Envying Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/60390.html SCO President Darl McBride: 'It's Not the End of the Line' By Todd R. Weiss @ Computerworld @ 11/21/07 4:00 AM PT "We absolutely and fundamentally believe we are right in this case, and we believe in the justice system. But we also know that things don't always happen the way they're supposed to, and we're realistic about that point. We don't believe that this latest ruling was a reflection of the facts that were involved in the case. And the way the system works, we get a chance to put up an appeal," said SCO CEO Darl McBride. Nine months after Darl McBride joined The SCO Group as president and CEO in June 2002, the company filed a US$5 billion lawsuit against IBM (NYSE: IBM) , alleging that it improperly contributed some of SCO's Unix intellectual property for use in Linux. SCO also sued Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) , charging that it had falsely claimed to own the legal rights to Unix, and SCO filed additional lawsuits against some large Linux users. In August, SCO was handed a big defeat when a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Novell is the owner of the Unix and UnixWare copyrights. The judge also ruled that Novell could direct SCO to revoke its copyright infringement claims against IBM. The Legal Struggle Q: In light of the recent court rulings, are you prepared for the possibility that you actually could lose this whole legal fight? A: We absolutely and fundamentally believe we are right in this case, and we believe in the justice system. But we also know that things don't always happen the way they're supposed to, and we're realistic about that point. We don't believe that this latest ruling was a reflection of the facts that were involved in the case. And the way the system works, we get a chance to put up an appeal. We just took a literal pounding. We got knocked down -- there is no doubt about it. But it's not the end of the line of the legal battle. In fact, there are some very encouraging things that came out of even this ruling. And we will continue to fight on those fronts. Q: Can SCO survive even if it ultimately loses in court? A: I think it's one of the more exciting times for this company. There's a story my general counsel shared with me. It's like the boxer who has come out of the ring after getting all beaten up, and he comes over to his trainer and says, "The guy didn't touch me." And the trainer says, "Then you better keep your eye on the ref, because somebody's beating the living hell out of you." I run a little bit of a risk of that metaphor coming into play here by saying how excited we are, because we truly are disappointed [by the court rulings]. Q: So, where does SCO go from here? A: We have been focused for three years on Unix and on becoming the leading platform provider of mobile business solutions, and by 2010, we want to be the market leader in that space. If you look at the market statistics, it's wild just how big the numbers can get, with 3.5 billion cell phone subscribers out there. What we're looking at doing with this is to put together a platform and tool kit [that enables] people to develop or deploy applications in real-time environments on a mobile smart phone. That one business alone could be $70 billion to $80 billion a year. If we can get 20 percent of that market share, it would be big for SCO. We've been planning for the moment of moving to SCO 2.0, and that moment is upon us. We were hoping that we were going to be moving with a big push behind us [from the court cases]. It ends up that we've hit a bit of rough water, and it's not going to be quite as simple as we thought it was going to be. But let's not be mistaken here: We have a very big opportunity to become the mobile flavor of Unix. That's what we want to be. Q: With all that has happened so far, is there anything you would have done differently if you could replay the past five years at SCO? A: It's hard to say in retrospect what you'd do differently. If you asked a football player after a game, "Would you have done anything differently?" he might say, "Yeah, I would have zigged when I zagged." I can say that at every point along the way, I have done what I thought was the right thing to do. Q: SCO's financial results have been down, and you've been bashed in the media and by open source advocates. Have any positive things come out of all of this? A: Some people have gotten out. Those who stayed have gotten very tough. I'm very proud of the company and its employees for the work they've put in on the development project on mobility applications. The fact that none of it was on our plate when the lawsuits were filed speaks very highly to the type of employees we have. Q: Since the lawsuits were filed, you personally have been criticized and ridiculed in various blogs and publications. How do you react to your critics? A: It's a little bit of a strange twist to the story how I've become the most hated man in the industry. I think this thing has been overplayed just a tad. Part of the game plan of our opposition on this was to paint me in a light that was not favorable. They've obviously done a good job at that. I don't tend to go out and pick fights on my own, but I also don't tend to back down from one when someone's coming after me. We can really get this thing turned around. If you look where Apple was 10 years ago, they were on their back. They were just about down and out, and they came back. What brought them back into it was innovation, with really cool new products. That's the mantra we've had for a long time inside this company. The best form of revenge is success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m.musashi Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandro17 Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Q: So, where does SCO go from here? I hope they just go to hell! We can really get this thing turned around. If you look where Apple was 10 years ago, they were on their back. They were just about down and out, and they came back. What brought them back into it was innovation, with really cool new products. That's the mantra we've had for a long time inside this company. The best form of revenge is success. The nerve! Comparing themselves with Apple. And how can he talk about innovation? He doesn't know any better than trying to make money with litigations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Can somebody give a little background info on this? I'm lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandro17 Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Can somebody give a little background info on this? I'm lost. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_v._IBM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group#SCO...d_controversies http://www.groklaw.net/index.php (Linked because Groklaw was originally created in order to report the Open Source Community's point of view on the SCO v. IBM case). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahbau Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 Revenge for what? SCO got what was coming to them. They tried to accuse others of stealing "their" code, when they were the ones who stole it to begin with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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