Jesus!
Are those bastards STILL around? Hopefully, not for much longer...
SCO threatened with Chapter 7 destruction
SCO Group's long-standing legal battles over its claimed Unix copyrights may finally end with US bankruptcy court forcing a Chapter 7 cyanide capsule down the company's throat. On Tuesday, the trustee appointed by the federal bankruptcy court in Delaware asked for permission to dissolve the ailing shell-of-a-software-company …
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Wednesday 6th May 2009 23:22 GMT Nordrick Framelhammer
Finally an end to this silly and sorry saga?
Does this mean and end to this whole silly and sorry saga?
SCO are a laughing stock in the industry and have been pretty much since they switched from writing UNIX applications to waving their tiny todgers around like demented kids in the hope that it would frighten people into capitulating to their ridiculous licensing scam.
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Thursday 7th May 2009 08:56 GMT Matt Bryant
Evil backup plan?
"We plan to oppose the motion and present our own suggested course of action to the court."
Later today, SCO spokesghouls will announce the company's intentions to sue all manufacturers, vendors and consumers of SCOnes, as they are obviously and perniciously using copyrighted SCO code in their products without a licence. Expect Sun's canteen in Sanata Clara to be the first to fold and fork out for a licence whilst the rest of the World points and laughs.
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Thursday 7th May 2009 08:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
Heh
Poor SCO. At some point I may consider, thinking about, maybe, possibly, giving a second thought to perhaps, potentially, almost shedding something resembling a tear for SCO and it's execs.
Ok so the truth is I wont even come close to doing that, but hey at least it sounded good for a fraction of a second.
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Thursday 7th May 2009 08:57 GMT Gerhard Mack
Major mistake in the article
"SCO" != "The SCO Group".
SCO bought enough rights to conduct their business but were then bought by Caldera followed by Caldera renaming itself as "The SCO Group". The people suing are not the same people who negotiated the sale with Novell.
I know it's confusing but that distinction is extremely important.
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Thursday 7th May 2009 08:57 GMT Chris C
And so it goes
"...and the company used this claim to force Sun Microsystems and Microsoft into licensing agreements."
I'm sorry, but what? They weren't FORCED into anything. Microsoft and Sun gave their money willingly, not out of fear or licensing issues, but as a back-channel way to fund the anti-Linux campaign (don't forget Sun was still trying to get people to go with Solaris, not OpenSolaris, at that time).
Regardless, this day was easy to foresee. Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long. Does SCO even have any assetts left? Last I heard, quite a while ago, they had sold the UNIX business and the mobile business, leaving them with zero business except the lawsuits.
If anything, the SCO saga should make one thing very clear to all companies (and individuals, really) -- when you're signing a contract, and especially when you're purchasing assets, make sure everything is spelled out. SCO had the signed contract, so they clearly knew that they did not hold the copyrights to the UNIX code, but they hoped they could bluff people with fear and intimidation. As one would expect, it did work against some companies, but not many. I suspect they were secretly hoping to get bought by IBM, or that IBM would settle since a settlement would likely cost much less than IBM's legal fees. SCO massively underestimated IBM's dedication to Linux and their resentment towards extortion.
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Thursday 7th May 2009 08:57 GMT John Smith
They have had 2 years already?
"We are reviewing the motion with counsel and will have a detailed response for the court in due course,"
My doesn't time fly when your looking for finance.
It does look like only they are less a shell company and more a shill company for some one.
Can I presume that anyone with enough cash to buy this rump (because that is what is left of them) at the price *they* think they are worth has done enough due diligence not to?
Who'd have thought it. Sometime the money men do the right thing.
This is not the time for mercy.
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Thursday 7th May 2009 08:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
Article glosses over the actual timeline
The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) acquired the UNIX assets from Novell in 1995. The major interest was the Unixware/SVR4 code base though the deal also came with some royalty rights which were split with Novell. I'm not sure 'real' SCO ever haranged other businesses for cash over the IP acquired in this transaction.
It was only when SCO was taken over by Caldera (2000) and subsequently changed its name to the 'SCO Group' (2002) that it stopped being a company and became an IP pest.
The 'licensing' that most people talk about done by Sun and Microsoft happened around 2003.
It's a sad end for a small OS vendor who didn't make the transition from small business file & print networks to the web1.0. It wasn't alone.
SCO died in 2000. Its sad that a bunch of Utah Pirates dressed themselves in a better companies colors but I guess they had to it to dress themselves in a veil of respectability that they soon lost.
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Thursday 7th May 2009 10:49 GMT John Smith
@Roger de Laborde
"Damn, SCO is harder to kill than Rasputin"
But somewhat like Phorm. Still Nebuad are dead and buried. These guys are like those super weeds you hear about. The kind only the sort of weed killer that professional gardeners can buy can kill.
But there are plenty of professional gardeners and there is no shortage of weed killer.
Of course there's always fire.
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Thursday 7th May 2009 11:26 GMT Herby
Chapter 7 ans lawyers...
Ah, lawyers. The sad part is that the eating order in Chapter 7 (been there...) is the trustee gets first lickings. Then come the trustee's lawyers, then the people employed (are there any?) up to about $2k. Then it goes downhill from there. Hopefully the lawyers who are filing the lawsuit(s) against us honest (Linux/Unix) people are a bit further back in the cafeteria line. The food is running out fast, and "secured creditors" should be higher up in line than the sharks.
My take: A fitting end. Now lets get on with killing software patents.
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Thursday 7th May 2009 13:56 GMT Craig
The Santa Cruz Operation was NOT taken over by Caldera
Old SCO sold their trademark, and the OpenServer & UnixWare IP to Caldera. Caldera some time later changed their name to "SCO Group" which they could do as they then owned the trademark. The original SCO company changed their name to "Tarantella", and then years later was taken over by Sun (and we know what's happened to them!)
And good bloody riddance to SCaldera, in my opinion. Old SCO was a good company, and all SCaldera ever did was drag their good name through the mud.
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Thursday 7th May 2009 14:26 GMT Paul
why BK?
Never forget SCOX entered BK protection without being bankrupt. In fact, after many years loudly proclaiming how eager they were to reach trial they filed for BK the day before reaching court, with the deliberate and only intent of provoking an automatic stay on all the lawsuits.
Like everything else in the whole sorry fiaSCO the BK was a lie, just a way to stave off retribution for 18months. The hammer is now falling and the very act of misusing BK this way likely to bring personal liability to Darl McBride and Ralph Yarro.
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Friday 8th May 2009 15:35 GMT Gordon Crawford
needed
Needed , a smart Judge , who will Give any and all software over to the public domain
sell the assets and give the preceeds to itself to pay for the gov s expenses.....
1. this gives all companies affected by the illegal behavior of the SCO company a chance to move on with out going through this again with another troll
2. all users , the above plus , no worries , and a future
3. the lawyers , the chance to get better software in the future , with out undue pricing or lawsuits over use of their software . [like they just tried to do]
4.all of us , the smug satisfaction that the lawyers got no money , the legal system works [on occasion], software troll can not only lose ,but end up giving it all the way [ losing it all ] and a warning to all companies about lawsuits..and greed..
5. stock holders , a warning to stop exec greed [YOU OWN THE COMPANY NOT THE EXECS.}
6 . me , not get angry over this stupid crap..............
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
