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Wow, this is like in a Perry Mason show when they would roll out a suprise witness or make some startling revelation that sends the court room spinning. Holy dogs this is funny!

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This is just too nice to be true<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:)

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Is this true. Should we take this to te press and local newspapers or is this realy bogus?

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Eric S. Raymond, the opensource community cannot thank you enough. By posting this leaked memo, you have once again exposed Microsoft for what it is.

Second Microsoft-related leakage in a month. Great security by obscurity, Ballmer.

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After reading the first and second Halloween documents, anybody could've.

Well, with Microsoft shown to have dabbled its fingers in this sort of criminal activity - I suppose it's about time to take this before the court of public opinion. Time for a rerun of the anti-trust machine? Wow, Dubya's talk about keeping business in line, has been shown to be pure flatulence.

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Yeh I liked America 3 years ago much better. Back when there were no corrupt businesses. But that nasty old George Bush came into power and corrupted the whole process. Darn!

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Granted, but he sure as hell hasn't made any improvements.

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What, you don't call saving multi-millionaires mass in taxes and allowing buddy corporations like Kellogg etc to overcharge the government over many no-bid Iraq contracts, such as the 20million dollars overcharge on just the 2 cafeterias that were audited for soldiers, improvements? =)

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So why don't you sent your PR over ots or a PR newswire. You have to pay for it, sure, but you will get your message to journalists as well.

After all good news. Not only SCO's management may get in jail because of financial fraud and license fraud but also Microsoft officials.

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I don't find this suprising at all. The fact of the matter is, many of SCO's actions do not make sense from the point of view of a company trying to make money - even for a company that is trying to make money just through litigation. SCO's current masters may be nasty people but they are not stupid. Why would they pursue expensive court cases that they have little chance of winning? Perhaps because Microsoft has identified that their best attack against Linux is to make people worried about the legal implications of using it, and so MS has promised SCO to pay them (indirectly) to make as much trouble as possible.

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..that memo wasn't written by someone's 6 year old? Maybe they can take some of those millions, and get some English Writing 101 classes. To imagine this kind of people can talk other people into shelling out millions of dollars.

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To imagine this kind of people can talk other people into shelling out millions of dollars.

Believe me, it happens. The richest people are not necessarily the most well-educated.

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The spelling/grammar doesn't surprise me. My boss is the same way. It's quite pitiful if you ask me.

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I just hope that ESR had a LOT of legal consultation before posting this. First of all, the name of OSI is on the line. Second, I hope he consulted the other big companies (like IBM, RedHat, etc.) before posting this because he may have harmed their case (ie. all traces of the original document could be destroyed, the document may be a fake, etc.)

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Traces of the original document, and all related documents at SCO and Microsoft would have to be destroyed. Other documents would have to be destroyed at the companies Microsoft is using to pay SCO.
I highly doubt that ESR harmed IBM/RedHat/Novell's cases. If their case was harmed by posting the truth, they should take a better look at their cases. In any case, IBM would have little use for information about who is funding SCO. They have to concentrate on copyrights and code, not cash contributions.

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I sure a good old fashion audit by several agencies (SEC,IRS,...) would find the facts and put M$ and $CO away for a long time.

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I hope this is true -

I just feel slimey now - better go take a shower.

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Judging by the amount of grammatical and spelling errors, this looks quite real. Looks like M$ has some esplainin' to do! Their spin doctors have some major surgery in front of them. And this on the heels of the Euro decision that's still pending. A twofer for OSS. Personally, I'm looking forward to the inevitable Enderle | DiDio endorsement. My guess, STRONG BUY!

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Yeah, you're rihgt. It's probably a real document leak by a consultamt or something.

Just like all those real documents that are hammering away at e-mail gateways every day, telling their users that their accounts will be terminated if they don't click the attachment.

If it were me, I would have discusses this with all the Linux supporting companies involved in the suit before publishing it.

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should pick up the phone and call Bill Gates. What is the basis of these lawsuits you guys are funding against us, and why are you doing it?

