Media Coverage Since the August 10th Ruling
by Pamela Jones
Groklaw
September 13 2007
Part of what Groklaw is doing is making an historical record of the SCO litigation.
Since the August 10th ruling [ http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=20070810205256644
] by Judge Dale Kimball that found that Novell did not transfer the Unix and UnixWare
copyrights to Santa Cruz Operation in the 1995 Asset Purchase Agreement [ http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2003111023050367
], there has been a flurry of media coverage. For the record, then, I thought it
might be useful to collect it all in one place and just for interest's sake put
it in a table along with the stock price on the day the coverage appeared.
Some of it is very good. Some of it is quite funny. My favorite is the headline,
"Linux Users Uneasy at Ruling." Was that between the dancing and the whoops? Maybe
it's the champagne, but I don't remember it at all. So to you historians someday,
trust me, it wasn't like that. All the warning articles that Novell might turn on
Linux and sue over copyright infringement... well, they can't, I don't believe.
Even if they did turn into Mr. Hyde and want to, which they won't [ http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135959-c,unix/article.html
]. Don't you remember Chris Stone's 2004 speech at the Open Source Business Conference
[ http://news.com.com/Novell+plugs+open+source,+dings+SCO/2100-7344_3-5173413.html
] (scroll down to the picture) saying there is no Unix in Linux? That's not even
going into everything they filed in SCO v. Novell. I believe we can rely on that,
not to mention that no one, including SCO -- even after sorting through every lick
of AIX code that humans could produce in the IBM litigation -- could seem to find
any infringement to shake a stick at. And heaven only knows they tried like the
dickens. So who cares who owns the copyrights? If the copyrights are not being infringed,
does it matter? All signs point to no.
All the folks that used to write so much about how SCO would win are mighty quiet
now, I must say. Nor did that crowd tip the hat to Groklaw for calling it right.
For the most part, they pretend they never wrote those other predictions. Others
find it really hard to believe what has happened and some prefer to say that maybe
SCO lost, but they shouldn't have or that it's just one small victory in a story
still to play out fully. Lots of warnings about this story not being over yet. There
do seem to be forces eager to prolong an anti-Linux stench in the air, in the face
of all logic, not to mention reality.
One article from Daniel "What SCO Wants, SCO Gets" Lyons (remember this gem? --
"Linux companies face a nasty foe, yet claim they're not worried. They should be.")
and one from Rob "SCO Should Win" Enderle (remember: "IBM made a serious mistake
in introducing Unix code into Linux without proper notification to — or approval
from — SCO, which is the current, documented owner of Unix."), and then they disappeared.
Enderle says he "stopped following SCO years ago". I think he's being too modest.
Just last summer, he was quoted [ http://www.michaeldolan.com/260 ] by AP, Business
Week and CMP TechWeb opining about a ruling in the SCO v. IBM case and was described
by the last as an analyst who follows the case closely. Lyons opened his article
like this, "At long last, the SCO Group's ugly, often farcical legal crusade against
Linux appears to be over." Well, say. "At long last"? When did he jump ship? OK.
Welcome aboard and all that. Talk about your 180. Paul Murphy was the only one to
admit he was wrong, writing "I would have cheerfully bet real money that this would
never happen."
Paul McDougall is the new champion chronicler of SCO's agony, with more stories
than any other single journalist since August 10, by my count. Either that or he
is sticking in my mind for other reasons. Anyway, I don't remember him playing much
of a role before, but I can't keep track of everything. Maybe he did and I missed
it. But searching for him, I could only find one article from 2003, in September,
which began, "In a counterclaim to a patent-infringement lawsuit filed against it
by the SCO Group, IBM says SCO violated its intellectual property rights..." Anyway,
it does seem like a changing of the guard. And one thing you'll notice is that since
SCO's Darl McBride began talking to the media again, the stock price, which had
slumped on news of the ruling, began to pick up again, particularly after several
stories [ http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2007/08/31/sco-chief-were-not-dead
] began appearing that SCO had filed an appeal, which actually it hadn't.
And there are other indications our educational work is still not done. Two articles
reported the order as a patent loss for SCO. So, once again, slowly: there are no
patents at issue in any SCO litigation, for the simple reason that they don't have
any UNIX or UnixWare patents. That's *another* item that they didn't get under the
APA in 1995, although SCO lawyers have never disputed that exclusion. How then,
a logical mind might inquire, can SCO claim it got everything, lock, stock and barrel?
I have never figured that out.
