PCLinuxOnline initiates community boycott of SCO

Posted Mar 8, 2003 4:52 UTC (Sat) by erat (guest, #21) [Link]

I don't like how the Mormon church is being dragged into this, I don't like the idea of folks' home addresses and phone numbers being seeked (public info or not, harassing these people at home -- dragging their families into the mess -- is wrong), I especially dislike the new crusade against all Canopy Group companies (propogated by Bruce Perens, based on lots of guessing and almost no hard facts)... I could go on, but I won't.

The Linux community has a chance to show that it's not full of nuts like some folks outside our community would like to believe. However, looking at how quickly this situation is degenerating, I have to guess that I may be once again embarassed by the association. In spite of this ridiculous lawsuit, I still maintain my belief that Linux's worst enemy may end up being its own users.

Don't screw this up, folks. Boycott all you want, but remember that there are lines that should not be crossed. Keep it simple and keep it legal, and for heaven's sake DON'T make our community look like a bunch of out of control lunatics. We're supposed to be better, remember?

Posted Mar 9, 2003 2:18 UTC (Sun) by lseubert (guest, #4168) [Link]

Follow The Money!

Go after the owners and clients of SCO.
- Voice protests to the owners of SCO.
- Write to the CEOs and CTOs of SCO client companies and suggest that it is in their own best interest to pursue alternative software choices.

Attack the SCOsource division within SCO. It is the key to SCO's future survival.

Let the non-SCO members of the Canopy Group alone - they do not own or control SCO. Let our Linux friends alone - they are already putting the hurt on SCO. Even the United Linux consortium members are hurting SCO far more than they are helping it. Focus the protest activities and energy on where it will do the most good.

Rationale:

In order to initiate *effective* protest action against SCO, a for-profit corporation, one must first follow the money.

Therefore, let us ask:

1) Who owns SCO, i.e. invests money in SCO?
2) Who buys product from SCO, i.e. gives money to SCO?
3) Who competes with SCO, i.e. takes potential sales from SCO?

In answering these questions, we will be able to focus on how to directly and indirectly influence and/or attack SCO, and who to avoid protesting against because they are SCO's competitors.

The following web pages provide information to help answer these questions.

SCO (aka Caldera International Inc) SEC Financial Statements:
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/srch-edgar?text=company-name%3D%28CALDERA+INTERNATIONAL+INC%2FUT%29&first=1993&last=2003&mode=Simple

List of SCO Clients:
http://www.sco.com/company/success/
http://www.sco.com/company/success/summaries.html

List of SCO Competitors - x86 Hardware Compatible Unix Clone Software Providers:
http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/
http://www.freebsd.org/
http://netbsd.org/
http://openbsd.org/

1) Who owns SCO?

Scroll about halfway down this page to "Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management":
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1102542/000104746903007344/a2104670z10-ka.htm

The Canopy Group Inc (aka Raymond Noorda), John R. Wall, Ralph J. Yarro III, and Darcy Mott own substantial numbers of shares in SCO.

These are the organization and people who own and control SCO. They are the people who we want to communicate with, and inform of our displeasure.

Most of Canopy is owned by the Noorda Family Trust. Refer to the Canopy Group SEC filings for this info:
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/srch-edgar?text=company-name%3D%28CANOPY+GROUP+INC%29&first=1993&last=2003&mode=Simple

Raymond Noorda, for the most part, owns and runs the Noorda Family Trust which mostly owns and runs Canopy.

Please note: The Canopy Group owns portions of a number of other companies:
http://www.canopy.com/portfolio/index.htm

These companies do not own SCO. Nor do they control SCO. Some of them have a very tenuous relationship to Canopy itself. Protesting against these companies is a waste of energy and effort.

Follow the money! Who directly owns SCO, and who buys SCO product - this is where the protest activities should be directed.

2) Who buys product from SCO?

Simple enough:
http://www.sco.com/company/success/
http://www.sco.com/company/success/summaries.html

These are the companies that provide SCO with revenues by purchasing SCO products and licenses. If you want to hurt SCO sales, then contact the CEOs and CTOs of these companies and inform them about why they should consider competitive alternatives to SCO software.

