[vox] SCO suing IBM over their Linux activity

[Shwaine]

On Thu, 29 May 2003, Rob Rogers wrote:

> On Thu, May 29, 2003 at 13:17:06PM -0700, Ricardo Anguiano wrote:
> >
> > SCO claims it's efforts to collect Unix licencing fees have made it
> > profitable for the first time ever.
> >
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/29/technology/29UNIX.html
> > >From NYTimes:
> >
> >      A recent campaign of litigation and warnings by a Utah software
> >      marketer against companies that use Linux has helped make the
> >      company profitable for the first time ever, it said yesterday.
> >
> >      [...]
> >
> >      There was good news yesterday for SCO, as well. The company
> >      reported a quarterly profit of $4.5 million on revenue of $21.4
> >      million. SCO said it collected $8.8 million in cash from its new
> >      division set up to enforce the company's rights to Unix.
>
> How much exactly was that payment Microsoft just made? (/me smells
> something fishy here)


I think that is the question everyone wants to know. There are many who
think Microsoft has had a hand in this all along. Judging by how SCO
OpenServer had certain Microsoft programs in it (like FoxPro "for Unix"
which was essentially FoxPro DOS) and there was mention to Microsoft in
certain credits, I can see where such ponderings would come from. And as
some have pointed out, MS is not opposed to doing illegal actions, such as
their "dead people writing letters" campaign during the whole monopoly
fiasco.

Also of interesting note, the 1 year (or 6 month) stock trends for SCO.
Note how the prices have only risen in the last couple months since this
lawsuit was announced. Now look at the 5 day trends and see how Novell's
announcement has affected the stock prices. The following link should let
you view all these trends:

http://investor.cnet.com/investor/quotes/quote-detail/0-9970-1042-0-SCOX.html?tag=qbox

Other links of note can be found by search Slashdot for SCO. There's been
at least a news item a day for the last couple days. Short summary is SCO
backpedaled a little immediately after the Novell release saying it was
contractual issues with IBM not IP, but then seemed to go back to saying
they owned the IP to Sys V by threatening Linus specifically and Linux in
general. There is definately a FUD in the air.