SYS-CON Media: JDJ Industry Newsletter
Monday, July 24, 2006
News
SCO Reveals Its 'Secrets' - Linux and Unix Communities Laugh
SCO Reveals Its 'Secrets' - Linux and Unix Communities Laugh

By: Dee-Ann LeBlanc
Aug. 20, 2003 12:00 AM

I'm sure no one in the Linux community is surprised that someone at SCO's trade show snuck a picture of their oh-so-damning slides.

Just as likely, I'm sure few are astounded that a computer magazine publisher (Heise) couldn't resist adding these juicy tidbits to their news ticker.

I'm also pretty sure no one is amazed that many in the Linux community have had a field day tracking down the data that these slides contain. Of all people who could be involved, few are likely to be astonished that Open Source commentator and activist Bruce Perens couldn't resist helping the effort.

Above all, I suspect no one in the community fainted in shock when Perens--along with others in the Linux community--ended up getting a good laugh at what they found during the "find the code" treasure hunt.

If this is SCO's best evidence, I wonder if it's possible to charge not only SCO but the executives behind this farce with any number of "unproven claims" that lawyers advise me would not be wise to state in a public forum (after all, that would make me just as bad as SCO, wouldn't it?)

Curious? Are you ready to be awed with SCO's legal acumen? Check out Perens' thoughts on the subject yourself.

Published Aug. 20, 2003— Reads 32,434 — Feedback 10
Copyright © 2003 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.
Related Stories
▪ Why Do We -- Why Does Anyone -- Write About SCO?
▪ SCO Unveils Intellectual Property License for Linux
▪ Why Revealing Any Infringing Source Code is 'Game-Over' for SCO
▪ Could a New Type of Legal Entity Help Underground Open Source Development?
▪ SCO Group Issues Press Statement
▪ Is SCO Perfecting the Art of the Big Lie?
▪ 'ESR' Writes Open Letter to Darl McBride
▪ Embarrassing Dispatches From the SCO Front
▪ 'No More Mr Nice Guy,' Warns Eric S. Raymond
Related Links
▪ SYS-CON Radio Interviews Perens
▪ A Fourth of Linux Tainted, SCO Says
▪ SCO Denies It's Suit-Happy
▪ SCO Rebuffs Penguinistas' Scorn
About Dee-Ann LeBlanc
Dee-Ann LeBlanc has been involved with Linux since 1994. She is the author of 12 books, 130 articles, and has more of both coming. She is a trainer, a course developer - including the official Red Hat online courseware at DigitalThink - a founding member of the AnswerSquad, and a consultant.

Add Your Feedback

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

Register | Sign-in

Reader Feedback: Page 1 of 1

#10
Pani Panagraphie commented on 30 Dec 2003

The SCO CEO Mcbride caused a cluster mess when he was at Pointserve, where he canned the existing business plan, then paid $$$$$ to outside consultants for a bogus business plan that made money off of "internet advertizing" yes pop-ups. (completly new direction for Pointserve, no way to make money either) I talked to him for a hour when I worked at Pointserve, he is All Smoke, Mirrors, and buzz words. He was eventually canned and Pointserve programmers left demoralized. Sorry SCO.

#9
Robert Lackey commented on 26 Aug 2003

SCO officials are in the same class as the folks at Enron and the other corporates recently put under the light. They show themselves to be liars, cheats and thieves with the penchant for greed that knows no limits to ambition.

#8
alan smith commented on 25 Aug 2003

SCO said, they had three teams, including a team at MIT examine their "proof" of UNIX code improperly in Linux

1. There appears to be no such team at MIT. And SCO are back tracking on this claim.

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V123/N33/33sco.33n.html

2. Here is an example quote SCO made about MIT

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/sto...

"SCO was able to uncover the alleged violations by hiring three teams of experts, including a group from the MIT math department, to analyze the Linux and Unix source code for similarities. "All three found several instances where our Unix source code had been found in Linux," said a SCO spokesman.

#7
carklton lee commented on 23 Aug 2003

SCO is very funny.

They are going to do to UNIX what Microsoft has so far been unable to do. Kill it! Who will develope for a Unix OS system knowing the work could not also be used for another OS or knowing the work would then actually belong to SCO.

If you are an investor plan on a crash, from what I've seen so far the top hats at SCO must be doing so and after SCO's deserved death I'm sure they will come out quite well off.

