12.19.09
Updates on Microsoft-funded SCO Attack on Novell, Novell’s EU Case and Settlement
“[Microsoft's] Mr. Emerson and I discussed a variety of investment structures wherein Microsoft would ‘backstop,’ or guarantee in some way, BayStar’s investment…. Microsoft assured me that it would in some way guarantee BayStar’s investment in SCO.”
–Larry Goldfarb, Baystar, key investor in SCO
Summary: How Novell is being legally screwed by Microsoft, as suggested by this week’s news
THE following articles are hopefully detailed enough to shed light without further commentary.
• [SCO's] Ch. 11 Trustee Cahn Opposes SUSE’s Motion to Lift Stay
Edward Cahn, SCO’s appointed Chapter 11 Trustee, now making decisions for SCO, has filed an opposition to SUSE’s request to lift the bankruptcy stay so the arbitration can go forward. And Al Petrofsky has filed a motion pro se demanding that SCO file its missing MORs.
The Cahn objection to SUSE’s request can be summed up simply. SCO has limited funds, and Cahn doesn’t want to spend them on the arbitration. The trial in Utah is set for March, and if SCO loses and the jury decides it doesn’t own the copyrights, then there will be no need for the arbitration to go forward. If, on the other hand, it wins, then it can proceed with the arbitration issues because, as footnote 5 puts it, “resources may become available to the Debtors if they prevail at trial”. SCO has to pay the lawyers for the Swiss arbitration. That is not covered by the agreement with Boies Schiller, and the lawyers in Europe are on top of that. Then they’d have to hire experts. Cahn tells the court that it should defer to his judgment on how to proceed in the various litigations.
• Answering SCO [Lies] Bit by Bit – The Robert Swartz Memo, Take 2
So, where is the big payday going to come from? No. Really. What SCO’s new management needs to ask is this: are we being given good legal advice in this instance?
• Answering SCO [Lies] Bit by Bit: a.out.h, errno.h and the GPL
I find include/linux/a.out.h and include/asm-i386/errno.h as well as the name of a Caldera employee, Torsten Duwe, and the GPL referenced, as well as the credit to Caldera Systems and a mention of calderalabs.com. The CD is copyrighted 2000, and printed on the CD it says that source code for OpenLinux eServer 2.3 was available at www.calderasystems.com/eServer. It’s available on the CD as well, happily, since SCO has removed the page listed on the CD, as they have so much that Groklaw published that shows they have been serving up an order of baloney.
So I opened it up from the CD in emacs, linux-kernel-include-2.2.14-1S.i386.rpm, and there’s the very a.out.h and errno.h files listed as verboten, as big as life, in Caldera’s very own product…
• Blank Rome Adds a Lawyer, Regina Stango Kelbon
• The Microsoft Saga Comes to an End (Novell’s role also mentioned here)
Among others, the objections came from companies like Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA) and Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL). The major grievance was the companies’ bundling of software packages alongside Microsoft Windows.
Is it not ironic that Novell and Microsoft are now allies? Microsoft led its opposition to virtually deserting a key case over systematic abuses. █
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