HP to indemnify Linux customers (News.com) [LWN.net]

According to this brief News.com article, HP has taken the bait and decided to indemnify its Linux customers against suits from SCO. "'We really thought about it and we decided we were just going to move forward and assume all risk ourselves,' the representative said. 'This is what we want to do to protect our customers.'"

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HP to indemnify Linux customers (News.com)

Posted Sep 24, 2003 12:48 UTC (Wed) by TheOneKEA (subscriber, #615) [Link]

I wonder if this is because HP is trying to play it safe in case SCO's case actually holds water, which after their rebuttal of Red Hat, seems overwhelmingly unlikely, or if it's something a little less noble, i.e. "We offer indemnification against SCO! Buy our Linux boxen!"

HP to indemnify Linux customers (News.com)

Posted Sep 24, 2003 12:56 UTC (Wed) by dark (subscriber, #8483) [Link]

Sounds more like the other way around. Would YOU indemnify your customers if you thought SCO had a chance in court?

It looks like they decided that SCO was full of it and wanted to reassure their customers. That's good business sense (and business ethics), as long as they don't then turn around and cast FUD on other vendors.

HP to indemnify Linux customers (News.com)

Posted Sep 24, 2003 19:37 UTC (Wed) by huaz (guest, #10168) [Link]

This is not a good comment for good business practive of HP. This kind of comments hurt Linux, actually.

HP to indemnify Linux customers (News.com)

Posted Sep 25, 2003 17:12 UTC (Thu) by spitzak (subscriber, #4593) [Link]

If they were worried in the slightest about even the tiniest chance of
liability, they would have done something like indemnify only *new*
customers, ie you have to pay something to get this protection. Such a
move would get them some income to offset the liability and would serve
exactly the same publicity purposes. Why assumme even one cent of
possible liability for customers who have already paid them? Obviously
they estimate the liability as zero.

HP to indemnify Linux customers (News.com)

Posted Sep 24, 2003 13:26 UTC (Wed) by dusty (guest, #14668) [Link]

Yeah it sounds like they have decided that SCO was full of it. HP can now say with confidence that their customers are indemnified because HP sees that SCO is going to fail. Is this a vote of confidence by HP on the GPL? Or is it another silly marketing ploy? I would think that the GPL imdeminifies customers of whoever runs Linux-GNU not corporations etc.

HP to indemnify Linux customers (News.com)

Posted Sep 24, 2003 14:16 UTC (Wed) by rosie (guest, #4418) [Link]

And of course, SCO had a ready reply. Check out http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030924/law056_1.html . As pure speculation, I'd bet that SCO had this press release ready in case anyone took their bait.

I have to say, this is gearing up to be an interesting battle. HP, IBM, and a host of newer companies versus SCO and Microsoft --- with Sun apparently playing on both sides of the fence. All we need is for Apple to jump into the fray, and we'll have a real Silicon Valley drama....

hp vs Sun

Posted Sep 24, 2003 15:01 UTC (Wed) by leonbrooks (guest, #1494) [Link]

No surprises there. And hp may well win in the end because they're not so tied to overpriced hardware. Certainly, indemnifying your customers carries approximately zero risk, and a possible opportunity to make bucketloads of brownie points if, as I suspect, TSG either starts suing hp customers out of hand or cuts the Gordian knot and sues hp direct. They need to do something to keep the suc^Winvestors on the edges of their seats.