Final Protective Fire

Friday, August 17, 2007

 

For some time, I've been following the case of SCO v. IBM, and the later SCO v. Novell case that is derivative of it in many ways. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably aren't interested in Linux, Open Source and the cute little tricks that Microsoft has been playing to try to stifle it. You can catch up if you wish by reading PJ's website Groklaw. Basically, under the influence of Microsoft, a company that had ended up with the old Unix operating system busienss of AT&T through Novell and was busy driving itself into the ground with bad business decisions made a really stupid one. SCO decided to adopt a business model of suing Linux distributors claiming that they were infringing the copyright of Unix. The only problem to this brilliant theory were twofold - first that there was little copyright left in Unix for various reasons related to its history and less that actually was copied by Linux. Second, SCO did not actually own the copyrights to Unix because of the odd way it was transfered to it by Novell. Because of my past in Unix software development and operations before I changed careers, it was of interest to me.

Last week, there was a ruling by the judge in SCO v. Novell that essentially ends SCO's hopes to sue IBM and Novell. Pamela discusses the ruling here.

This ruling essentially kills off SCO v. IBM because the court ruling in the other case that SCO does not own the core Unix technology will mean that SCO does not have standing to sue IBM for infringment of it ( infringment that they were also failing to prove anyway ).

The case has gone on far too long - mainly because the whole purpose of the case was to cast doubt on the legality of Linux. Now SCO should fold like a house of cards as they owe Novell a lot of money and just lost their lottery ticket.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

UPDATE:9/14/07: SCO files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Good riddance to bad rubbish redux.

Robin 6:08 PM

(0) comments

Thursday, August 16, 2007

 

Taser markets a non-lethal weapon for self-defense to women, who could possibly object? Why the long irrelevant Amnesty International of course.

Robin 8:24 PM

(2) comments

Friday, August 10, 2007

 

While Al Queda certainly remains our primary terrorist threat, the animal rights crowd is becoming increasingly violent as described in this LA Weekly piece about a recent attempt on the life of a researcher at the Jules Stein Eye Institute.

The United Kingdom has in the past seen most of the violence of the animal rights terrorists, but we are going to see increased amounts here in the United States.

Robin 6:34 PM

(0) comments

Sunday, August 05, 2007

 

There are some very very sick people in the world. Of course, not every sick person is of a particular ideological faction, but people who are suffering from BDS seem in my experience to be particularly likely to be really virulent.

Robin 12:13 PM

(4) comments

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

 

Beldar has the definitive post on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the current tempest in a teapot.

Robin 8:21 PM

(0) comments