Groklaw has now offered us with a nice summary of what's happened most recently in the SCO vs. IBM court case. There are a bunch of other stuff around that site if you've never looked at it involving legal practices pertaining to tech law (usually software patent and copyright stuff). It's proven to be an excessively useful resource amongst the blogosphere as a collaborative work for people trying to understand the legal system and wondering how they can actually make a difference or two to what's going on.
The best thing about Groklaw is how it's been pointing out in rather clear english exactly why SCO is full of shit lately, with their desire to sue just about every single company they've ever worked with. A lot of the conspiracy nuts (by "Conspiracy nuts" of course I mean "common sensical people paying attention to the facts") have been saying our favourite villain Microsoft has been pulling the strings. I'd feel kinda sorry for SCO but they seem to have gone about it in the worst way. It's like the Illuminati with George Bush: Yeah, he did what they wanted, but nobody's buying it, and he's made for a horrible figurehead.
Need a summary of what happened?
SCO says to IBM about a year and a half ago that they misappropriated UNIX System V code they licensed from SCO into Linux. Then the countersuits came up, and it was a lawsuit fest. IBM countersuing, Red Hat sues, SCO sues Novell, SCO sues Damier-Chrysler [sic], Microsoft sits back, funds anti-Linux propoganda (thus screwing over not only SCO in this whole debacle, but also the Alex de Tocqville institute, a think tank that now is known to merely publish what they're told. Fuck I hate think tanks.), keeps investing their money in SCO, pats them on the head and says "Good job" despite the fact that both their stock and their profits have killed themselves.
At any rate, I recommend the article, it handles both the legal side and the tech side rather well. Makes things clear for everybody. Damn PJ is good at what she does.
I figured I needed to put some link to that here, as Groklaw is one of those reasons I'm really happy the internet exists, as it seems to be pushing the public opinion agenda rather well. We're getting there. The Illuminati must be shaking in their boots with this one. Oh well. All Hail Eris.
Posted by ebbomega at July 23, 2004 11:46 AM