Sco Stings Sun

Michael Smith

Mon Jul 28 21:29:17 -0700 2008

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So in the article Bruce says "If pressured, Sun could buy out Novell without a problem, which would be the best end for Novell anyway."

So could this be a mouse that roared scenario? Make war on somebody in the hope that they will win and have to support you?

(It might be working for Iraq and Afganistan.)

Sco Stings Sun

N. Dan Smith

Tue Jul 29 12:32:29 -0700 2008

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Sun buys Novell . . .

Open Susaris?  Open Soluse? Suse Solaris? Open Open?

Seriously, I am intrigued by what Bruce proposes here.  I am not sure what bearing it would have on Novell's deal with the devil, but Sun is fast earning trust in the FOSS community and Novell is of course losing it.

alternate title

rubycodez

Mon Jul 28 23:00:07 -0700 2008

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"Bruce Stings Novell"

SCO Stings Itself (Again)

OmniGeek

Tue Jul 29 08:04:07 -0700 2008

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IANAL, but it seems to me that Sun, having relied in good faith (unless some pesky e-mails prove otherwise) on representations by Novell's agent, SCO, has a pretty good defense against any suit from Novell.

If Sun had bought a license modification from some shady guy in a trench coat, they'd have no defense at all, but they bought it from Novell's authorized representative. This means that Sun can use the "agency defense" in any litigation with Novell, the principle being that one who relies in good faith on the representations made by an agent cannot then be made to suffer harm by the agent's master if the agent exceeded his authority. The agent (SCO) is then liable for the damage, not the third party.

Since SCO is about to be one with Niniveh and Tyre, that kinda limits the ability to extract damages. More importantly, Sun's agency defense works equally against any successor-in-interest to Novell; that rules out the idea of danger to Sun if Novell sold the SVRx copyrights (to the extent they exist) to, say, Microsoft.

Lastly, there's an excellent chance that a final judgement in the SCO-vs-Novell case could by itself rule out any attempt to pursue SCO's licensees (= Sun here), because Novell will be awarded damages from SCO for that license, making it a closed issue they cannot relitigate. Again, this would foreclose any litigation by successors-in-interest.

Summary: Independent of Novell's disinterest in pursuing Sun for beeelions for open-sourcing SVRx IP in OpenSolaris, it would be close to impossible for them or any successor to do so. (Behind-the-scenes negotiation is still probable, but it'll be quite undramatic, based on the paucity of big-time leverage.)

SCO Stings Itself (Again)

rubycodez

Wed Jul 30 08:29:57 -0700 2008

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except there was ample evidence that SCO had turned into the shady guy in the trench coat, and Sun knew it.

SCO Stings Itself (Again)

OmniGeek

Wed Jul 30 08:59:15 -0700 2008

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True, although I think it would still be tough to make that proposition strongly enough to prevail in court. The standard of proof there is kinda high, I think, so it'd be a gamble. Besides, courts are weird; I've been following the sordid SCO seppuku saga for years, and I'm amazed at the provable misdeeds they've been allowed to escape any legal penalty for. Of course, they've been losing right and left, which IS a penalty of sorts, but I'd have thought things like sanctions or perjury indictments would come into it, and they haven't.