SCO Will Pay You Not to Use Linux 513
Verteiron writes: "As if things weren't weird enough already, SCO is now planning to pay companies to migrate away from Linux.. even if it's not toward UNIX. According to the summary over at Groklaw, SCO will provide 'financial incentives and discounts' to users that switch to 'other operating systems that have a stronger IP basis than Linux.' This doubly amusing when considered together with the following statements straight from SCO's 8-K form filed with the SEC:
'...plans to expand SCO's intellectual property licensing program to allow for migration alternatives to end users... and continued efforts to protect SCO's UNIX intellectual property rights and SCO's belief that the private investment will enhance SCO's ability to pursue currently pending legal actions... SCO has a history of unprofitability and has only realized revenue from its SCOsource licensing initiative during the last two quarters...'"
Better than free? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Better than free? (Score:5, Funny)
Right below the line that says, "Contract with SCO, a newly-acquired subsidiary of Microsoft, Inc."
- David Stein
cut the legalese (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Better than free? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Better than free? (Score:3, Funny)
Doctor Faustus, please report to the black courtesy phone.
Re:Better than free? (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's take their money and switch to *BSD
Re:Better than free? (Score:3, Insightful)
One positive outcome though, the investment of 50 million fresh new dollars.
Then you can start phase two: Pay people not to use Linux. One thing is sure, the $50M are not going to last long.
As was posted on Groklaw (Score:5, Insightful)
"A somewhat more realistic interpretation of "Migration path with
discounts" would go more like this:
1) You already owe SCO money for their IP that you are using in Linux, 2) SCO
knows this was unintentional and says "Hey, we know you didn't mean to
infringe our IP, but you did. Since it was accidental, we'll charge you LESS
if you stop infringing our IP quickly by converting to something that does not
infringe our IP"
Basically extend the licensing that they were already doing:
$699 - Binary license
$599 - License current and prior use of SCO owned Linux IP on one server and
migrate that server to xBSD within 6 months.
$499 - License current and prior use of SCO owned Linux IP on one server and
migrate that server to HP-UX within 6 months
$299 - License current and prior use of SCO owned Linux IP on one server and
migrate that server to Windows 200x within 6 months
The discount is to what you pay THEM, and does not affect what the other vendor
charges you for their OS."
Re:As was posted on Groklaw (Score:3, Funny)
Idiots...
Re:Better than free? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Better than free? (Score:5, Funny)
Go to Soviet Russia and sign -- because in Soviet Russia, SCO will pay YOU!
Re:Better than free? (Score:4, Funny)
Everyone who said they couldn't afford a mac... (Score:4, Funny)
Combine the two!
Switch to a mac tomorrow, and use SCO to subsidise the switch. Hell, switch ALL your linux boxes to macs and get a really big subsidy. Put SCO's money where your mouth is
I love SCO (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I love SCO (Score:4, Funny)
"Here's 10k towards a new server for you to run Windows 2003 server on"
WHAT?! I think a few companies should maybe go take the money and buy some IBM servers running a certain IBM UNIX. That'd be one in the eye for SCO. "Its not Linux guys, honest!"
Re:I love SCO (Score:3, Interesting)
I think there will be a lot of take up from companies that were not really going to use Linux anyway and those that are going to use Linux will do so anyway.
How this will effect the standing in the coming court case is anyones guess.
Re:I love SCO (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I love SCO (Score:5, Interesting)
For years, people like myself would complain about dos or windows, and how much software cost. And we'd here whiny assed comments about how "if you don't like it, write your own".
Do not be confused, myself, I couldn't even contribute to linux, let alone write any significant portion of it on my own. But someone did, following that sarcastic advice. And lo and behold, it was better software.
Now, we have them running scared. We're not hostages anymore. And they are doing whatever it takes, to turn back time, to when we were. If they can buy judges, laws, or legislators, they will. If they have to do a svengali on some little crackpot Utah outfit, to persuade them to be cannonfodder in this war, they will.
The thing that scares me, is what if this tactic works somehow? Everyone here bitches and moans about how it makes no logical sense, that there could be no justice in it. Me, I worry that those were never necessities in the first place, when big money is in the courtroom.
X-Box? (Score:5, Insightful)
w000! (Score:4, Funny)
Where do i sign up?
