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Very Bad News for Darl and Ralph


SCO v The World

By ColonelZen, Section Diary
Posted on Sat Oct 13th, 2007 at 14:30:48 EST

Also at http://www.zensden.net/boredz/xmsg/view/1/504
And of course in the rhyme will be in the next "volume" of SCOetry.

For Darl and Ralph the news is very bad
A patent troll will make Big Blue mad.

Blue Gene will calculate that the world must see
What happens to those who claim Linux IP

In Debtor's Court SCOX is already broken
Their executives hides will make a perfect token.

A pennant of pain to illuminate the the wrath
To those who would choose to cross the Nazgul's path.

To explain without the possibly distracting rhyme, I think it is possible that had not Microsoft orchestrated through a sockpuppet,  IP Innovation, LLC (a subsidiary of Acacia Research Group), then it's at least possible that IBM's interest might have petered out with SCO's bankruptcy.   Of course I don't know IBM's collective mind, but as I understand a mutual agreement not to sue for various patent claims between IBM and Microsoft has recently expired.   IBM might very well have been content simply to extinguish SCO and then drop the matter and focus on going after Microsoft directly.

But with  another surrogate stepping up to engage Linux metaphorically minutes after SCO's corporate death, IBM can hardly ignore how the game is being played.  "Disproportionate Response" is the only strategy that makes sense, otherwise Linux's champions will have to deal and fight one puppet corporation after another.   IBM will surely conclude that the best strategy is one which makes it very plain that the return on dancing under Microsoft's strings does not balance the cost.

It is well documented that Darl's public statements make him personally, not just as SCO's CEO, responsible for Lanham violations which are easily demonstrated once Judge Kimball's rulings in SCO vs Novell are finalized.   Ralph is a harder reach, being "merely" chairman and not an officer as such, but he too has made public statements which place him "on the line" and it will not be difficult to document that he was responsible for setting policies which, with the total failure of SCO's public representations, represent illegal acts.  (I am not a lawyer, these are simply my personal opinions.   How well they correspond to the written body of law, we - and of course Darl and Ralph - are very likely to find out.)

So with the bulk of the documentation done - and in many instances on record in the courts re SCO-vs-Novell and SCO-vs-IBM - SCO's exec's are their as easy pickings should IBM choose to take "personal" offense.  

The IP Innovation suit makes it very obvious that on the contorted, distorted game board that is American business and IP law, attacking and defending against corporations are not alone sufficient. Corporations are illusory containers of money and people - large corporations can move money and people around lesser corporations at whim to shield the individuals from the consequences of pursuing policies which are detrimental to a corporation filing a lawsuit but beneficial to another entity who is hiding behind the "fictitious person" filing it.   The only strategy that will stop this, or at least slow it down, is wherever possible, make sure that the individual real people behind such schemes suffer as much of the consequence as can be brought to bear.

Given IBM's investment in Linux and that Darl and Ralph are already dangling in the breeze, they can expect the next decade or so of their lives to be "interesting times" .

I also suspect BSF, and David Boise in particular, are going to find that having themselves crossed the line of the "gentleman's agreement" between litigants and counsel, that they will find that such no longer affords them the protections they expect.  We shall see.

-- TWZ

(Yes I read Pratchett)

< SCOetry (0 comments) | Advocacy (3 comments) >
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Very Bad News for Darl and Ralph | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Very Bad News for Darl and Ralph (4.25 / 4) (#1)
by JCausey (jcausey@ip-wars.net) on Mon Oct 15th, 2007 at 10:12:51 EST
(User Info) http://www.ip-wars.net
Zen,

You have anything you can point to re: the possible lapse of any covenants not to sue/patent license agreements between IBM and Microsoft?  

As far Darl being personally responsible for Lanham Act violations, I am doubtful that will come to pass.  I am probably in a minority with regard to this point, but I seriously doubt either McBride or Yarro will ever have to personally answer for their roles in the whole SCOX v. World fiaSCO.  Even if someone tries to go after them, I think they have probably covered any tracks sufficiently (of course, they will have the trouble/expense/stress of any lawsuits) to avoid a finding against them.

Jeff

  • Re: Very Bad News for Darl and Ralph by ColonelZen, 10/15/2007 21:19:21 EST (4.00 / 3)
    • Re: Very Bad News for Darl and Ralph by xtc, 10/18/2007 07:01:57 EST (4.00 / 3)
Re: Very Bad News for Darl and Ralph (4.00 / 4) (#2)
by haveslingwilltravel on Mon Oct 15th, 2007 at 19:54:28 EST
(User Info)
Nice poem.  The current situation is sufficiently grave to warrant further immediate action, in addition to the IBM/Novell/RedHat/Google heavy artillery (which has devastating power, but will be slow to operate).

Microsoft's power to shore up vicious puppets like the ironically-named "IP-Innovation" (more like IP anti-innovation, what brain-dead MS exec thought that one up?) is fed by it's ridiculously large income stream.  A very efficient open source distribution network already exists that has the power to cut off these supply routes for Microsoft's legal artillery and brain-washing media manipulation.  That network is us.  

I have removed MS software and discouraged its future use on about 30 user's systems so far in the last two years, and have encouraged hundreds of people to download in install OpenOffice and Gimp.  Yes, this does take a bit of time and effort, but after a few systems I (like most of you) can almost install Linux distros while asleep, and I feel good about helping people break free and control their own hardware.  So if we do the math on this, even if only 3 of the 30 to date also help to propagate open source to another 30 people, and the rest just advertise the benefits of secure, free, user-controlled software (and send more people to me and other geeks), we have a nice exponential growth of open source, with a corresponding exponential loss of income and user confidence in Microsoft.  This will occur very rapidly if it is sustained.

The stigma of Microsoft's greed, arrogance, blatant manipulation of international politics and the ISO organization, continuous predatory legal attacks, and disregard/mistreatment of their own clients (through treating them as criminals, shackling them with DRM, lying to them, and by knowingly exposing them to harm via their insecure software products) now stains all of their products, and helping others to become aware of these issues will also help to accelerate open source adoption.  The greedy and arrogant legal actions of the RIAA has started a similar wave of revolt, with artists breaking free and no longer wanting to be associated with such a disgusting organization; we can ride and expand this wave to include the similarly-nasty Microsoft (who is, after all, in cahoots with the RIAA and all their DRM-buddies).  

So, I personally am going to shift up the gears on my propagation of open source, both to individuals and to businesses. If millions of us increase our efforts now, by this time next year we will have taken away a huge piece of the Microsoft pie (and by the following year, the pie will be back in the hands of it's rightful owners, the people). Just make it so.

  • Re: OT advocacy by br3n, 10/26/2007 07:31:35 EST (4.50 / 2)
    • Re: OT advocacy by JCausey, 10/28/2007 09:34:40 EST (4.00 / 2)
      • Re: OT advocacy by br3n, 10/29/2007 18:51:34 EST (none / 0)
Very Bad News for Darl and Ralph | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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