Microsoft Not Underwriting SCO's Legal Fees?

An anonymous reader wrote in to say "Linux Business Week carries this morning a claim that Microsoft only bought a Unix license from SCO Group because there's been a prior development project underway at Redmond that warranted it. "The license was not seen as a way to underwrite SCO's legal fees," says a source within the company. "The idea of getting a SCO license had been under consideration prior to the IBM lawsuit." "

Of Course they Didn't

[Anonymous Coward]

They wouldn't do a thing like that. Now would they?

In your best Dr. Evil voice

[truthsearch]

<voice style="Dr. Evil"> Riiiiiiiiiight </voice>

Exactly.

[Anonymous Coward]

"The idea of getting a SCO license had been under consideration prior to the IBM lawsuit."

Exactly. They thought of it (the lawsuit), then implemented it.

right on.

[RMH101]

shall we end this discussion now?

APP Network News...

[defishguy]

Dateline OZ.... As reported earlier the Wicked Witch and her consortium of mean little monkeys has licensed rights to the Ruby Slippers from Glenda the Good Witch. Glenda, who is suffering financial problems, and was unable to leverage her IP against the Dorothy Corp (NYSE-DC) and with little opportunities elswhere in the Good Witch market it was assumed that the Good Witch franchise (NYSE-GWF) would soon collapse under the weight of farm houses. Timing IS everything!

Every day a lesson on monopolies

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft is starting to remind me of the pyromaniac character in the Movie backdraft. (Donald Sutherland)

"Tell me Ronald, what you would you do with the world if you could do anything you wanted?"

*trembling, eager voice*

"I would burn it! Burn it all!"

or

"Develop them! Develop them all!"

Re:meh...

[Loosewire]

look at how they thwarted the DOJ.
why has no one made the joke "Dodged the DOJ"

From the Article...

[tclark]

Then the suit came along. The lawsuit was seen as indirect supporting our position on the value of IP. Since other software vendors who depend on software licenses haven't been exactly falling all over themselves to support our position, seeing something that supported it was welcome. The idea of going ahead with the license was initially motivated by wanting to make a statement reinforcing everything we've been saying about IP.

Translation: SCO was looking to f*** over Linux and IBM, and we liked that. Most of the other software vendors, traitorous bastards that they are, have been all too happy to port their stuff over to Linux.

And ...

[altp]

And penguins might fly outta my butt.

Oh right..

[MongooseCN]

"I didn't mean to give that gun and 10,000$ cash to the murderer just before he killed my *&*(&$# cheating POS ex-wife. It was pure coincidence."

More MS/SCO news...

[NineNine]

... Bob in MS's UK accounting office said, "I really like SCOnes for breakfast". Coincidence? We think not! What did he mean by that? What is MS planning now?

Microsoft Quizz

[borgdows]

The license was not seen as a way to underwrite SCO's legal fees ...

a) ... but to damage Linux reputation
b) ... but to be good citizens
c) ... but underwrite Cowboy McNeal's PR services

I know which development project

[FeeDBaCK]

that Microsoft only bought a Unix license from SCO Group because there's been a prior development project underway at Redmond that warranted it

I know what project they're referring to... it is the "Kill Linux" project! *grin*

Senor, Que pasa, Senor?

[SEWilco]

That is totally coincidental.

Microsoft was planning long before the SCO lawsuit to respond to the popularity of Apache web servers with Apache helicopters.

In Other News

[Markus Registrada]

This just in...

The Iraq invasion wasn't really about oil, or even about euros.

The Supreme Court didn't really prevent Florida from counting its votes for fear that the candidate it had chosen to appoint wouldn't get in.

That big tax cut really is meant, and expected, to stimulate the economy.

That face on Mars really was carved by space monkeys.

Re:So?

[bob_jordan]

I still find it odd that Microsoft licensed SCO code on May 19th.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030519/tech_microsoft_un ix _1.html

And on May 20th ...

http://table.finance.yahoo.com/k?s=scox&g=d ... SCOs stock closed at 6.66

Coincidence?

Bob.

Re:Wait and see

[Anonymous Coward]

If you will remember, the entire purpose they attended LinuxWorld last year was to show this product and even hand out free CD's to try.

So the basic idea was to get people to give up their free Unix-like Operating System with a zero price tag, and instead to give Microsoft hundreds of dollars for a closed source not-Unix at all system with slightly less Unix functionality?

Wow, what a deal!

source?

[borgdows]

The license was not seen as a way to underwrite SCO's legal fees," says a source within the company. "

Is it the Microsoft Information Minister ?

Re:This is how the system is played.

[orcrist]

but is there a real case of "plausible deniability" on record?

If it were 'on record' it wouldn't be very plausibly deniable now would it?

-chris

Clever coder?

[Anonymous Coward]

"See, you not only have to be a good coder to create a system like Linux, you have to be a sneaky bastard, too." (Linus Torvalds)

Why isn't this on SCO's quotes page yet?

aftermath.

[twitter]

MS is taking the bullseye off of it's back to allow them to work on their Unix Stuff without worry and forces SCO to go after other companies such as Sun.

I'm not sure which is more comical, M$'s "Unix Stuff" or that M$ was ever scared of being sued by SCO. "Unix Stuff", is that the "Unix killer", New Technology (NT) by any chance? Well, yes it was [microsoft.com]. Gee, we all need a license for common unix commands, after all if we are not paying someone we must be stealing! M$ has shown such respect for other firms in the past, including the US Government, that we all know how careful they are when stealing other people's IP. Not at all.

Microsoft Lawyer XP(TM) is advising Bill that paying the Royalities is cheaper than going through yet another reputation damaging lawsuit over Unix.

That sounds like a M$ program, brain dead. What's more expensive than a defending yourself in court? Defending yourself in court and paying for the case someone else is going to make against you. There's no technical merrit to this case so if it flies, everyone is ruined, Microsoft included. But that's not going to happen.

I hope they prommise big bucks. It will all go to IBM when they get through scraping SCO off their shoes.

Re:Que pasa?

[Richy_T]

keep its helicopters trim and ship shape

That's gotta be some kind of bug. I prefer my helicopters to be helicopter shape.

Rich