Re:w000! (Score:3, Funny)
Underwear gnomes (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Underwear gnomes (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Underwear gnomes (Score:5, Funny)
Which would make their business plan look something like this:
1. Collect underwear
2. Get $26,000,000 from microsoft.
3. Give the money away to those that prefer to wear socks instead of underwear.
4. PROFIT!
Installing SCOware on Virtual Machines (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Underwear gnomes (Score:5, Funny)
The only gnomes I know of are the ones that take shits in the corners of your eyes while you're asleep.
Gnome Haiku (Score:3, Informative)
Sweet (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Sweet (Score:5, Funny)
SCO Will Pay You Not to Use Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:SCO Will Pay You Not to Use Linux (Score:5, Informative)
Re:SCO Will Pay You Not to Use Linux (Score:2)
How is this Flamebait? (Score:3)
There is a post at 5 interesting with a link to how much MS has been backing SCO . .
interesting... (Score:3, Insightful)
Or better yet, if they pay me enough to buy an apple.
Interesting indeed... (Score:5, Interesting)
Assuming they did, that makes it even more clear how much of their attack is focused on the GPL itself. BSD-licensed software may be free, but it can be added to any proprietary system with the sole provision that the copyrights are maintained and there is no warranty of fitness for any particular purpose. True "free software" is obviously what scares SCO and their puppet masters.
That's assuming they considered that possibility. Knowing how out-of-touch SCO's executives have proven themselves to be, there's a good chance they didn't.
Re:Interesting indeed... (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder what SCO has to do that people stop believing them.
"Hey, we have proof that IBM violated our IP, honest!"
"Hey, we have proof that we own all versions of Unix, honest!"
"Hey, we have proof that Linux is just a modified version of Unix, honest!"
"Hey, we pay you a lot of money if you migrate away from Linux, honest!"
Seriously: I think all the "Hey, I'll migrate to FreeBSD and stick it to the man" people here should cancel their E-Mail account immediately because they are in very serious danger of falling for Nigeran scam.
tehdely, when Darl McBride says he wants to launder 10 million, you get 20% and 10% are for "expenses in the transaction", would you also believe it?
At last... (Score:5, Insightful)
This should clear the air a bit and help wake up those poor souls who still think that the SCO Group is some sort of software company, and not a lawsuit factory with a worthless, deprecated UNIX implementation on hand that they're not even developing to any useful degree any more.
And on the speculative front, I'll refuse to be 100% sure that Microsoft and/or Sun are behind SCO's actions until I see some sort of paper trail, but this makes me sure enough.
Sell SCO short? (Score:3, Interesting)
-russ
What other OSes are eligible? (Score:3, Insightful)
switch to 'other operating systems that have a stronger IP basis than Linux.'
Good luck finding one. FreeBSD is equal to linux in this regard, and everything else is less.
Re:What other OSes are eligible? (Score:3, Funny)
I thought that might fit.
Sounds like a great business plan .... (Score:5, Funny)
VC weenie: What's your business plan?
Darl McB: Pay people to switch from an OS we don't own to others we don't own.
VC weenie: Here's 5 million dollars - can I be on your board?
More like... (Score:5, Funny)
Guy with goatee: We'll be selling e-products over the e-web. Our e-services will include e-billing, e-shipping, and e-tracking. This will actually reduce our infrastructure and overhead costs to negative numbers, so we won't even need to actually sell anything.
PI: Here's all my money, and my 18 year old duaghter.
doesn't this sound like another (Score:3, Insightful)
I *really* hope that IBM either aquires or buries this company. If MS is so overly interested in SCO, isn't there a threat that MS could purchase SCO? What if SCO *wants* to be purchased by MS? What would happen to Linux if MS owned the rights to UNIX? If IBM doesn't aquire them, perhaps RedHat, or Novell... any company other than MS.
Re:doesn't this sound like another (Score:5, Insightful)
Development would cease while al the Linux developers chatted on Slashdot about the impending anti-trust cases against Microsoft launched across the globe.
Seriously, there isn't the remotest possibility that Microsoft could buy SCO if it would actually have a measurable effect. Of course, that is all predicated on the notion that SCO and its "IP" does actually count for something. Personally, I don't think it would make the slightest difference. IBM/SGI/SUN/etc. already have the rights to the stuff that matters and any new owners of SCO would not be able to withdraw those rights on a whim.
Re:doesn't this sound like another (Score:3, Informative)
There seems to be lot of confusion over this. SCO does not own UNIX, and if Microsft were to buy SCO they would not own UNIX either. Novell holds the patents and the OpenGroup owns the trademark.