Also, and most importantly, SCO anticipates increased revenues from its licensing activities. This is part of the new SCOsource division, which is directly behind the IBM lawsuit. SCO CEO McBride has stated that he expects up to $10 million in new licensing revenues from SCOsource in the coming fiscal quarter. Free software advocates need to think of ways to hinder and/or block this lucrative and profitable new revenue stream. SCO could conceivably cut all its other operations and survive on this kind of growing revenue base alone.

See these reference links:
http://www.sco.com/scosource/
http://ir.sco.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=99965
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030226/law059_1.html

SCOsource is the future of SCO. As Unixware and OpenServer and the rest SCO's Unix software business dies, SCO plans to turn itself into an IP toll collector. Attack SCOsource, and you attack SCO's future and continued existence. (The question remains, how the free software community can do this legally and effectively. Suggestions?)

And since SCOsource is behind the IBM lawsuit, this is why it is paramount that IBM not lose OR settle that lawsuit; NOR buy out SCO and pay off its senior management. Only total IBM victory is acceptable. Otherwise, SCO and its Unix IP will survive, and SCO or its successor will next attack other Linux companies that can't afford, or don't have the time, to fight such lawsuits.

3) Who competes with SCO?

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Who are SCO's enemies in the software business? Any organization that produces an x86 compatible Unix-like or Unix-clone operating system with System V compatibility is a direct competitor with SCO. This includes most x86 compatible Linux distributions and all of the BSDs.

By their very existence and continued success, the Linux distros and the BSDs are hammering away every single day at SCO. They are undermining SCO's business model, taking away paying SCO clients, and directly reducing SCO revenue. They are also destroying the value of SCO's IP portfolio.

Now, some folks have advocated protesting against and boycotting the non-SCO members of United Linux. This would include SuSE, Connectiva, and TurboLinux. But each of these Linux companies produces a product that is in direct competition with SCO's Unix software. They have undermined and attacked SCO for years - doing far more than we Johnny-come-lately protesters have.

Furthermore, SuSE's, Connectiva's, and TurboLinux's participation in United Linux only serves to somewhat help SCO's OpenLinux product, which itself accounts for only 5% of SCO's revenues. Let us focus on where SCO gets 95% of its revenue - Unix software and Unix licensing. SCO's OpenLinux product is small peanuts in the total SCO product portfolio. Whatever aid OpenLinux gets from the United Linux consortium is dwarfed by the damage done to SCO Unix products by the other members of United Linux and their Linux products.

Finally, to a greater or lesser degree, each of these companies has been a good free software community citizen. They have all contributed something back to free software. So how can it be logical to attack these three companies and boycott them? They help the free software community and they hurt SCO.

Please, let us not be mad cannibals about this - the free software community can not afford to eat its own young. Let us choose the targets of our protest actions carefully and wisely. SCO is the enemy, not Linux distros. SCO clients send checks to SCO, and Linux distros take those checks away from SCO when they persuade SCO clients to switch over. SCO's owners and SCO's clients should be the direct targets of any protest actions.

Conclusions:

Follow The Money!

Go after the owners and clients of SCO.
- Voice protests to the owners of SCO.
- Write to the CEOs and CTOs of SCO client companies and suggest that it is in their own best interest to pursue alternative software choices.

Attack the SCOsource division within SCO. It is the key to SCO's future survival.

Let the non-SCO members of the Canopy Group alone - they do not own or control SCO. Let our Linux friends alone - they are already putting the hurt on SCO. Even the United Linux consortium members are hurting SCO far more than they are helping it. Focus the protest activities and energy on where it will do the most good.

Cheers,
Luke Seubert

Posted Mar 13, 2003 9:41 UTC (Thu) by ekj (subscriber, #1524) [Link]

I never bougth anything from them in the first place, nor would I have even considered it prior to this ridiculous lawsuit. Thus boycotting them, for me, consists of carrying on like I would anyway.

Infact, this is likely why they sue in the first place: noone buys anything from them, so they desperately need some other source of income. A billion from IBM would be nice. The market obviously doesn't believe them. They still have a value of around 30 million.