlawful depends on if the court martial or jury believes that you did not and reasonablely could not know that it was unlawful.
UCMJ is your big guide, it'll protect you're but against any number of stars, just as long as you know the appropriate rule. And for basic daily functions, you'd better know where you stand before some moron tells you something stupid.
(U.C.M.J. is the Uniform Code of Military Justice)
Re:Reveals Darl McBride is Dirty (Score:3, Insightful)
- Bush had indicated previously that he wanted to attack Iraq.
- The Neo-cons had previously indicated that they wanted to attack Iraq.
- Bush had previously indicated that he wanted to be a war president
- There was a ton of information available that Saddam did not have WMDs, but this information, and the people who presented this information, was ignored and attacked by the administration.
Also, I didn't believe that Saddam had WMDs - I believed that he wanted them, but I thought it was extremely unlikely that he would be able to hide the WMDs and the infrastructure necessary to produce them from a dedicated multi-year search. Afterall, if the Bush administration had such clear intelligence that Saddam had the WMDs, why couldn't they share that information with the Weapon inspectors?Re:SHALLT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGH (Score:1, Insightful)
if they are not xtain, why should they?
Hell, how many of your fellow church goingers fully follow the 10 commandments?
Re:Reveals Darl McBride is Dirty (Score:3, Insightful)
Prior to 1998, there weren't any inspectors either. They were inteligence officers who were only interested in Saddams whereabouts for a surgical hit. That's WHY they got kicked out.
All your post has done is provide more evidence that when it comes down to it, partisan politics is more important than truth.
Not all of us hail from the USA, so your argument is pointless. Under clinton, I didn't care what you did. Under Bush, you have destabilized the entire middle east, and now MY home country is being attacked by terrorists (UK). Tony Blair (& Bush) told us all that we need to invade Iraq to improve our own safety. Nice going Tony, I feel safer already.
Either Bush & Blair were outright deliberately misleading people (I wouldn't say lie, politicians know how to do that without actually lying) due to the overwhelming voice of those that said 9-11 and WMD claims are bogus. OR they are terminally stupid. The outcome of the highly profitable Iraq conquest was ENTIRELY predicatble. The increased hatred, long-term "peace keeping" mission, Vietnam II. The Iraqi's still have the inevitable civil war to look forward to when we do pull out. It's a screw-up from day one and it was ALWAYS going to be a screw up. Even Bush himself said in 2000 that "nation building" was not easy and something the US should NOT be involved in. Of course, when your election campaign is financed by the Project for a New American Century, they you have to do what the puppeteer tells you.
So, look at it from my point of view. I don't give a fuck about Republicans and Democrats. But what I do see is one president getting the sack because he lied so his wife wouldn't find out about a BJ. The other has killed thousands with his "lies". What the hell do you want us to think? US politians use the whole "partisan" logic to dismiss suggestions based on where they are from, rather than arguing the point instead. That's been the downfall of your pretend "democracy" and it always will. Democracy is not a two party system!