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IP attorney: Why SCO has no case
SearchOpenSource.com ^ | 2005/01/09 | Jan Stafford

Posted on 01/10/2006 8:34:45 AM PST by TechJunkYard

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More grist for the mill.

Don't just take his word for it... the contracts are all here. However, these three are pertinent:


1 posted on 01/10/2006 8:34:47 AM PST by TechJunkYard
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To: TechJunkYard

Carey's comments also discussed at:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060109231849961


2 posted on 01/10/2006 8:37:13 AM PST by Boundless
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To: ShadowAce; N3WBI3
Tech / OSS Ping requests...
3 posted on 01/10/2006 8:37:15 AM PST by TechJunkYard (MS users: how much abuse are you gonna take?)
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To: rdb3; chance33_98; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Bush2000; PenguinWry; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; ...

4 posted on 01/10/2006 8:49:38 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: TechJunkYard
Is there any significance to the timing of SCO's renewed activity in its anti-Linux lawsuits?

Carey: [It's] quite possible the renewed activity results from the recent completion of a PIPE [Private Investment in Public Equity] offering by SCO, giving it the funds to proceed more vigorously than before.

Is there anyone out there stupid enough to invest in SCO thinking it is likely to make money? The only reason I could see putting money into SCO is to damage Linux. And I can think of only one company has a significant reason to want Linux damaged. I'm not saying who, but their initials are M$.

5 posted on 01/10/2006 8:50:56 AM PST by KarlInOhio (What is the most obscene gesture to a Democrat? An Iraqi voter showing him a stained finger.)
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To: TechJunkYard
The skirmishing will revolve around version 3.0 of the GPL, and the extent to which it attempts to GPL code that is dynamically linked to it;...

This caughy my attention. Since I have heard nothing in regards to 3.0, is this true? Are they really going to try to GPL dynamically linked code? I can't see a legal footing for that.

6 posted on 01/10/2006 8:55:53 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: TechJunkYard
The key to the case is that IBM specifically negotiated with SCO a clause that permitted it to use the same programmers who saw the Unix code to make competing products

I know this may be done for clean writing, but it falls into SCO's hands and therefore annoys me. IBM did not negotiate a contract with SCO. Its contracts were with AT&T and the Santa Cruz Operation (now called Tarantella), not SCO.

SCO even changed its name from Caldera to SCO in order to give it an air of legitimacy for the law suits. They are not enforcing their own contracts, only interpreting contracts made long before by others, against the interpretations of those who actually negotiated the contracts.

7 posted on 01/10/2006 9:31:50 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: ShadowAce
Are they really going to try to GPL dynamically linked code? I can't see a legal footing for that.

Neither can I. Can Stallman be trying for a push to expand the GPL by legal technicalities? We all know he hates the very concept of non-GPL software.

8 posted on 01/10/2006 9:34:23 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: ShadowAce

I just spent some time reading on the GPL3. It doesn't look that bad. It will mainly tighten up some loopholes that let people abuse the license, treat software running a web server as distribution, and address software patents. It'll be a fully public and transparent group effort with the motto "First, do no harm."

That still doesn't mean it won't be Stallman-psycho, but I'll just wait and see.


9 posted on 01/10/2006 9:46:18 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: ShadowAce
Since I have heard nothing in regards to 3.0, is this true? Are they really going to try to GPL dynamically linked code?

I have to research that. It could be that the "draft" test has such a loophole that people are concerned about.

10 posted on 01/10/2006 9:47:31 AM PST by TechJunkYard (MS users: how much abuse are you gonna take?)
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To: antiRepublicrat
I've observed many times that SCOG wasn't a party to the original contracts, so how could they "know" what the intent of the original signers were?
11 posted on 01/10/2006 9:49:57 AM PST by TechJunkYard (MS users: how much abuse are you gonna take?)
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To: antiRepublicrat
That still doesn't mean it won't be Stallman-psycho,...

Any idea where our favorite future felon may be hiding?

12 posted on 01/10/2006 9:52:00 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: ShadowAce
Any idea where our favorite future felon may be hiding?

I don't know, but I'm glad there's no ex post facto. I've had too much fun in the past playing with the trolls, which I'm sure annoyed them.

13 posted on 01/10/2006 9:56:24 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: TechJunkYard
so how could they "know" what the intent of the original signers were?

Especially when IBM dug up statements from practically everyone involved on both sides to show SCO's interpretation was wrong. Maybe this is just a big comedy of errors thought up by some brilliant film producer.

14 posted on 01/10/2006 9:58:40 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: ShadowAce

She's all windows, all the time, so she's probably busy as hell patching. If we're thinking of the same person.


15 posted on 01/10/2006 10:19:27 AM PST by Salo (He hath touched me with his noodly appendage. Ramen.)
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To: TechJunkYard

SCO is going to go bankrupt if they keep up this nonesense with the lawsuits... oh wait they did that on their own with their worthless product.


16 posted on 01/10/2006 10:20:00 AM PST by Element187
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To: Salo

"She"? I didn't picture that...


17 posted on 01/10/2006 10:20:45 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: KarlInOhio
Is there anyone out there stupid enough to invest in SCO thinking it is likely to make money?

Not anymore. At the time of the original PIPE deal, there was enough speculation in the "tech" press that there was at least some merit to SCO's position, that investors who didn't do the research may have thought there was a BIG payoff just down the road.

Now that there has been a big change of attitude even among SCO's old supporters, investment money has been hard to come by. Almost everybody has heard of the case by now and almost all of them think it's a scam.

The only reason I could see putting money into SCO is to damage Linux. And I can think of only one company has a significant reason to want Linux damaged. I'm not saying who, but their initials are M$.

Another reason might be an insider PR campaign to show "support" for SCO. The latest shot-in-the-arm included a lot of money from Darcy Mott, a board member, supposedly to support a stock buyback, but I've heard speculation that someone flush with cash and close to SCO (Ralph Yarrow perhaps?) is trying to get rid of some of it. IMO, Micr'soft isn't likely to be the source of this cash because (1) MS saw what happened the first time the PIPE was attempted, and (2) it didn't work -- Linux growth actually accelerated.

18 posted on 01/10/2006 1:25:15 PM PST by TechJunkYard (MS users: how much abuse are you gonna take?)
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To: Element187
SCO is going to go bankrupt if they keep up this nonesense with the lawsuits... oh wait they did that on their own with their worthless product.

Novell can do it singlehandedly if they ask for 95% of the SUN and MS license money to be escrowed, and the request is granted.

But it looks to me like the lawyers are setting up to do it for them. SCO's last payment to their legal team was last month; after February the lawyers will be working for free. IBM is about ready to go to SJ or trial, while Novell is headed for discovery;

Now let me ask you if it might be interesting for the lawyers to get these two cases so wrapped up in dependencies on each other, both in front of the same judge, such that no one can determine which case should be tried first? And then SCO goes belly-up and heads to bankruptcy court? And nothing gets resolved?

Dark clouds hang over Novell's copyright issues, IBM's home-grown code rights and the very heritage of Linux. Party in Redmond!

19 posted on 01/10/2006 1:50:50 PM PST by TechJunkYard (MS users: how much abuse are you gonna take?)
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To: TechJunkYard
And nothing gets resolved?

I'm becoming more convinced that this is the strategy.

20 posted on 01/10/2006 1:53:54 PM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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