Anyway, the new FUD cloud is that maybe SCO lost this round, but they'll soldier
on and one day, when you least expect it, they'll find a way to get Linux after
all, or someone will, somehow. In case you enterprise dudes were thinking of switching,
someone appears to want you to think there is still a cloud over Linux. I'd say,
personally, that it's the most picked over code in the history of software, and
it is clean as a whistle. But no one listens to me, which is a shame, because I've
called it right from day one. The other thing that I think is clear now is that
the smear attack on Groklaw has picked up again.
The stock information is from Google [ http://finance.google.com/finance/historical?q=NASDAQ:SCOX
]. I am not a stock person, as you know, so that part of the story isn't as interesting
to me as the legal and the FUD. When I read conversations like this one on Google
[ http://finance.google.com/group/google.finance.664357/browse_thread/thread/adbc95715e5a565d
] SCOX discussion board, I simply marvel and wonder how to get from where I am to
where they are. But I know it is part of the story, so for those who like to track
such things and for history, here's all the media coverage I could find matched
up with what happened with the stock on each particular day. I hope you enjoy it,
because it was a lot of work.
************************************
Date |
Close |
Volume |
Media |
12-Sep-07 |
0.60 |
284,800 |
Battle Over Linux: When a Win May Not be a Win, Larry Downes, CIO
Insight |
11-Sep-07 |
0.72 |
122,400 |
SCO denied fast-track copyright appeal, CBR |
10-Sep-07 |
0.71 |
319,300 |
SCO's Darl McBride remains defiant, The Inquirer;
Did SCO Get Linux Mob Justice?, Roger Parloff, Legalpad Blog, Fortune
[Update: It's 'disappeared', taken down by the "blogger", the 404 page
informs you. However, you can still find it
here, with all the voluminous comments,, which were corrective of
some factual issues in the article.];
No jury for SCO vs. Novell Linux-Watch;
Inside the Mind of the Man Who Tried to Milk Linux, David Kravets,
Wired;
Novell's Objections to SCO's Supplemental Jury Instructions Linux
Today
|
8-Sep-07 |
N/A |
N/A |
Dead Company Walking!, Network World;
SCO can't appeal ruling on copyrights yet, Deseret News
|
7-Sep-07 |
0.63 |
28,400 |
No media coverage. |
6-Sep-07 |
0.65 |
59,500 |
McBride says SCO isn't dead yet, despite legal loss ComputerWorld;
SCO Versus Novell Case Still Very Much Alive, Timothy Prickett Morgan,
IT Jungle
|
5-Sep-07 |
0.63 |
268,500 |
No media coverage. |
4-Sep-07 |
0.61 |
258,700 |
Microsoft To Acquire Group Chat Platform , Redmond Magazine;
SCO asks judge to reconsider IP revenue decision, Computer Business
Review;
IBM Says SCO's legal claims are dead - CBR
|
31-Aug-07 |
0.66 |
504,000 |
SCO Group’s Top Executive Won’t Surrender in Novell, Linux Battles
, Local Tech Wire;
SCO Chief - We're Not Dead, ars technica;
SCO asks judge to fast-track copyright appeal, CBR
|
30-Aug-07 |
0.72 |
1,295,000 |
SCO Appeals Unix Decision, Hard OCP;
Sberbank (Savings Bank Of The Russian Federation) Chooses SCO's OpenServer
6 to Upgrade Thousands of Servers, SCO press release;
SCO appeals Unix ruling, seeks a second act, John Leitzig, MarketWatch;
Interview with Darl McBride, CEO of SCO, Justin Mann, TechSpot;
SCO CEO McBride Speaks Out Novell, Finances, And Groklaw, Paul McDougall,
InformationWeek
|
29-Aug-07 |
0.50 |
374,500 |
SCO Likely To Appeal Novell Ruling, CEO Darl McBride Says, Paul
McDougall, Information Week;
How SCO Helped Linux Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, Linux-Watch
|
28-Aug-07 |
0.51 |
291,600 |
SCO Goes Bust in the Courtroom , Motley Fool |
27-Aug-07 |
0.53 |
177,900 |
No media coverage. |
24-Aug-07 |
0.53 |
269,000 |
No media coverage. |
23-Aug-07 |
0.57 |
723,000 |
SCO Could Face Cash Crunch After Novell Trial , Paul McDougall,
Information Week |
22-Aug-07 |
0.46 |
270,900 |
No media coverage. |
21-Aug-07 |
0.44 |
401,800 |
No media coverage. |
20-Aug-07 |
0.44 |
512,800 |
SCO ruling gives a lift to Linux, Australian IT;
Judge's Ruling Signals 'Game Over' for SCO, ADT Magazine;
What is the Truth About Sun and SCO?, CBR;
Ruling against SCO 'small relief' to Linux users, Todd Weiss, ComputerWorld
UK;
Countdown starts to SCO v. Novell trial, Egan Orian, The Inquirer;
SCO's Impact MacNewsWorld;
huh?
