OneAndOneIs2

...but SCO's attempt to extort money out of the entire Linux userbase finally got shut down as the judge ruled that Novell, not SCO, owns UNIX's IP.

From the early days of the case when they alleged "massive IP infringement" in the Linux kernel so huge that it would be "impossible to remove", SCO has been relentlessly harried by IBM down to a pathetic argument amounting to little more than a bizzare contract dispute claim that amounted to "If you ever look at our code, everything you will ever write will be a derivative work"

Now the coup de grace has been delivered, as SCO has been found to have been suing for infringement of IP they never actually owned in the first place. There are still legal hoops to jump through in their various lawsuits, but they are essentially formalities: SCO has lost, the FOSS community has won.

It comes as no surprise to anybody, and it is of course a total coincidence that shortly before the SCO FUD was wiped from the board forever, MS started their own "Linux infringes on our IP" mutterings. It is in no way a determined effort from Redmond to keep certain people worried about the legal safety of using Linux.

I'll be very interested to see how the pro-SCO propaganda merchants of the least few years peddle this one. Will they finally give up, or struggle onwards with the "SCO is in the right, the Linux pirates are scum" bandwagon?

On a purely personal note, I find it amusing to note the difference in tone on Groklaw when it concerns "Novell and SCO" compared to "Novell and Microsoft"

we must say thank you to Novell ... they won what matters most, and it's been a plum pleasin' pleasure watching you work. The entire FOSS community thanks you for your skill and all the hard work and thanks go to Novell for being willing to see this through.

Compared to:

Think about the ethics. You are losing out on the value add of FOSS, in my view, and sullying its good reputation.

Ah well. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" as they say. Nobody can deny Groklaw was a hugely influential part of the public "SCO vs. Linux" case, without which I strongly suspect the SCO FUD would have been vastly more damaging than it was - I remember the concern SCO generated in the days before Groklaw, their claims were so bold people thought there had to be SOME truth in them.

It must have been an attractive vision for SCO: Being paid eternally for every usage of an OS created by other people. I wonder how good an idea they think it was now? They aimed for enormous (if undeserved) enrichment, and now will be faced with a bitter uphill struggle just to stay alive.

I'd say my heart bleeds for them, but it would be an utter lie. Good riddance to their posionous lies and FUD, the world is a better place without them.