SCO v. IBM Is Officially Reopened 104
stoilis writes "Groklaw reports that the SCO vs IBM case is officially reopened: 'The thing that makes predictions a bit murky is that there are some other motions, aside from the summary judgment motions, that were also not officially decided before SCO filed for bankruptcy that could, in SCO's perfect world, reopen certain matters. I believe they would have been denied, if the prior judge had had time to rule on them. Now? I don't know.'"
Braaaaaaaiiiinnns! (Score:5, Insightful)
Can't this just die already?
Re:Braaaaaaaiiiinnns! (Score:5, Funny)
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Nuke the entire planet from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
You know if SCO rises from the dead one more time I might see this as the best option.
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Nuke the entire planet from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
You know if SCO rises from the dead one more time I might see this as the best option.
Not that likely. SCO only has two counts left, and their big claim---that they own UNIX and everything that ever looked like UNIX---is already taken care of by the Novell judgment. I think what they have left is claims for business torts, like tortious interference with contracts or something along those lines. This looks to me like the judge is opening the case back up just to take inventory: is there anything left here to fight about? If the answer is no, he will promptly toss SCO out on its ear and the w
Re:Braaaaaaaiiiinnns! (Score:5, Interesting)
If Bill Gates is now looking for redemption with his foundation . . . this is one disease that he should eradicate.
Re:Braaaaaaaiiiinnns! (Score:4, Insightful)
I thought the thinking was that he had helped give this life? Why would he destroy his own creation? After all, he did nothing about Microsoft's monstrosities.
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Somebody hammer a stake through that vampire's heart. Hell - Full Moon is *next* Sunday.
Re:Braaaaaaaiiiinnns! (Score:4, Funny)
Can't this just die already?
What did you want, a vampire teen romance? A Star Wars pre-prequel? Another Superman movie?
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How about another Spider-Man reboot? It's only been a year or two since the last one. Or how about a new Batman reboot? A Twilight reboot sounds like a good idea too.
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Any and all IP which they claim to own. Patents, trademarks, copyrights, licenses, source, legal documentation, real assets, anything that can be registered to have value and used in future court cases. Every scrap of paper. Every disk. All of it. Then lock it in a vault labelled "Danger -- Zombies -- Do NOT Open"
No. Open source the code under the BSD license. Let the world do with the source code as they will, and then it will die forever...
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They still have desks?
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SCO must be like that slave girl in the dungeon. She just can not get hurt enough. Anything short of whacking off the heads of SCO management just won't give them relief.
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My suggested tag for this story;
diediedie
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This reminds me of action movies (Score:1)
... where the villain is beaten decisively at the end.
But beaten != dead. And you won't want to miss what happens next.
Re: This reminds me of action movies (Score:5, Funny)
This is going to be the worst sequel ever.
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I bet it will still be better than Highlander 2.
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We need to rename this (Score:5, Funny)
I officially move that this case be renamed from SCO v. IBM to Jason Voorhees.
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What did Jason Voorhees ever do to deserve being associated with SCO?
I see this as a good thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I see this as a good thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Speak for yourself. Years ago when this same case was going on I had a client implement a no GNU policy and we replaced all our Linux systems with Windows and paid the $699 per core SCO licensing fee for Linux.
The lawyers were all over this. As a result the developers were forbidden to use GNU as it could infringe on someone elses property and it the arguments were like reading the troll posts from Slashdot.
The more this shit hits the headlines in places like CIOmag or InfoWorld.com the stronger the argument agaisnt' GNU and Linux.
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Re:I see this as a good thing (Score:5, Interesting)
And where is your company today with Linux? This will once and all end things if it goes to trial.
That has been claimed before.
If history is any guide this will NOT end things once and for all. Why would you even suggest such a thing in the absence of any facts indicating this?
If you follow the money to pay the lawyers, fund discovery, and pay the enormous incidental costs, you will almost surely find that SCO, which has already declared bankruptcy, is getting outside funds, (speculation is from Microsoft), and as long as that money flows there will never be an end to this issue.
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The lawyers for my company and every company I've ever worked for are already well versed in handling shake downs.
A final decision, even one fully in IBMs favor, will not stop these trolls from the behavior you hypothesize.
They will simply move on to another minuscule loop-hole of doubt. Remember that the lawyers own what's left
of SCO, they have nothing to lose.
Re:I see this as a good thing (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember that the lawyers own what's left of SCO, they have nothing to lose.
and they want their payday. Since there's nothing left of SCO, they'll have to file nuisance suits from now til the Second Coming of Elvis to get even some of the money they're "owed" via settlements. They've shown they were willing to ride it out to the bitter end.
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Exactly. And another ruling ruling won't stop them.
Anyone that doubts this needs to google prenda law.
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SCO's lawyers have no payday incoming. They signed a contract years ago requiring them to take this case as far as the Supreme Court if necessary, for a flat fee (which looked like a more than big enough fee back then, not so much now) which they've long since spent.
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No, they don't.
Contract was to take a big check, and in exchange, run with the legal action all the way to the bitter end.
Now, the Bankruptcy Trustee might think there's some money to be made there (I think he's wrong, but no telling, really). But the lawyers aren't getting anything but screwed by this, having to face the Nazgul for FREE.....
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If SCO decides to take your company to court, chances are that it will be dismissed on summary judgment rather a lengthy trial
That wasn't my point. This was: "If SCO decides to take your company to court, chances are that it will be dismissed on summary judgment rather a lengthy trial."
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Pretty sure SCO would give them a license in exchange for all that background funding, don't you think?
Note that the these background funding arrangements to SCO have already been documented. Google will be of help finding these.