2$ (Score:2)
yukkity yuk yuk. Pay SCO LESS and ... (Score:5, Interesting)
So, pay SCO only $299.00 for Linux.
But stop using Linux. Hmmm, so why the $299? Move on.
Start using Windows.
And this helps SCO how? You're not using their products. Oh, but you paid $299 for a product (Linux) they claim infringes on something of theirs, but then stop using the allegedly infringing product.
HELP!
Re:yukkity yuk yuk. Pay SCO LESS and ... (Score:5, Insightful)
What are those guys smoking ? (Score:2)
Re:What are those guys smoking ? (Score:2)
I will do it (Score:2)
Again from SCO's eyes (Score:3, Interesting)
What kind of impact this will have on the Linux community that thinks they're a bunch of (every expletive you can imagine inserted here) I don't know. Anyone here in the Slashdot community who trusts SCO raise their hand.
Though all the same, some users who are looking to upgrade just might....naaah I shan't think such heretical thoughts....
Wow...SCO's working to make RedHat's case for it (Score:5, Informative)
The same could be said for IBM's counterclaim.
Re:Wow...SCO's working to make RedHat's case for i (Score:2)
Everyone's except for their own, it seems.
Re:Wow...SCO's working to make RedHat's case for i (Score:5, Interesting)
However, IBM helped Novell buy SuSE, AG. And since Novell is the REAL owner of the UNIX IP, I am waiting on pins and needles for them to lay the smack down on the Smoking Crack Organization. Which is going to happen. Soon. That's the first thing I thought when the SuSE/Novell deal went down.
Konq (Score:3, Funny)
Well of course (Score:2)
True, this is a bit more blatant than one might have expected, but otherwise not entirely unexpected.
Reading between the lines you can simply interpret this as a public admission that they've acknowledged their position is that of the Light Brigade and that they're going off to slaughter like good little foot soldiers for "God, Honor and "Innovation.""
It can be taken as a given now that they know themselves to b
Ticking Time Bomb (Score:2, Interesting)
My head will burst... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:My head will burst...Daffy (Score:5, Funny)
More like that one Daffy Duck short where he's on stage, struggling mightily to get ANY kind of audience reaction.
He sings, he dances, and the audience just yawns. Finally he uses his one remaining sure-fire act to get a reaction. He swills down a bottle of nitroglycerin and makes himself explode.
And the crowd goes wild, but meanwhile, nothing but of Daffy remains except for a black stain. That's what this whole thing is:
Daffy, until it explodes and there's nothing left.
Microsofts $$ at work (Score:5, Informative)
If Microsoft are behind this.... (Score:3, Funny)
If so, who at MS will be held responsible for the decision because it's quite hard to believe that a minion at Microsoft could take a decision of this magnitude.
Scene 1:
Prison Cell containing two men. The fatter of the two seems to be dancing in a style something akin to a monkey......
Fat man....
That's another fine mess you've got us into Darl....
Darl...... (add own blubbery weeping noise here)
Re:Why do people think Boies is so great? (Score:3, Informative)
to be fair, the failure of the department of justice to pursue effective remedies after the conviction of Microsoft isnt really Boies' fault.
Also, you are forgetting about the disbarment threat he's under in Miami as a result of legal shennanigans over litigation involving his girlfriend's landscaping company.
Hey SCO! (Score:2)
Class Action? (Score:3, Insightful)
There seems to be no business justifiable reason for such an action.
LetterRip
How much is it going to take... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How much is it going to take... (Score:3, Insightful)
A front for Microsoft? (Score:4, Insightful)
What possible reason can SCO have for encouraging people to switch over to Windows (as the article indicates they might) unless they are in bed with Microsoft? Has SCO become a front for Microsoft in it's war against Linux? That is a scary prospect, because SCO doesn't care about it's reputation and so can do really nasty things that Microsoft would never get away with on it's own.
Mod Parent up. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A front for Microsoft? (Score:3, Funny)
What possible reason can SCO have for encouraging people to switch over to Windows (as the article indicates they might) unless they are in bed with Microsoft?
Maybe they want people to experience first-hand how much Windows sucks?
I'll unplug all of my company's Linux boxes (Score:4, Funny)
Of course, the sad fine print is that my company is closing on Friday, November 14th, but I'll do it, by gum. Just show me the money!
