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SCO sues IBM for billions
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CommentsI have been given a copy of an article, supposedly to run in the Wall Street Journal tomorrow, which reports that Caldera Systems (which now does business as the SCO group) has filed suit agaist IBM for multibillion-dollar damages over supposed disclosure of SCO's intellectual property to what SCO calls the "free software community".
IBM has been selling Unix systems since the early 1980s. SCO bought the original Unix source-code tree and associated IPR from Novell in 1995. It is not, apparently, alleged that any of the infringing techology was developed on SCO's watch. Rather, the theory of the lawsuit is that "IBM made concentrated efforts to improperly destroy the economic value of Unix, particularly Unix on Intel, to benefit IBM's new Linux services business.". SCO claims that Linux wasn't a viable competitor to SCO Unix until IBM started supporting Linux and assigning its programmers to improving it, and that parts of the licensed Unix have been shared with the Linux community.
The particular techologies at issue aren't specified in the story. However, a rumor reached me last night that ELF, the file format for Unix binary executables, is part of it. Supposedly SCO regards ELF as a derivative of COFF, the old System V binary format invented by AT&T in the dark and backward abysm of time.
The confusion of "economic value" with "SCO's ability to collect profits on the terms it chooses" is, of course, fallacious. Unix has far more economic value than it did in 1995, partly because the low price of the open-source versions makes Unix more attractive to users. Sadly, we can't count on the trial judge being economically literate,
This move bespeaks an interesting combination of cleverness and idiocy, probably one born of desperation. Suing IBM rather than one or more Linux vendors is smart; they have deeper pockets and won't look quite so sympathetic in court. It's idiotic on another level, because IBM has more lawyers and a bigger patent portfolio than anyone else.
It's also smart to accuse the "free-software" community. SCO knows as well as Microsoft did in 2000 that the term "free software" is likely to sound suspicious to anyone who is not already immersed in the open-source community, and that talking as though all Linux developers have a whiff of piracy or communism about them might well help their case (a tactic the DVDCCA has also used in its persecution of Jon Johansen). But it's also deeply stupid to piss off that community like this, unless you think you're never going to have to hire programmers again. SCO is behaving as though it thinks its IP portfolio is the only asset it has left.
Despite their advantages, IBM needs and deserves our support. I am not saying this primarily because they're a big, important ally (though they are) but because what SCO is doing is ethically wrong and legally dubious. Much of the economic value they allege IBM to have destroyed was created and donated to AT&T by open-source hackers in the 1970s and 1980s, long before we woke up and named ourselves either as "free software" or "open source". Even if SCI's allegations that it owns key pieces of Unix IP are valid, it's fair that we should have access to today's descendant of that technology.
But even if you don't care about the ethics, make no mistake: this is a strike at the heart of our community. Conceivably we could live without IBM, but we can't live with the fear that any possible ally we might have in the future would get sued by whatever gang of desperate schlemiels holds the old paperwork from AT&T this week.
Please support IBM in fighting off this lawsuit. It's important for the future.
[Editor's note: This article was sent to many publications. It is not exclusive to NewsForge. The opinions it contains belong solely to Mr. Raymond and may or may not be shared by NewsForge staff or OSDN management.]
There's also an active Slashdot discussion about this lawsuit that links to several other news stories about it.
Comments
on SCO sues IBM for billionsNote: Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content.
Can we sue SCO for killing value of Unix on X86?:)
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 07, 2003 01:02 PMConsider, many years, some have said Intel Unix is slow, clunky, hard to use, butt ugly. Every one of those nay sayers learned this from their experiance with SCO's crap. It was so bad that many of these people remained deeply convinced to the point of not even being willing to try a linux or xbsd ever on intel.
Yes, SCO has hardmed and damaged the value and marketability of Intel Unix. Can we all sue?!
Good riddance SCO. No one will miss you.
