[Talk] SCO vs. IBM - the gloves come off...

Leon Brooks leon at cyberknights.com.au
Fri Jun 20 14:00:10 EST 2003


On Fri, 20 Jun 2003 11:35, david.newall at auug.org.au wrote:
> Greg Rose <ggr at qualcomm.com> wrote:
>>> Just suppose SCO wins.  Just suppose IBM continues to distribute
>>> AIX in the mean time.  Having won, it will be clear that IBM have
>>> violated SCO's copyright.  Would you, were you in IBM's legal
>>> team, permit that risk? The damages would be astronomical, not to
>>> mention that the board would almost certainly be criminaly
>>> negligent (they have a duty of care to their shareholders.)

>> If SCO wins, they will be given damages for *all* the copies of AIX
>> that were distributed since the act of breaching copyright
>> occurred, some years ago according to SCO.

> I see that there are now *two* issues between SCO and IBM.  For the
> first issue, SCO must prove that IBM misappropriated IP.  For the
> second issue, being distribution of AIX without a licence, IBM must
> prove that SCO had no right to cancel the licence.  That puts IBM on
> somewhat shakier grounds.

AFAICT, that's bass-ackwards. SCO have to show valid cause for 
cancelling the contract. They don't seem to be in a rush to actually 
*get* an injunction so far, do they?

Given that SCO (as Caldera) exported a whole machine to England 
expressly for the purpose of developing Linux SMP code, that military 
exports charge a tough row to hoe in the "unclean hands" department 
alone. And now these meatheads have caused this hypocritical charge to 
become an indelible part of the Court record. <thwack!>

This is SCO, please check in your sanity at the door. And when all is 
said and done, an awful lot more will have been said than done.

Cheers; Leon

-- 
http://cyberknights.com.au/     Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/       Committee Member, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/            Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/            Committee Member, Linux Australia




More information about the Talk mailing list