#6
rabi commented on 22 Aug 2003

SCO give up your hell job.

#5
JonB commented on 21 Aug 2003

Bruce Perens has updated the analysis using a full slide set provided to him. http://perens.com/Articles/SCO/SCOSlideShow.html

From the reading of past and present SCO claims, it would appear that SCOSource is the Borg of the computing world. Any code that comes in contact with AT&T System V code is assimilated and becomes the property of SCO - otherwise known as a derivative work.

The BPF code they show is similar to the original code in the BSD distribution, bpf_filter.c - including sharing the same data structure (hence the same code structure if form follows function). The Linux code was introduced in 2.1.75 - 21 Dec 97 - see the Linux HQ archive.

So SCO have to show that this code is innovative, and is a trade secret that gives advantage to Linux if shared, and that could not be reasonably derived from the existing BSD material, and was introduced into 2.4.x and 2.5.x kernels.

The claims on RCU, NUMA and JFS as derivative works are questionable and possibly insulting.

To paraphrase Linus, smoking gun or smoking crack?

#4
wordHound commented on 20 Aug 2003

ém·i·nence grise

( P ) Pronunciation Key (-m-näs grz)
n. pl. ém·i·nence grises (-m-näs grz)

A powerful adviser or decision-maker who operates secretly or unofficially. Also called gray eminence.

#3
Dee-Ann LeBlanc commented on 20 Aug 2003

My goodness, I stand (sit?) corrected. Those were the ONLY two slides shown.

#2
Dee-Ann LeBlanc commented on 20 Aug 2003

SCO has displayed incompetence pretty much through this whole thing, I don't see how one slide more or less makes a difference. :)

Actually, this was a limited set of slides out of a larger set. I don't think IBM's lawyers of all people are that naive. :)

#1
ken Jennings commented on 20 Aug 2003

I read Bruce Perens and laughed with everyone else.

Has SCO shown its best example? If so, SCO is doomed! By the time the court case is over anyone with 25 cents should be able to buy the entire SCO empire.

Or has SCO purposely displayed absolute techical incompetence as a ploy to lull IBM's lawyers into complacency?





www.SYS-CON.com/JDJ List Privacy Notic
e

JDJ and SYS-CON Media ** Do Not Disclose Your Personal Information** to outside parties under any circumstances. We do ask you if you are interested in receiving relevant information or offers from other Java vendors via e-mail. You may choose to receive this information or easily "unsubscribe" from the "JDJ Opt In List" not to receive any e-mails from JDJ outside your monthly newsletter. If you choose to receive additional information other than your monthly newsletters, this information is sent to you directly by JDJ. If you choose not to receive other information from us, this will not affect your regular "Digital Edition" or "JDJ Archives" subscriptions. If you choose to discontinue your "Digital Edition" or "JDJ Archives" subscriptions, you may also do this by simply unsubscribing to "JDJ Digital Edition" or "JDJ Archives" any time during your subscription period. When you send us your "unsubscribe" request to each of our offerings such as "JDJ Digital Edition," "JDJ Archives" or "Java Buyer's Guide", your record gets permanently removed from these databases as we receive your remove requests. Thank you for making JDJ the world's leading Java resource and please let us know how we can serve you better!

Java?, J2EE, J2ME, J2SE, and other Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. SYS-CON and JDJ are independent of Sun Microsystems.

WebSphere® is a registered trademark of IBM Corp. and is used by SYS-CON Media under license. WebLogic® is a trademark of BEA Systems. All other marks or trademarks may be marks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. SYS-CON is independent of all companies.

You are currently subscribed to %%list.name%% as: %%emailaddr%% To unsubscribe to this list only, send a blank email to: %%email.unsub%%

To stop receiving special offers from our partners, but to keep receiving your digital edition and newsletter subscriptions,
click:http://www2.sys-con.com/globaldelete.cfm?email=%%emailaddr%%&unsubtype=specialoffer

To unsubscribe from all SYS-CON Media mailing lists, including special offers and your digital edition and newsletter subscriptions, click:
http://www2.sys-con.com/globaldelete.cfm?email=%%emailaddr%%&unsubtype=global

SYS-CON Media
135 Chestnut Ridge Road
Montvale NJ 07645
201-802-3000

close this window