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Windows Phone is actually a perfectly OK operating system (after many tries - we're up to WP8 after all). What it lacks is apps, and it's never going to get them because developers don't want to have to support three platforms. If they had their way they wouldn't even have to support two, but most accept that as a necessary evil to limit the monopoly power of the platform owners.
Microsoft also gets a big demerit for the way they handled Windows Phone 7. They put a big (unsuccessful) marketing push behind it
Re: I see this as a good thing (Score:5, Insightful)
In the real world pretty much every major company continued using Linux and most startups, some now household names, got of tge ground thanks to Linux and GPL software.
My point being that most people have not believed the fud. ..
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Speak for yourself. Years ago when this same case was going on I had a client implement a no GNU policy and we replaced all our Linux systems with Windows and paid the $699 per core SCO licensing fee for Linux.
The lawyers were all over this. As a result the developers were forbidden to use GNU as it could infringe on someone elses property and it the arguments were like reading the troll posts from Slashdot.
The more this shit hits the headlines in places like CIOmag or InfoWorld.com the stronger the argument agaisnt' GNU and Linux.
You did at least send a letter about it later how they spent a lot of money and fucked up a lot of projects for you for _nothing_? the lawyers should have been sued for bad recommendation... with lawyers like that who needs sco even. it's not like "GNU" is the core issue even, you could have been sued just as well for using MS.
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You have a lousy legal team. Are they heavily invested in MS btw? I in fact worked for a start up where the partner in charge of tech bought only MS because he had stock in the company. Very unethical.
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Basically the corporate whigs do not care about I.T. they care about risk management and keeping their jobs is the number one priority.
In a startup environment that is different. It is risk by its nature.
Unethical about using only MS because they own stock? Ethical as you can get as they own the company and are the customer. My guess is it is probably one of those media companies MS invests in to make .WMV standard. Flash came right in and ruined that.
Money does talk and shit walk in business, but game theo
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ONE partner did it, I don't think the others knew his motivation. Hence it being unethical.
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Should have installed FreeBSD and told them to get f**ked.
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Should have installed FreeBSD and told them to get f**ked.
Oh, this client got rid of secureshell because it was BSD too. I tried to explain it but they heard BSD, oh that is gnu, we aint having it.
We replaced them with an inferior solution which cost $$$$, and was repackaged ssh 2.x code. Basically all free software got lumped together as the fear was if SCO can claim ownership with something who is to say Apple or someone can't do the same with secure shell?
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Judge Kimball already ruled on the GPL way back in 2006 or so. Back during the initial discovery phase. The GPL was upheld as being a perfectly legitimate copyright license, and the judge could find nothing wrong with it.
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The GPL has been tested and it has been upheld. That's already happened. That was one of the reasons that SCO switched this from a copyright claim to a breach of contract claim.
Vampires (Score:5, Funny)
I always thought that they were mythological, I now have to admit that I was wrong; dead things can come back to try to suck your blood!
Zombie, not Vampire. (Score:2)
Sorry, but it's a zombie. Vampires are at least smart enough to avoid those things which they are vulnerable to, and avoid drawing undue attention to themselves.
SCO hasn't a single functioning brain left in its ranks. See also that whole parade of crap they've loudly spewed over the past 10 years.
Oh, and one more thing .... (Score:2, Funny)
I bet both late Steve Jobs and Peter Falk turning in their graves out of jealousy.
Reminds me of Jarndyce v Jarndyce (Score:5, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarndyce_v_Jarndyce [wikipedia.org]
Would be a great topic for another novel for a modern Dickens.
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More likely the funding comes from Microsoft, as they are the only entity that benefits by the destruction of all things 'nix.
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Maybe from a financial standpoint, perhaps.
But every Apple OS is based on Opensource software that traces its roots back to Unix, and they would
have just as much to lose as IBM or Novel or any flavor Linux. They would not be funding their own demise.
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More likely the funding comes from Microsoft, as they are the only entity that benefits by the destruction of all things 'nix.
Antivirus companies, Microsoft consultants, game publishers that don't want to/can't support Steam for Linux..... there are plenty of entities that benefit from *nix failures.
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Really?
You don't need Steam to game on Linux. All you need is for Linux to be more than 2% of the user base.
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I realize you don't need Steam to game on Linux. But it has attracted a lot of attention to Linux as a gaming platform. If Linux fails because of SCOmbies, then the publishers who don't support Linux get to say "I told you so" to the ones that do.
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More likely the funding comes from Microsoft,
In before* the latest anti-Troll legislation makes parties behind the litigants reveal themselves as a condition of an IP suit.
*Translation: INB4
So if SCO are back (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope their creditors they shafted when they filed for bankruptcy last time are first in line to get paid, before the new lawyers. (and the old ones, since they were the cause of it)
PJ, come back! (Score:3)
PJ [wikipedia.org], come back! It's not over yet.
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Who forgot to flush the toilet? damn it!
The thurd is still floating.
We have flushed it several times, but this little round turd just keeps bobbing up to the surface
Eat the guppy! (Score:2)
Can't IBM just buy the puny shell of SCO, fire everybody, and burn their desks, motivation posters, and Newton's Cradles publicly in a giant bonfire while singing Nah Nah Nah Goodbye?
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That's what SCO's investors wanted. IBM didn't want them to benefit from a buyout. That's why they spent for the defense. Accidentally it turned into great PR with the Linux community.
Yawn!!! (Score:2)
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I can't quite remember the reference. I know I've encountered that before in descriptions of this case.
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What a hilarious and at the same time truly horrifying thought.
I apologise for the Downes Syndrome sufferers on crack who modded you Troll.