The cunning plan is irritate IBM enough into buying SCO or at least its IP assets
as part of a settlement. SCO knows that it not worth much and its story is ending
anyway, so this is an attempt at increasing the liquidation price.
Obviously SCO is going down and this is their final bang. I can't imagine a company that expects to do business with a straight face to engage in this kind of behavior.
I hate software patents.
but sco was at one time Xenix from MS.
It came from Microsoft and now the ugly seed
that has lied dormant all these years has
awakened.
No good can come from or of Microsoft.
When Caldera bought SCO I thought that their intention was to open it up, but they turned into SCO.
Caldera was always the rotten egg in the Unix basket.
Earlier news stories suggested something like this might happen.
My personal respose is simple,
I will contact all local SCO/Caldera users with the intention of moving them to another platform, regardless.
Second, I will boycot United Linux and move all the people I can away from SCO/Caldera and SUSE. There is no significant presence of Connectiva or Turbo linux in my area.
If SCO want to play games with the OSS community, I think they will lose!
http://www.sco.com/unitedlinux/
so SCO thought they ought to sue them, so that they could get more money faster than by just regular delivering and working. Sounds like Microsoft ways, and not to good if you want to play on the Open Source field.
Jostein Berntsen
The community (or at least some Linux companies) should band together to buy SCO's spoils (including all IP) after their little war with IBM kills them.
personally, i'll be surprised if SCO survives long enough for this case to ever see the light of day in a courtroom.
congratulations, SCO, you've just sealed your fate as a mere footnote in the history of Unix.
Micro$oft, for example?
They should not be allowed to associate their name with Linux, Free Software, GNU, or Open Source in any way. Their very existence not only violates the GPL, but it violates the most primitive sense of morality.
I'm not going to buy Yoper myself, but at least I understand their position. Besides, you can still redistribute anything thats GPL, LGPL, or similar. Besides, you probally wouldn't have used it for long, its a terminal server. I'd use it, and even pay the AU$250 for it if I think I've got a place for it.
However, I believe IBM servers use RedHat or Suse, and have no home grown Linux themselves, also I would be very surprised if these IBM Intel machines cannot run OpenServer, and it would not be to IBM's detriment if customers did run OpenServer rather then Linux....
I do not know to what extent IBM developers have contributed to Linux, but I blieve most of Linux, as we know now, was established prior to IBM's involvment - including ELF. Please feel free to flame me if I am wrong....<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:-)
I assume SCO's lawyers are not complete idiots, and they believe they have some kind of case, I am just somewhat puzzled at what it can possibly be....
Scrap the software patent industry. Nationalize all software patents (like they did for aircraft in WWII) and do NOT let any more patents through that are for software.
The more I think of it, the more IP seems like a really dumb idea.
Now we are seeing the results of this.
Sad fact, but, Linux has been replacing UNIX more than Windows in the Datacenters. I would bet that SCO lost a bunch of UNIX customers to Linux and IBM hardware.
For you youngsters out there, the IBM 'Personal' Computer was never intended for individuals (home users), but, for small businesses. It was called 'Personal' since it only needed one person to use and program, unlike Mainframes of the day.
SCO executives must feel that the discounted stream of future returns from their current business, which will likely be torpedoed by the decision, was worth far less than the one-off expected value of the lawsuit they are filing against IBM. Curious.
As a SCO customer, I would have to be insane to base my business on the presumption that SCO will be a going concern. Even if they win, the "business" end of their business (that is, the part of their business concerned with actually trying to supply products and services) will suffer irreperable harm from the backlash of this lawsuit. If they lose, they are doomed as a venture.
The people I really feel sorry for are SCO employees. If the lawsuit results in a significant haul, shareholders and some high-ranking executives will see a fat return. However, the rank and file will not see a dime and will see their customers, and soon their jobs, dry up. If I were a SCO employee, I would be shrinking in embarrassment in the presence of my industry peers. And I would be starting to look for alternative employment.