--
Re:I'll unplug all of my company's Linux boxes (Score:3, Funny)
Basis for some sort of shareholder lawsuit? (Score:4, Interesting)
If I had any money in SCO, I would want to take it out now, or be on the phone to my lawyer, looking into some sort of minority-shareholder lawsuit against the company for wasting shareholders' money by paying them to switch to a competitor's product. There is simply no financial benefit for SCO in having users switch from Linux to Windows, Solaris, or anything but a SCO product. Unless SCO has some sort of plan to move into the Windows services market (that they've kept under wraps all this time), they shouldn't be paying for people to move to Windows. It's almost enough to make me believe the SCO-Microsoft conspiracy theories.
Re: Basis for some sort of shareholder lawsuit? (Score:3, Interesting)
> If I were a SCO stockholder, I would want to have some answers from Darl & company, fast.
Trouble is, you have to be a stockholder in order to sue.
Heh... Canopy Group buys up dying company for its lawsuit value, shareholders buy up dying company stock for its lawsuit value.
Maybe that's what's proping SCOX prices up.
Re: Basis for some sort of shareholder lawsuit? (Score:3, Interesting)
However, there is simply no way to spin this into a good thing, even to those
I wonder if they would pay me.... (Score:3, Funny)
Is this legal? (Score:5, Informative)
I mean, it's legal to give incentives to use my product... but to drive a competitors business away...?
Re:Is this legal? (Score:5, Interesting)
It shall be unlawful for any person engaged in commerce, in the course of such commerce, to lease or make a sale or contract for sale of goods, wares, merchandise, machinery, supplies, or other commodities, whether patented or unpatented, for use, consumption, or resale within the United States or any Territory thereof or the District of Columbia or any insular possession or other place under the jurisdiction of the United States, or fix a price charged therefor, or discount from, or rebate upon, such price, on the condition, agreement, or understanding that the lessee or purchaser thereof shall not use or deal in the goods, wares, merchandise, machinery, supplies, or other commodities of a competitor or competitors of the lessor or seller, where the effect of such lease, sale, or contract for sale or such condition, agreement, or understanding may be to substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly in any line of commerce.
CrossGrade to Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are a company which supports Linux, develops software for use on Linux, or uses Linux in some way, simply offer a discount of - say 25% - for all services related to migrating SCO users from SCO products to Linux.
Next thing to do is write press releases to the local papers telling them about it. You should point out that SCO customers face an uncertain future, since SCO will proably loose its fight with IBM, and will then be taken to court for its actions. You can also describe how SCO's new path is not developing new and better software for you, but simply based on taking advantage of its "IP".
Obviously there are many potential Linux converts out there, and it would be a good idea for Linux companies to compete for those users by offering them discounts to move away from SCO first.
I also believe that companies should cease supporting SCO versions of software - but at the same time offer existing clients a migration path to a more solid platform - such as Linux.
I know the SCO's lack of revenue is hardly a worry to them now, however it will make great news, and possibly make their stock price reflect reality.
SCO's plan (Score:3, Funny)
SCO is getting worse than the crazy homeless people in San Francisco that scream Bible passages at you as you're walking by..
Actually, wait. The homeless nutcases have a better business plan.
SCO: Your plan has worked. (Score:5, Funny)
The article says:
Attention SCO: Your plan has worked!
I'm migrating from MS to Linux right now in preparation for the incentives to migrate away later.
Migrate to FBSD and get a check (Score:3, Funny)
They are nuts.. or really hitting the drugs hard.
I still dont understand their desire to destroy linux, if it wasnt for linux, caldera would never have had the capital to purchase SCO and start this lunacy..
New way to scam money out of SCO (Score:3, Funny)
2. Get money from SCO
3. Switch back
4. Lather, rinse, repeat
Fearless prediction. (Score:3, Insightful)
Call me a nut, but I've half a mind to believe that MS is floating this whole SCO mess as a trial balloon, to probe the defenses of the open source community, and plans to have its' own code "stolen" and incorporated into Linux.
That way they can move from a "Cold War" by proxy to a direct attack on Linux and open source.
And more tin foil: who do you suppose might be responsible for the root backdoor that someone tried to slip into the kernel recently...?
-dameronx
Re:Fearless prediction. (Score:3, Funny)
OK. "NUT". *grin*
Only if someone held a gun to Linus' head. Remember, anything that gets into the kernel, Linus takes at least a passing squint at. M$ code isn't good enough to get into the kernel.
