07.13.09

More on the Amazing Story Behind SCO (and Possibly Microsoft)

Posted in Courtroom, Fraud, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, SCO, UNIX at 1:28 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“Microsoft hardly needs an SCO source license. Its license payment to SCO is simply a good-looking way to pass along a bribe…”

–Bruce Perens

Summary: Another (public) take on the latest from SCO

SEVERAL DAYS ago we showed some mind-blowing developments in the SCO case. Groklaw chose to keep them private (for subscribers only), but the word starts percolating through subscription walls and into some other Web sites.

Slated writes: “This story demands greater exposure,  since it reveals the full extent of  SCO’s (and their  partners’) depraved  and thuggish  mentality, so please quote the full Groklaw article, for the benefit of non-members.”

Here is another new analysis which sadly enough comes from a Web site that is currently down (and has been down for a while, so Sam Johnston hopefully works on it). Here is the text from Google cache for the benefit of those who can’t access the site:

Dodgy dealings happen  all the time but it’s not often  you get to see it boiling over  into the public arena  as we have today. I  saw in my newsfeed this  morning that  GrokLaw had picked  up on  (Darl, Norris, Bryan Cave Named as Defendants in IP Litigation – The Pelican Brief) a Courthouse News article (Ex-Partner Accused of AIP Trade Secret Theft) about a recently filed complaint  by Pelican Equity, LLC against Talos Partners,  Darl McBride  (of SCO  Group fame),  Robert V.  Brazell (of Overstock.com fame), Stephen L.  Norris, Rama Ramachandran and lawfirm Bryan Cave LLP.

It claims a conspiracy to “steal AIP’s proprietary stock loan product” (EQUITAP™, [which]  helps investors  achieve their financial  goals by structuring non-recourse loans using the securities in their portfolio as collateral) and  “virtually API’s entire business from  API and its founder, Mark Robbins” (Pelican claim  to own the relevant rights). It then goes  on to explain the  whole sorry story of  a techie (Robbins) investing four years and apparently  all of his money into development of  a product,  being approached  by seasoned  businessmen  (Brazell & McBride)  as potential  partners, the  subsequent formation  of  a new business  (Talos)  and theft  of  everything  from  AIP’s products  to website to employees (Ramachandran) with the help of AIP’s own lawyers (Bryan Cave LLP) who ultimately blew the whistle with an “astonishing” conflict of interest waiver.

The truly  mindblowing part of the  whole story though  is the Skyline Cowboy site they  claim is run by McBride and  Brazell: “Finally, in a heinous effort to obliterate AIP’s business and deflect their misdeeds [they] have over approximately the  last 60 days littered the Internet with scurrilous postings on www.skylinecowboy.com, a website they used primarily for  that purpose, and  on Yahoo, Twitter and  other message boards.”

If that’s  true it’s like coming back  to stab the guy  in the carpark after  you’ve robbed him  of everything  he owns.  Not only  have they posted a  video of the  guy’s wife being  served what they claim  is a $109,627 check fraud  judgment following a $1,000 bounty  as well as a $20,000 reward for arrest and $1,000,000 reward for “full restitution” (save that both  appear to be impossible – and likely  a result of the claimed highway robbery), but now they’ve offered $30,000 for the true identity of  GrokLaw’s Pamela Jones (PJ)  who they claim  is a “Secret IBM Shill Blogger”. Let’s not  be too quick to forget the relationship to SCO  Group and  their apparently Microsoft  funded attacks  on IBM, Novell and Linux in general.

Anyway you can  see the juicy details for yourself  in the filings and if you’re a GrokLaw member, the article and associated discussion (the article has since  been updated “Now that I’ve read  it, I’ve made the article  Members Only  for now.”  and unfortunately  “creation  of new accounts has been temporarily disabled”). I have but one question: Who the %!#$ do  these cowboys think they are? It’s  amazing to think that our society routinely jails people for petty theft while leaving [what appear  to be]  career conmen  free  to enrich  themselves at  others’ expense. Anyway  at least Bernie Madoff got  his comeuppance… you’ve heard my opinion – what’s yours?

A lot can be learned from this about trust (and antitrust) in Microsoft.

In relation to this, Slated adds: “Microsoft  is   the  criminal organisation  that  Miguel de  Icaza evangelises for. I wonder if,  like his gangster heroes in Redmond, he also  supports SCO’s agenda? Or  is that  one of  those uncomfortable “black and white” things he doesn’t like to talk about?”

Here is a comment about “Microsoft’s impunity”, posted in reference to our evidence of Microsoft misbehaviour in sub-notebooks:

It amazes me how much Microsoft is able to get away with in terms of anti-trust crimes that go unpunished while others get punished for much less.

I suspect that this is down to Microsoft’s core business strategy. Unlike the others, Microsoft is an abusive monopoly first and foremost – that is the core to its being and the core to its business strategy. The others are business first and monopolies incidentally, and where it occurs, the abuse is not systematic. Hence Microsoft’s abuse of monopoly is effected and sustained in a far more meticulously planned way, with the subversion of DOJ (possibly through Bill Gates’ father’s law firm’s influence within the DOJ), corruption of politicians, bureaucrats, individuals in companies, the media etc. – all part of the core corporate ideology.

Is the legal system potent enough to respond to more massive crimes rather than shoplifting and doping? Or would an effective system be described as “Utopian” at best? █

“…Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the Linux operating system. But Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM or Linux.”

–Larry Goldfarb, Baystar, key investor in SCO

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