SCO and knowing what I don’t know, Paul Murphy, ZDNet
|
19-Aug-07 |
N/A |
N/A |
Grokking SCO's Demise, Frank Hayes, ComputerWorld;
Linux Users Uneasy at Ruling, PC World
|
17-Aug-07 |
0.38 |
217,400 |
SCO Mulls Options After Court Strikes Company's Unix Claims , Paul
McDougall, Charles Babcock, Information Week;
Whither SCO?, Sean Michael Kerner, Internet News;
Down To Business: SCO Affair: Time To Take Stock (And A Few Shots),
Rob Preston, Information Week;
Business as Usual, Says SCO, PC World;
SCO CEO hints at copyright appeal, Matthew Aslett, Computer Business
Review
|
16-Aug-07 |
0.38 |
342,100 |
SCO CEO McBride "Disappointed" By Novell Ruling, Paul McDougall,
Information Week;
Novell Won't Pull a SCO, The Register;
SCO vs. Novell: The Last Word Has Yet To Be Said , Seeking Alpha
|
15-Aug-07 |
0.38 |
776,400 |
SCO Loses Case, And...? , Redmond Channel Partner;
Ruling a further blow to SCO as it faces an increasingly bleak future,
The Guardian;
Podcast:
SCO’s nosedive, BTL, ZDNet;
Novell Won't Pursue Unix Copyrights, PC World;
Where
does SCO go from here?, BTL, ZDNet;
Court ruling dispels cloud over Linux , eSchoolNews
|
14-Aug-07 |
0.37 |
1,209,700 |
Judge rules Novell owns Unix copyright, not firm suing, The Canadian
Press;
SCO Tumbles As Court Says Novell Controls Unix, Seeking Alpha;
SCO: Going, going, gone?, Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld;
SCO fans? What SCO fans?, InfoWorld ;
Increased Linux Use With SCO's Defeat Predicted, Slashdot ;
To Groklaw's 'Pamela Jones': Get Your Facts Straight, Paul McDougall,
InformationWeek ;
SCO stock nosedives after court rulingUtah Daily Herald ;
SCO Group: Mini-Me trying to be Darth Vader, ComputerWorld;
SCO Shares Plummet to 40 Cents on Courtroom Loss to Novell, Walaika
Haskins, TechNewsWorld;
SCO explores its options after copyright defeat, Computer Business
Review;
SCO loses
long-running UNIX case, Out-Law;
Ruling suggests SCO knew it did not own Unix, Computer Business
Review;
Rats leave SCO's sinking ship, Nick Farrell, Inquirer;
SCO Doesn’t Own Linux Or “What Happens To Patent Trolls”, CrunchGear;
SCO's estranged relationship with Linux, IT PRO;
Judge Kimball: Novell, not SCO Group, is the owner of Unix copyrights,
The Money Times, India;
A Tale of Two SCOs, Michael J. Jordan, Linux Online;
Novell does not want to be the next SCO, InfoWorld
|
13-Aug-07 |
0.44 |
5,968,600 |
Judge Says Novell, Not SCO, is Rightful UNIX Copyright Owner , Windows
IT Pro;
SCO stock drops 72% , TG Daily;
SCO Claim To Unix Dead in the Water, NetworkWorld;
SCO: What Difference Did It Make?, Rob Enderle, IT Business Edge;
Investors bailing on SCO stock, SCOX plummets, Ryan Paul, ars technica;
The Dog Fight Over Linux, Rob Preston, InformationWeek;
SCO loses major court ruling in UNIX lawsuit, TechRepublic;
SCO
loses ruling on Unix copyrights, Electric News, Ireland;
Legal Ruling Removes Open-Source Cloud, CNNMoney;
SCO Thwarted In Unix Decision, WebProNews;
Judge rules that Novell not SCO owns UNIX copyrights, Ovum;
SCO blow in copyright fight (and musical nukes), ComputerWorld;
Novell Sold Code To SCO, Retained Copyright; Game Over?, InformationWeek;
Novell's Victory Over SCO Could Have Downside For Linux Users, InformationWeek;
SCO Suit Bites the Dust, Novell Gets Closure, Jennifer LeClair,
CIO Today;
Novel Defeats SCO in Unix Copyright Ruling, Digitaltrends;
Legal Battle Over Unix, Open Source Isn’t Over, SCO Warns, Rick
Smith, WRAL;