The ubiquitous: Read the article (Score:5, Insightful)
SCO is offering _discounts_ on licenses.
Meaning if you switch over to another OS now you don't end up oweing SCO the full license for linux ($699 or something) that they're claiming you now owe. You'll probably just end up oweing a mere $500 (or whatever - even I couldn't stomach reading the details on that in the article).
Re:The ubiquitous: Read the article (Score:3, Insightful)
bizzaro world... (Score:5, Interesting)
just pretend all of that is true, factual and on the level. say it's possible and what sco is honestly planning on.
how in the fuck does this latest move make any sense even in that nightmare fairie tale?
"here, you folks have violated our ip, we plan on continuing to charge you and, oh, by the way, here's some money to buy our competitors products so you won't have to pay us anymore."
is it any wonder that sco never took the unix world by storm in over a decade?
$50 million for crack??? (Score:5, Funny)
Damn, and I thought the people on the west side were bad!
You can almost hear .. (Score:3, Insightful)
"what? er.. yeah right - whatever.."
Before installing Linux on another 100 Intel servers, and a z-series.. (try doing that with SCO unix..)
Nobody's listening any more SCO - your outbursts have become so far fetched, you're like the kid that invents ever more unlikely stories to get attention. These guys are like parasites - they no longer create, but are desperate to get a slice of any pie going. Give it up - even if you won every court action from here til the next century - no one will do business with you ever again..
I think we all realise by now that all of this is most likely a bizarre situation engineered to raise cash on SCO shares. Ignore them - they only want attention.
Proof positive, and Hand Mills (Score:5, Insightful)
The Masters Of The Universe do not want you to be free. Period.
Ergo, Open Source, non-corporate software MUST be destroyed. By whatever means. SCO, whether they realize it or not, (and I suspect they do), exists for the sole purpose of disabling this aspect of humanity.
Waaay back when the first industrial grain grinding mills were being built by the land owners, the town sherif, (i.e., the hired representative of the gentry), would go around and see that all the hand mills in all the peasant households were dragged out and smashed. It was now illegal for people to mill their own corn. What was once free, was now something they HAD to pay for. --All in the best interest of social advancement, of course. The gentry always had a rational-sounding argument, which in the end, just reduced the power of the populace. The the same reasoning is used today in order to shift publically owned utilities over to private and corporate ownership. And many people, (you can witness many examples right here on Slashdot) still believe they are not being lied to. --The argument for competition, being that it creates real incentive to make the best products sounds great except this line of argument ALWAYS leaves out the undeniable reality that when a handful of corporations own everything, it is virtually guranteed that artificial price-fixing WILL take place, and that products will start to decline in quality and effectiveness in such a way that people will need to buy twice as much as before in order to get the same job done. It's all about the elite trying to squeeze an under-educated public into supporting them.
In regard to SCO, nothing has changed since the days of the illegal hand mills, except in the level of sneakiness through which the ends are achieved. SCO's primary purpose, while it is profit motivated, it is not all in the way most people believe it to be. It's much, much bigger, and it's part of a war which has been going on for centuries.
-FL
This is ludicrous! (Score:4, Interesting)
1. Bill Gates publicly admitted in an interview that Windows will never be secure without a firewall to protect it from the Internet.
2. Details about and early betas of Longhorn, Microsoft's next big Windows rewrite are the big buzz around the 'net.
3. SCO promises to pay people to switch to anything else but Linux. Here's a company that was selling an OS but bleeding money at a furious rate until they got a generous transfusion of M$ cash.
4. Red Hat, a company who worked very hard to fuse two incompatible desktop GUIs for Linux into one seemless whole, drops all support for desktop Linux and concentrates on "Enterprise" customers.
5. Someone hacked the CVS site for the Linux kernel attempting to install a vulnerability.
Hmmmm, does any of this connect for anyone else? Or just me? Where did I put that tinfoil hat?
