How I think this might go [LWN.net]

How I think this might go

Posted Aug 4, 2003 22:11 UTC (Mon) by BrucePerens (subscriber, #2510)
Parent article: A look at Red Hat's complaint

So, Red Hat is suing for a judical determination of non-infringement. This has been discussed before among non-profit advocacy groups, including several with the resources to bring a lawsuit. Most did not feel it was worth pursuing - for us. However, we're happy to see Red Hat do it.

SCO's obvious strategy would be to delay this suit as long as possible. Red Hat might be able to fight that, in part, by calling for injunctive relief (in a separate proceeding), since they can probably demonstrate that there is continuing damage to their business. It would be nice if we could get SCO under an injunction that would modify their behavior until the completion of this case. I have no idea how possible that is.

The biggest disappointment waiting for the Open Source community is that neither in this case nor the IBM one will we get to see the evidence. SCO will claim that it is proprietary, trade secret, etc., and will get the judge to place their evidence under a protective order. That's sort of like a non-disclosure agreement, but worse. Then Red Hat and the court will be able to see SCO's presentations, but not you or me. If the cases go to settlement, we may not even see a verdict or much of the proceedings.

I would much rather see the cases go to a verdict, but I doubt SCO would allow that. With a verdict, there is the potential for the free software developers (who have as a class been libeled and damaged) to bring their own class action in a much more economical way than if we had to fight the first case. For damages, I would ask the court to cause SCO to transfer their copyrights to FSF. There's poetic justice in that.

Bruce

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How I think this might go

Posted Aug 5, 2003 1:10 UTC (Tue) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link]

It's not all that necessary to get SCO under an injunction that modifies their behavior if their actions in this case hurt their credibility sufficiently. If SCO appears to be stalling, and Red Hat appears to be confidant, especially after evidence is disclosed to Red Hat, analysts can't miss the sharp difference between SCO's behavior in court and in the press, and it won't matter what they say. They've recovered 2/3 of the hit their stock took from this news by saying they're looking for to proving their claims in court; if they seem to delay, it becomes clear this is not the case, and the whole thing looks like a scam.

How I think this might go

Posted Aug 7, 2003 8:59 UTC (Thu) by jschrod (subscriber, #1646) [Link]

The whole thing already looks like a scam, even many analysts acknowledge that.

Those who invest currently in SCO stock, bet on short- and mid-term wins because it is a scam.

Joachim