07.25.09
SCO and Darl McBride Paid $100,000 to Steven Norris
Summary: Wild, wild SCO is doing more wild things
THE NOTORIOUS SCO case will resume in a couple of days and for those who missed the fascinating developments from the past couple of weeks, see:
- Groklaw Unearths Another SCO Scandal; SCO Heads Sued for Theft, Computer Fraud and Abuse
- More on the Amazing Story Behind SCO (and Possibly Microsoft)
- SCO Scandals Get Worse: unXis Seems to be All About SCO
- IBM’s Latest Filing Regarding SCO Bankruptcy Mentions “Fraud”
- SCO Scandals Finally in the News
Heise has this report which highlights payments from SCO (and from Darl McBride’s own bank account) to its to-be rescuer. If this sounds dodgy, it probably should, but then again, it’s SCO we’re talking about.
According to SCO, Steven Norris, who heads a group of investors which hopes to rescue SCO from liquidation, received $100,000 for a study he carried out for SCO Japan on emerging markets in Brazil, Russia, India, China, the Middle East and Africa. The company also states that $100,000 was paid from SCO boss Darl McBride’s personal funds as payment for Norris’ efforts to put together a group of investors to back SCO. It sees the fact that of all its creditors only Novell and IBM have complained about Norris’ role and challenged the contracts being drawn up to transfer software development to Unixis, as significant. SCO pugnaciously declares that, “In stark contrast [to the other creditors], IBM and Novell are out for themselves and seek only to avoid the consequences of their wrongful exploitation of the Unix computer code for the benefit of their Linux-related business. It is telling that with one possible minor exception, no other creditor has filed an objection to the sale.”
This is amazing. Now watch this from Groklaw about “York [possibly] lurking in the shadows.”
So much is happening at once in the SCO bankruptcy. Novell has filed a Response [PDF] to SCO’s Notice of Cure Amounts. Oracle has filed a limited objection [PDF] to SCO’s Notice of Cure Amounts and is sending in a lawyer [PDF]. IBM is adding yet another lawyer, Noah J. Phillips [PDF]. Oracle has a claim listed on Exhibit A [also continued here], but it says it has no clue what contract is involved.
Watch this one too. SCO is now trying to portray itself as a victim. Groklaw writes:
Dude, Novell won. You lost. Get over it. No one harmed you if you don’t own the copyrights. And if the contract says Novell can block your litigious moves, that’s what the judge said the contract says. That isn’t harm to you. It’s harm to Novell that it had to go into court and deal with bogus claims to establish the obvious. As for IBM, I believe it is going to wipe the floor with you, as I’m certain you know by now, even if by some miracle the copyrights became yours after all. That’s because you have been unable to demonstrate any meaningful infringement.
Things are going to get interesting on Monday. Knowing SCO, it is possible that it will pull some money from somewhere in order to pursue more litigation against Linux, never mind the clout of bankruptcy. █
“…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