[donning tinfoil hat]
Suppose Microsoft, having tried for years to plug the innumerable holes in their OS and failing miserably, decided to de-emphasize server support and concentrate on the desktop where their strength has always been. Red Hat decides to play nice with Microsoft by dropping all efforts at the desktop in return for which they get better cooperation (short term, naturally) from Microsoft and provide servers to Enterprises that have mainly Windows desktops right now. SCO discourages people from trying Linux the only way that hasn't been tried yet (since nothing else worked!) by actually paying people to use anything else! At the same time, tiring of predicting the infusion of Linux viruses that never occurred, some desperate Windows user actually tries to create a hole for one by sneaking source into the kernel; it doesn't work this time, hope those guys are even more vigilant now! Meanwhile, Microsoft has delayed its release of the much-hyped Longhorn for another year. Why?
I predict that all of this is just a holding action against Linux. The SCO suit is slated for a court date sometime in 2005, providing there re no more delays. Wanna bet there are? Just enough to drag it out to 2006, the release date for Longhorn. In the meantime, Red Hat will hold the line against many competing Linuxes. Concentrating the market for Enterprise servers in one company makes an easy target for Microsoft. In the meantime, Microsft has bought enough time to write many, many incompatibilities into Longhorn. When Longhorn is released, I'll bet it totally doesn't work with anything except Microsoft server software. Red Hat will be crushed, SCO will disapear and Linux will find itself trying to conform to a thousand incompatibilities in Longhorn.
[doffing tinfoil hat]
As for me, the choice of OS is easy now. After seeing Microsoft throw in the towel and seeing that virus writers are so desperate to get any virus into Linux that they actually tried to sneak bad code into the kernel to do it, Linux is the OS for me. Who knows what will happen in 3 years? Maybe there will be enough apps that I damned well don't care what windows is by then. I almost don't now.
They don't mention the hidden costs (Score:3, Insightful)
This proves it (Score:3, Funny)
Why SCO's Linux License Makes Sense (not comedy) (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/31932.ht
has an absolutely insane article about this whole mess. Mind you, 98% of the article is completely nuts as it basically blames IBM, or anyone else, for not paying off SCO already. He does not understand that paying off the mob is bad social policy and that Linux is about social policy, but I digress.
Here is one interesting part:
- - -
# SCO is attacking the entire Linux community.
It is not. Responses from SuSE Latest News about SuSE and Red Hat to the contrary, the SCO demand for license fees from Linux users was classic legal fiction. Both key SCO executives -- Darl McBride and Chris Sontag -- have said repeatedly that they are trying to work through issues to achieve justice without putting "a hole in the head of the penguin."
Most people find these license claims outrageous, but think about the drivers behind the demand and you might yet see SCO as a victim of its own lawyers and the way the courts operate.
Fundamentally, the court eventually will require SCO to show a quantitative, market-based derivation for the value of damages claimed. Demanding license fees is one way of establishing that basis -- and one likely to appeal to lawyers acting on contingency because a few successful sales would suffice to establish an enormous fair-market value.
- - -
Terrifyingly, this almost makes sense. If SCO can set a "high" license value on their property, they can then multiply this by the number of Linux systems to get their damages. It only takes a couple of bozos (or co-conspirators) to create "license sales" that can then be multiplied out. This is not too disimilar from the RIAA / WebCasting royalty calculations. Take what Yahoo will pay during the bubble, and then try to get everyone else to empty their pockets. It is very likely that they are not trying to actually get licenses, but that they are trying to establish a "market value" that is to their favor.
If this is actually their plan, then it is not only SCO that needs taken down, but their lawyers as well.
More intellectual property oriented? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:couldn't resist (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Monster on the Wing (Score:3, Interesting)
>[W]hy isn't the DOJ all over this like ugly on
>an ape?
What makes you so sure that anything illegal is going on? Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean the US has any grounds to make a Federal case out of it. I don't like it either, but it may very well be that everyone involved is coloring within the lines.
*Just* *barely* in the lines, maybe, but what's so obviously illegal here that you're dumbfounded?
Until someone puts on a deposition swearing that they own someone else's property, or el
Simple... (Score:5, Funny)
Simple - they're using MPAA/RIAA math!
See, for every person who uses your IP for free, you lose money - so you figure out how much you're losing per unit, and offer people less money than that to not use your IP..
For example, if SCO determines that they're losing $100 per Linux server, and there are currently 100,000 people running Linux that would take them up on their offer, then all they have to do is offer people $50 to not run Linux.. then Viola! They've now made a positive difference of $50,000,000 to their bottom line!
Disclaimer: although I'm currently drunk, this makes perfect sense to me. I may or may not feel the same way once I've sobered up.
Off-lease Thinkpad 600E over here... (Score:3)