Looking for Indemnification While Linux Sales Double (O'ReillyNet)

Looking for Indemnification While Linux Sales Double (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Jun 30, 2004 10:27 UTC (Wed) by Duncan (guest, #6647)
In reply to: Looking for Indemnification While Linux Sales Double (O'ReillyNet) by allesfresser
Parent article: Looking for Indemnification While Linux Sales Double (O'ReillyNet)

Not so FUDdish to me. More like the way biz people (as opposed to tech
people) tend to think. It's also an example of the same phenom that
caused SCO stock to stay so high for so long, when there were absolutely
zero technicals to keep it there, only the fact that enough biz
folks /thought/ it should be there that it stayed there.

A biz owner or C?O should be concerned about the possibility of a SCO
suit. Despite the likelihood that SCO will ultimately lose, in the mean
time it can dramatically affect sales and relationships with other peers,
as well as the stock price or equity valuation if private for lines of
credit and the like. It's a real concern, and that's what the article
reflected.

OTOH, the article ALSO reflected the fact that what would /ordinarily/ be
something of a disaster, now seems to be treated as more business as
usual, nothing serious at all. The author didn't opin much on this,
except to reflect on how unusual it was, and that's appropriate for the
type of article it was. However, what it means for the biz owner/c?o
investigating Linux is that the ordinary aversion to litigation barely
applies at all in this case -- the all-critical relationship to peers and
partners isn't likely to be affected much if at all, as it's simply being
treated as an ordinary fact of business, nothing unusual or to be worried
about. It /could/ affect stock price or credit worthiness to some greater
extent, but even that seems to be less of an issue every day, as the
markets finally absorb what the technicians have been saying for over a
year, now.

All that said, a prudent business person will have contemplated the
options and will understand not only the potential risk (or lack thereof),
but will have coverage and an action plan in place, should the bad
actually come to pass. This article simply provided a /very/ basic
introduction to the types of things such a biz person should be
considering. It would be in /none/ of our best interests if such a biz
person, /not/ being informed, rolled over to SCO like a submissive puppy,
and one aware of the issues BEFORE they get that demand letter is far LESS
likely to do so.

IOW, the article was a fairly balance if /very/ brief and slightly
misinformed (re OSRM, see the other thread) treatment, from a biz person
perspective, not the technician's perspective most of us here on LWN are
likely to have.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Duncan

---

(Log in to post comments)