[Am-info] SCO Agrees IBM Owns AIX, JFS, NUMA, RCU Copyrights!!

[Roy Bixler]

On Wed, Aug 06, 2003 at 01:55:03PM -0400, Sujal Shah wrote:
> Microsoft most recently purchased a license from SCO for it's UNIX 
> patents to shield them from any exposure internally.  While it may be 
> exactly what it seems on face value, it sounds a little fishy.  From my 
> reading of the news, there is a plan here with Microsoft, at least at 
> two levels:  First, 10 million is nothing to microsoft, but a lot to 
> SCO.  Microsoft purchasing the license adds legitimacy to SCO's claims 
> by showing that a "major company" is taking SCO's claims seriously.  
> Most people have seen through this part.  Second, SCO and Microsoft 
> have established a relationship now that more cash can go to SCO.

I haven't heard of the latter.  Is it an investment or a further
contract along the lines of the first one where they bought some sort
of "licence" from SCO?

>  They 
> are burning cash at an enormous rate with now 3 separate legal actions 
> going (a petition in germany, Red Hat, and the original 3 Billion suit 
> against IBM).

I understand that SCO didn't even bother to show up in court in the
German action.  I read an interview at byte.com with Chris Sontag, a
SCO VP, where he seemed taken aback by questions of the applicability
of non-US law.  SCO was apparently only thinking about US law when
they filed the IBM action and made their subsequent pronouncements.
Also, I have read that Boies' law firm is taking the IBM case pro-bono
(is pro-bono the right terminology?  I mean to say that Boies plans to
take a percentage of any court-ordered fees but is demanding no
up-front legal fees.)

> The quickest course to resolution will be the RedHat suit, I think... 
> it's essentially a put up or shut up action.  If the evidence is really 
> as strong as SCO claims, it will be a long, drawn out battle.  If they 
> shut up... well, that will be a bit telling in and of itself.

And, if it is a long drawn out battle, then they may very well be
racking up the legal fees here.  I wonder if they plan to use Boies
for their defence and whether they have pro-bono arrangement here as
well.  The only thing that's clear is that lawyers love
litigation-happy clients like McBride's SCO.

R.