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If someone should suspect that these deals have had an effect on the SCO share price which the market as a whole hasn't known about, some Wall Street fanancial investigators might want to start asking questions.

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Without confirmation that this is what it claims to be, I don't see how we can believe it.

There are so many errors in the purported email, that I cannot see any sort of professional sending it to a fellow like Chris Sontag. Spell checkers are common in email programs, after all.

The email looks more like the work of a junior high student who doesn't know the keyboard well enough to write a virus, so he gets his kicks this way.

The contents of the email are just the proof all of us want to see about SCO's and Microsoft's actions, something which makes me even more suspicious. Be very wary when someone tells you exactly what you want to hear.

I think we need to wait until somebody's lawyers can subpoena the original before we put much stock in its sensationalistic claims.

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Sigh.

Consider, for a moment, the fact that I recently heard a televised ad, from a major furniture company in this area, that clearly indicated that it was selling "bedroom suits." And no, I'm not joking. The announcer clearly said "suits" not "suites." I could understand maybe misspelling it, but these two words are clearly pronounced differently. So much for proofing the ad before broadcasting…

I have seen increasing incidents of misspellings, severe errors in grammer and, now, mispronounciation that this does not surprise me in the least. Even in professional publications like Time.

Remember, this is supposed to be an internal e-mail, not something intended for public consumption. Whoever wrote it was probably in a hurry and didn't really care about the misspellings that the spell-checker may have been flagging (assuming it was even on).

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An SCO PR person has confirmed it's 100% legit. Natually they downplay what it means. There really aren't too many ways to read it however. Definitely antitrust violation. If only our government weren't being paid off!

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This may or may not be true, but I don't believe you can discount it simply because of the bad spelling.

I do know my way around a keyboard, I work as a senrMgr for a large US IT Corp. But when I write internal emails to folks I communicate regularly I have a habit of just typing away. I know they will know what I am meaning because I know that they will recognise my 'style'.
I never use the spellchecker... haven't the time (or patience).
So, don't assume that the mispellings imply that the content isn't valid.

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Nice article in the Register. Downplays conspiracy, possible hoax, but natural forces might lead to this.

<A HREF="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/36017.html" TITLE="theregister.co.uk">Register article</a theregister.co.uk>

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The document below was emailed to me by an anonymous whistleblower inside SCO. He tells me the typos and syntax bobbles were in the original. I cannot certify its authenticity, but I presume that IBM's, Red Hat's, Novell's, AutoZone's, and Daimler-Chryler's lawyers can subpoena the original.

Cant certify its authenticity? You cant prove if the e-mail is faked or not. Chris Sontags e-mail is easy enough to find out and Cc Bob Bench, Bob Bench is actually Robert Bench. A real whistleblower inside of SCO if he had access to Sontags e-mail would have forwarded the message not relied on copy andpast into a document. This is someone who is just trying toi keep shit started. Without header information it is useless, here is how its going go down:

IBM --- Your honor we would like to subpoena the e-mail from Christopher Sontag dated Sunday, October 12, 2003, titled conversation Friday

SCO --- We dont have that document and as far as we know it doesnt exist

IBM --- Yes it does, Eric Raymond put it up on his site and we have seen it. It was sent by a whistleblower inside of SCO, we know it exists

Judge --- How do you know it exists, do you have header information and digital signatures to prove that its an authentic e-mail

IBM --- Well no we dont, but Eric Raymond says it so it must be true

I dont believe the document is real and I could creat an e-mail message between Eric Raymond and Linus Torvalds and have them conspiring on how to hide SCO IP in Linux? does it make it real? No. Get a life and show something with substance that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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Let's not get carried away here.



First. I agree with you that until the e-mail is verified that it is suspect.



Second. IBM is not that stupid. They will not ask for a subpeona just for one e-mail. They will use this as cause to go looking for further information to satisfy existing interrogaties - such as the ones specifically asking for communique and paperwork that have to do with SCO's and Canopy's relationship with Microsoft.



