February 15th, 2008
What the SCO take-out really means
First of all it’s not $100 million.
It’s up to $100 million. Anyone who has ever signed a cellular data contract or owned a cable modem knows what “up to” means.
It means not likely. It means “in your dreams, pal.”
What is the money paying for? My guess, legal bills. David Boies is a well-connected lawyer. He doesn’t like working for free. And he especially doesn’t like clients who play bankruptcy games which look aimed at getting out of paying. No lawyer does.
So David Boies & Co. will be paid for their work on the SCO case.
But none of this will resurrect the legal case against IBM. SCO has never been able to point out infringing code. The judge has narrowed the scope of the case so as to render any judgement in SCO’s favor meaningless.
Now is there stuff in the SCO portfolio that might be worth some money? Maybe. It wasn’t all about the IBM suit. So if Nichols and his Arab moneymen find anything profitable in the bottom of the sack they can have it.
But you can’t raise a bad suit from the dead with the wave of a wallet. No matter how big.
Now what if I’m wrong? What if an Arab-backed consortium were able to declare Linux to be its property, enabling it to tax every innovation of the last decade and ship the money to Riyadh?
Does anyone doubt patent reform would follow immediately? Or that an American flag wouldn’t be wrapped around Linus Torvalds like he just won an Olympic dash?
Just imagine the rhetoric, and the political momentum, behind patent reform if an Arab-led consortium were able to tax open source innovation!
So don’t worry. Be happy.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 02/15/08
