SCO News Roundup: 9/5 SNR

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

9/5 SNR

In the long-stalled IBM case, the parties told Kimball what they think his Novell ruling means for SCO v. IBM. IBM says SCO's case is dead, SCO begs to differ, film at 11. SCO's entire strategy at this point is to assume a successful second bite at the Novell apple, so they're not going to concede anything voluntarily, just in case. In other words, both parties agree SCO's got a house of cards going, with the Novell case at its base. IBM argues that since the base has collapsed, the whole house of cards falls down, because that's what houses of cards do. SCO disagrees, and would prefer to freeze the IBM cards in midair while attempting to insert replacement Novell cards beneath them.

Okay. Yeah. Let us know how that works out for ya.

There's a CBR story, and naturally GL's coverage includes all the filings and such.
SCO's been making noises about an appeal. As we've discussed earlier, they can't file one until the rulings they want to appeal are Officially Final, but that isn't stopping them from waving it around for the PR/FUD value. A reporter at MarketWatch picked up the story, mistakenly reporting that SCO had already filed an appeal. The mistake is sort of understandable; companies usually don't put on a big song and dance about appealing without actually filing anything.

The story does mention that Novell is Darl's former employer, an angle you don't see discussed very often. The clear implication is that there's some sort of personal vendetta going on. There's no way to know if that's true without peering into the twisty little passages of Darl's mind, of course, but I'm pleased the notion is occurring to people out there. SCO's dumping all of its resources into the irrational pursuit of a lost cause, and it's only natural to wonder why. In the beginning, outside observers could've reasonably concluded SCO was fighting for its legal rights as it perceived them, or at least that it was trying to maximize shareholder value by landing a big settlement or buyout deal, or something. Now, not so much. Unless the stars realign dramatically on SCO's behalf in the near future, they aren't getting a single red cent out of either Novell or IBM, and that's not even slowing them down. The case was filed out of greed, but continues (if you ask me) because of denial and the fragile male ego, and not much else.
Also on the appeal front, Paul McDougall interviewed Darl the other day. McDougall lobs him a few sofball questions so he can shill the appeal angle. Basically the same stuff they've been offering since Kimball ruled: Optimism about the noncompete with Novell, a non sequitur about the Monterey source code, all kinds of excitement about SCO's products, etc. He does say SCO might sell the Me Inc. "business" to raise cash if they need to. I think I've said this before, but if it happens, look for it to be a less-than-arm's-length arrangement. Depending on how the cases are going, the buyer might pay a premium as a way to pump more cash into SCO, or the buyer might pick it up for a song, if they're trying to strip the assets out of the company prior to BK and/or final judgement in the courtroom.

At the end, Darl tries to talk tough:

If you get knocked down seven times, you get up eight. We took a knock down, but it's not in our DNA to stay down.

Well, duh. If you're a fan of cheesy B monster movies like I am, you know the creature never stays down the first time. It might be short a couple of paper mache tentacles, but it always pops up again, just long enough for the heroine to scream a little more, and then our hero dispatches it with a little help from the modern miracle of DDT, or uranium, or some such.

But good luck finding a judge who allows eight do-overs. Ain't gonna happen, no matter how gritty and determined you think you are.
Going to the court of appeals isn't the only way to get a do-over. As with all other adverse rulings, they're begging Kimball to reconsider. Because that's worked out so well for them in the past, I guess.

The arguments they present are basically the same ones they want to talk to the appeals court about. I suppose it looks a little better on appeal if you at least tried to get your arguments in front of the first judge at some point. That's what I think this is really all about; they can't seriously think Kimball will buy their latest spin, can they?

There's a CBR story about this move too.
The parties are even fighting over jury instructions now. SCO essentially proposes to ignore the recent PSJ unpleasantness, and would like the jury to consider whether they owe Novell any money or not, even though Kimball already ruled that they did.

Of course, all of this hinges on whether there's a jury trial or not. I think at this point I'd prefer there wasn't one, if for no other reason than a jury trial is what SCO's been hoping for all this time. I think they're hoping they'll get a low-quality, ultra-gullible jury, full of people who'll rule in favor of whoever they like the most, or whoever puts on the best dog and pony show, regardless of what the law says or what the facts are. That's the only way SCO has a chance, after all. I don't think most juries are quite that bad, even in Utah, but there's a nonzero probability of ending up with one. So why risk it, if you don't absolutely have to?
Couple of other GL articles, so we're up to date: A boatload of filings last Friday, plus more yesterday
One theory about the current appeals nonsense is that it's the only way to keep the SCO saga going until Vista SP1 finally ships, currently set for Q1 next year. In the linked article there's an unintentionally revealing quote that illustrates the M$ worldview:

"Frankly, the world wasn't 100 percent ready for Windows Vista," Corporate Vice President Mike Sievert said in an interview at Microsoft's recent partner conference in Denver.

Oh, riiiight, it's all the world's fault.
One of the best Vista slams I've seen, from PC Magazine oddly enough, in which the OS is likened to the wares of the Sirius Cybernetics corporation. "Share and Enjoy!"
On the Linux gadget front, the latest word is that the Palm Foleo won't see the light of day after all. That's disappointing. A lot of critics bashed the thing, but I still say if Apple had brought out a device with the exact same specs the media would've danced in the streets.

The Palm execs say they still believe in the concept and hope to someday introduce a Foleo-like gadget, but without giving even a vague timeline for when that might happen.