August 06, 2003

Spurious Claims Organisation

SCO now say that they'll leave you and your Linux box alone if you give them $1,399. (But for you, my friend, if you're quick, the price is only $699.) It's a steal!

Meanwhile, everyone's suing everyone else.

Back in the real world, Eben Moglen explains why SCO's claims look strange and full of ill intent, even to a lawyer. Perhaps the most interesting bit of his essay is this:

Imagine the literary equivalent of SCO's current bluster: Publishing house A alleges that the bestselling novel by Author X topping the charts from Publisher B plagiarizes its own more obscure novel by Author Y. "But," the chairman of Publisher A announces at a news conference, "we're not suing Author X or Publisher B; we're only suing all the people who bought X's book. They have to pay us for a license to read the book immediately, or we’ll come after them." That doesn’t happen, because that’s not the law.

It may not be the law, but it's clearly what SCO's rich friends would like them to do. Coincidence?

Posted by timo at August 6, 2003 09:29 PM | TrackBack
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