Circuit Rider
- Version 5.1
by Jim Scheef
Good News – I Think
Did you see the news item in last Saturday’s New York
Times (August 11th)? You had to look below the fold on the business
section so you might have missed it. The SCO saga has taken a
turn and possibly for the better, but I’m not quite convinced
yet. The decision by Federal District Court Judge Dale A. Kimball
says, in 102 pages, that Novell, not the SCO Group, is the rightful
owner of the UNIX copyrights. Basically this cuts SCO off at
the knees. The ruling even stipulates that Novell can force SCO
to drop its claims against IBM. The Times article goes on to
say that this decision removes the cloud hanging over the Linux
community based on SCO’s claims of copyright infringement.
Why am I not convinced that this is all wonderful and the battle
is over? Because Microsoft is on both sides of this case. Remember
how Microsoft helped “fund” SCO about two years ago
when SCO was about the go under? And more recently there is the “interoperability
agreement” between Novell and Microsoft from late last
year. Is Microsoft playing both sides against the middle? Quite
possibly. If Microsoft can find a way to hobble the Linux movement,
they will. Linux is currently the biggest single threat to Windows
and this case is but one poke at Linux. Also looming is the FUD
about how Linux infringes on more than 200 Microsoft patents.
The only sure bet in all of this is that SCO will appeal and
that the fat lady has yet to sing in this courtroom battle.
New on my summer reading list is a 2001 book by Ken Auletta,
World War 3.0, Microsoft and its Enemies. It chronicles the battle
between the U.S. Department of Justice and Microsoft. Right now
I’m only in the second chapter, but the author is good
and the book is extremely well researched. I’ll have a
review in a few months. |