Please support IBM in fighting off this lawsuit. It's important for the future.
Anything, specifically, we can do? I doubt they need help with their attorney fees, but<nobr> <wbr></nobr>...
Notice most coffee cups now say "caution contents may be very hot" after the lady sued McDonalds. The companies with large pockets, IBM, Intel, etc, must not become afraid to release opensource code. McDonalds needs to sell coffee, the IBM's and Intels don't need to open source.
Won't take much for some top executive to hear IBM is getting sued for $1B for giving away free code. The top executive will say, STOP giving away the code and we have one less worry.
Tie some real dollars around Linux on IBM and IBM will keep doing the right thing.
a lot of ignorant assertions in these comments
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 08, 2003 02:03 AMThat being said, SCO Group, formerly Caldera, IS desperate for operating capital. Despite Unixware's and OpenServer's original quality, it's expensive as hell compared even to other commercial Unix systems. The only people that still buys SCO are those that already own it from the "dark years" before the viability of Linux and the BSDs. Last time I checked, even QNX is cheaper than SCO these days. SCO market is mostly flat at best, declining at worst. SCO Group is priced out of the market so they are trying a rather stupid end-run by suing one of their UnitedLinux contribution partners. SCO doesn't really have a chance in the long run of pulling this off and, I suspect, inside the boardroom, they probably know it. It's possible that IBM will buy them out, either via "friendly negotiation" or a hostile takeover. It's also possible that IBM's legal department is looking at grinding them into the ground in a slow manner. Assuming SCO even has the money to back expensive patent suits, can they afford to defend themselves from the number of counter suits IBM and others might file? Even Sun is starting to show the strain from suit/counter suit over Java and MS's anti-competitive and monopolistic lawsuits. Only time will tell exactly where SCO Group will end up. Alienating not only the partners in UnitedLinux but also the free software community supporters in corporate IT which is what UL is aimed was a very bad move.
Re:a lot of ignorant assertions in these comments
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 08, 2003 07:11 AMRe:a lot of ignorant assertions in these comments
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 08, 2003 01:02 PMRe:a lot of ignorant assertions in these comments
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 09, 2003 11:40 AMSo you left before the installation process completed?
Re:a lot of ignorant assertions in these comments
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 09, 2003 04:53 PMDid not Richard Stallman respond to one of Ransom Love's more colourful comments on intellectual property by calling Caldera a "parasite" in the free software community? I did not think at the time that that name was warranted, but in perfect hindsight RMS seems almost prophetic. I'm kinda hoping for big violent fireworks, after which there should not be a web page left of SCO.
If the only threat was an all out battle with SCO, they'd have very little to worry about.
If IBM does does end up with all of SCO's UNIX rights would it treat those "properties" any less protectively than it does the rest of it's patent portfolio?
We're not getting closer to a solution to software patents, here. I'm hoping that SCO loses this case but I'm not sure I want IBM to win it!
ScottMGS
1. The suit goes to court and IBM wins. This will make it less likely that other cases like this will be brought to court in the future.
2. Some company buys SCO and doesn't pursue the lawsuit. The IP landscape remain the same, but it looks like IBM wins.
3. Some company buys SCO and pursues the lawsuit. The IP landscape remain the same, but it looks like IBM could lose.
4. IBM settles out of court (not sure if this can still happen or not). Technically, things remain the same, but it looks like SCO wins so other suits are bound to happen.
5. The suit goes to court and SCO wins.
Re:Swimming In The Deep End Of The Zelotry Pool
Posted by: Alfred Poschmann on March 08, 2003 11:43 AMSmarten up and undo this terribly stupid idea before everyone in the world knows about it.
Maybe it's already too late.
Bye.
I have long hair too, I think it also counts<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:) But I'm about to cut 'em down to 2mm soon.
Seriously, is there anything wrong with me?<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:)
Uhh..
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 07, 2003 12:57 PM#