Relax, and let them do their job.

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Of course Eric Raymond received the headers. He didn't post them. He wouldn't if the whistleblower asked for anonimity, now would he?

I'm not saying this is real, just that the headers not being on the page proves nothing.

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Not the headers of the anonymous person but the headers of the original e-mail. This was an e-mail not a memo. Without the headers of the message anyone could have used emacs, OpenOffice, Word, KOffice or AbiWord and created the document. This does not prove a thing thus I think it was given to Eric by an undersexed, pimple faced trouble starting freak who has nothing better to do with their time. It did make an interesting read like the rest of the Halloween documents but it doesnt prove a thing. And the way IPs and spoofs are going on a return address of @sco.com doesnt really do much to move me either.

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Assuming it is real, it is highly likely the leaking person has saved the whole mail box on a CD or tape and has already taken it off-site.Since the fact that it was accessible to him/her is proof that (s)he has admin privileges.


  It is also very likely that ESR knows the leaker and has put the info into a double blind data escrow to maintain deniability..


  These are knowledgable people , and the proof (if it is authentic) is already available for IBM's asking.

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Its bullshit, ESR doesnt have anything because then he would have said he could authenticate it. Without proper authentication I will take this as nothing but someone wanting to waste time.

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Its bullshit, ESR doesnt have anything because then he would have said he could authenticate it. Without proper authentication I will take this as nothing but someone wanting to waste time.

Well, guess what, it is you who is full of shit. You owe Mr. Raymond an apology (and yes, it's Mr. Raymond to you). So go ahead....

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Grok law has posted that the ER post is real! And Baystar who gave SCO millions has a major invester called Vulcan that is owned by Paul Allen, cofounder of MS.This is truly a RICO moment. It must be hard for some one who defends MS on every post on this site to swallow, but the facts are coming in. I look forward to your post admiting your error;)

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Did EV1, at any time in the last twelve months, receive from Microsoft, directly, or indirectly, any cash or payments in any form or rebates or discounts, separate from server licensing?

Any rebates or discounts on server licensing?

Any payments for advertising or marketing?

Any of the above from any other party which included Microsoft in any conversation or documentation?

Is EV1 paying the "everyone pays the same price" license costs for Microsoft servers? Or is EV1 paying a different price? What is the difference.

To put it more bluntly,

Some users have also <A HREF="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1738&ncid=1738&e=16&u=/zd/20040303/tc_zd/120703" TITLE="yahoo.com">suggested</a yahoo.com> that EV1Servers is trying to move its users to Windows Server 2003 platforms. They note that Server 2003 is already EV1Server's least-expensive option for Web hosting. Others add that the company co-operated with Microsoft in the fall of 2003 to create a case study that showed Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting version 2.0 combined with Automated Deployment Services (ADS) Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition enabled EV1Servers to deliver faster Web-site deployments than Linux. This study is also available in Microsoft's anti-Linux "Get The Facts on Windows and Linux" Web site.

Are you benefitting in any way from payments, discounts, rebates, or in any other form from Microsoft, directly or indirectly, from a lower price on server licensing, or from any other benefit that started or increased within the last twelve months?


 

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EV1 has sold their soul to Microsoft. They are dead. They are pushing up the daisies. They have ceased to exist. They are pinin' for the fyords.

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Well, here we have a starting of a new kind of IT business, and a new branch of software industry. It seems to be a new form of outsourcing. Can we call it "lawsuit outsourcing" ?


                                          DG

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As Blake Stowell confirms in <A HREF="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1542915,00.asp" TITLE="eweek.com">this EWeek Article</a eweek.com>.

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And according to the Los Angeles Times (crappy registration required) Darl is packin' heat because everybody is out to kill him. As well, (I guess he's a poor shot) he has an armed guard when he spouts in public.

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Darl is packin' heat because everybody is out to kill him.

oh come on, this is an intelligent crowd. whoever takes him out will use a scope from a distance anyway<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:-)

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