Microsoft And SCO Group: What's So Secret? (TechWeb)

Posted Mar 9, 2004 21:53 UTC (Tue) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020) [Link]

Imagine you don't know much about this situation and you read this
article, what would your impression be?

From the article:

"The conspiracy theory gained what seemed like a shred of evidence when
Eric Raymond, the outspoken open-source advocate who sometimes uses satire
to make his points, got his hands on a leaked E-mail message that,
interpreted a certain way, implicates Microsoft in a money-making scheme
for SCO. It seems to imply--and I say "seems" because the E-mail message
in question is anything but clear and comprehensive--that Microsoft had a
role last October in engineering a $50 million investment in SCO that was
led by BayStar Capital. SCO, in fact, acknowledged the authenticity of the
message, but it described the contents as "a misunderstanding" by its
author, an outside consultant. Microsoft, meanwhile, put out a statement
describing Raymond's analysis as "inaccurate" and denying any ties to
BayStar."

1) He takes great pains to discredit the "conspiracy theory". Note the
phrases "gained what seemed like a shred of evidence", "interpreted a
certain way", "the E-mail message in question is anything but clear".

2) He attempts to convince the audience of Eric Raymond's bias.
"Outspoken open-source advocate who sometimes uses satire to make his
points". The e-mail was authenticated by SCO, what does Eric's bias have
to do with an authentic e-mail? The truth of a statement is not
determined by who said it.

3) He never mentions any specifics from the e-mail, just does what he can
to dismiss it.