SCO Vows to Fight for Linux Rights, PC World;
SCO 'disappointed' as shares plunge 70 per cent, Ashlee Vance, The
Register;
Who owns Linux? Not SCO, Salon;
SCO Shares Plummet In Novell Ruling Aftermath, Paul McDougall, InformationWeek;
Novell shares up after court victory over SCO, Salt Lake Tribune;
Microsoft, Novell and the big SCO ruling, Seattle Post Intelligencer;
Patent Ruling Smacks SCO Group, TheStreet;
Novell defeats SCO in Unix copyright case, ZDNet UK;
Delay in SCO justice gives Microsoft hope, Open Source, ZDNet;
SCO defeat in Linux copyright case, CBR;
SCO set for defeat in Linux case, Nancy Gohring, TechWorld;
SCO: ’Tis But a Flesh Wound, All Things Digital;
An End to the SCO Saga — Maybe, IT Business Edge;
SCO shares dip 71% in light of court findings, Justin Mann, TechSpot;
Judge rules Novel, not SCO, owns Unix copyrights, ComputerWeekly;
SCO loses major court ruling in UNIX lawsuit, Tech Republic
|
12-Aug-07 |
N/A |
N/A |
International Herald Tribune, Tech, IHT;
A
comment about SCO/Novell, Paul Murphy, ZDNet;
SCO PR and voice mail: slipping?, LinuxWorld;
Big 'No' To SCO, Daniel Lyons, Forbes;
Groklaw's Pamela Jones On The SCO Decision, Alexander Wolfe, InformationWeek;
SCO never owned UNIX copyrights, owes Novell 95 percent of UNIX,
ars technica
|
11-Aug-07 |
N/A |
N/A |
Court Ruling Gives Novell Copyright in Unix System, Wall St. Journal;
Another nail in SCO’s
Linux lawsuit coffin, BTL, ZDNet;
Novell Owns Unix Copyright, Not SCO Group, Judge Says, Bloomberg;
The Future of Linux Still Dark, 24/7 Wall St.;
SCO's KIA, but what about the rest of the troopers? - Linux-Watch;
For sale: SCO "Got Unix in Your Linux?" T-shirt, CBR;
Novell wins Unix victory over SCO, Egan Orion, The Inquirer;
All over for
SCO in Novell case, HTML FIX IT
|
10-Aug-07 |
1.56 |
68,900 |
SCO Goes Down in Flames, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, Linux-Watch;
Judge: Novell owns intellectual property in Linux case, MarketWatch;
SCO loses its claim to Unix copyright Paul Beebe, Salt Lake Tribune
|
9-Aug-07 |
1.50 |
197,700 |
No media coverage. |
8-Aug-07 |
1.56 |
92,300 |
No media coverage. |
Here's what it all looked like the quiet month before the ruling:
***********************************
Date |
Close |
Volume |
7-Aug-07 |
1.45 |
60,900 |
6-Aug-07 |
1.46 |
34,800 |
3-Aug-07 |
1.47 |
28,200 |
2-Aug-07 |
1.51 |
55,800 |
1-Aug-07 |
1.53 |
33,300 |
31-Jul-07 |
1.48 |
157,400 |
30-Jul-07 |
1.50 |
134,300 |
27-Jul-07 |
1.55 |
60,700 |
26-Jul-07 |
1.51 |
92,100 |
25-Jul-07 |
1.50 |
185,400 |
24-Jul-07 |
1.57 |
113,700 |
23-Jul-07 |
1.63 |
84,600 |
20-Jul-07 |
1.55 |
135,600 |
19-Jul-07 |
1.55 |
528,800 |
18-Jul-07 |
1.40 |
61,200 |
17-Jul-07 |
1.49 |
87,600 |
16-Jul-07 |
1.38 |
37,800 |
13-Jul-07 |
1.36 |
48,400 |
12-Jul-07 |
1.39 |
370,100 |
11-Jul-07 |
1.30 |
31,700 |
10-Jul-07 |
1.33 |
21,600 |
9-Jul-07 |
1.30 |
24,400 |
6-Jul-07 |
1.26 |
31,500 |
5-Jul-07 |
1.32 |
23,000 |
3-Jul-07 |
1.29 |
61,200 |
I can't forget the UserFriendly Cartoons:
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070812
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070813
http://ars.userfriendly.org/ cartoons/?id=20070814
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070815
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070816
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070817
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070818
02:02 AM EDTT
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