Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair - George Burns
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SCO is selling assets to Darl McBride
BLUSTERING BAD-BOY SCO is the zombie of the IT industry. The outfit keeps getting pummelled in court but it keeps on coming.
For ages SCO and its lawsuits should have died, serveral times. The company has run out of cash and its claims looks deader than Ramesses III without the bandages.
However, according to Groklaw the outfit's Chapter 11 Trustee, former federal Judge Edward Cahn, has asked the bankruptcy court to let SCO sell off its "mobility business" for just $35,000.
Those following the case will recall that SCO had earlier claimed that its mobility business was worth millions.
But the real kicker is the proposed buyer is a murky outfit associated with none other than SCO's former CEO Darl McBride, who along with SCO's Chairman Ralph Yarro and a few of their cronies caused the whole mess in the first place.
Judge Cahn claims that SCO has looked at the mobility business and the company lacks the capital to really develop it. He further claims that SCO tried really hard to find another buyer but could not interest anyone.
On the list of assets that would go in the sale are some mobile phone software programs and copyrights, other "Intellectual Property" and some contracts, including one for an "Iphone Application Program with Apple".
Groklaw doesn't quite know what to make of this proposed deal except that it smells fishy.
Supposedly Darl will buy the copyrights, the source code, 12 servers, 13 domain names and 10 developer smartphones for $35,000.
Even if SCO is hard up for money, which it apparently is, we wonder why Judge Cahn is even bothering with this deal. SCO is still facing several lawsuits and $35,000 is only enough to pay some of its lawyers for about a week. µ
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I just pray that the Higher Power above will protect us Linux and open source users from the evil machinations of the Evil Empire and the blood-sucking pirates in the poisoned waters of the patent ocean.
The Evil Empire has already made its intentions clear as it extends its tentacles through "patent" agreements with various companies that rely on the Internet. All this gives a whole new meaning to playing dirty and hitting low.
Read the whole rotten smelly story at Groklaw.net
This is the ultimate example of the misuse of software patents. SCO did not even have a case in the beginning, but that did not stop "the man behind the curtain" -- being B. Gates and then S. Ballmer -- from funnelling money into the case (via Baystar and others) in an attempt to destroy their new "business chum" Novell (and try and attack the bulletproof Linux at the same time). With "friends" like these, Novell (and IBM) need no enemies.
Microsoft is a master of manipulation and the low blow. Novell has had to spend millions that it cannot afford defending itself from this SCO zombie that keeps being reanimated by sly infusions of funds. What we are left with is a blood-spattered, evil puppet that Microsoft publicly ignores but continues to use to attack open source (aka Bill Gates' 2006 comment: "Is SCO still around? Are they still viable?"). The man is a liar.
I do hope the table is turned, and someone somewhere has a look at Microsoft's closed-source code to see how much of it infringes upon or directly copies code taken from the GPL'd open source that Ballmer and Co. hate so much (perhaps for this very reason). They already were forced to stop selling Office for awhile, and things could get a lot worse for Microsoft (especially with the combination of IBM's, Novell's, and the GPL software patent/licensing portfolio working against Microsoft).
If this ongoing aggression would just stop (including Microsoft's own direct FUD campaign against Linux), then perhaps things could calm down, but I don't see this happening. Microsoft is too aggressive and will probably not stop acting this way until we see a massive "nuclear option" software patent war erupt (and Microsoft is the party that has the most to lose in the end).
...theft.
SCOXQ has gone up 8-fold since October!
You have to ask yourself: WTF?!