Darl and Dubya - separated at birth?!
EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm not exactly sure what's going on, here, but since this post was written, The SCO Group has abandoned its old domain name (scogroup.com) and now lives at sco.com. There is a financial services company at scogroup.com now. I'm not entirely sure what brought this change of URL about, but.... Whatever. Thought you should know.
Just to look at them, you might not think that Darl McBride (CEO of SCO Group) and George W. Bush (nominally recovering addict, son of aristocratic billionaire powerbroker, war hero and former president of the US George H. W. Bush [and, arguably, the current President of the United States]) are "separated at birth", like Michael and LaToya Jackson or George W. Bush and a common garden variety chump. Oops. Typo. Chimp.
Anyhow... I was just looking at an article on the Salt Lake Tribune's website and it occurred to me... The Bush administration's poorly thought-out, deviously mis-justified, badly prosecuted "liberation" of Iraq and SCO Group's poorly thought-out, deviously mis-justified, badly prosecuted IP/Copyright/Contract lawsuit against IBM reveal striking parallels, which should cause all but the most sheep-minded among us to shudder at the aparent use of the same playbook.
The Beginning
Bush invaded Iraq in March of 2003 based on claims that Saddam Hussein al Tikriti posessed massive stockpiles of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" which had, as yet, not been found by UN inspectors, but which were known beyond a doubt to be there by our illustrious intelligence services (the same intelligence services which failed, I might add, to raise sufficient alarms about al Quaeda... or however you like to spell it...)... Sarin nerve gas... rape rooms... weapons of mass destruction... mobile weapons labs... aluminum tubes... remember all that? It is important to note that the US government claims to know nothing more about Saddam Hussein and his tyrranical rule than it did when we were selling him arms in the '80s. Ultimately, the Bush Administration characterizes Saddam Hussein as a "madman", a "mass murderer" and a "terrorist", and uses this for justification to "liberate" the country by employing US weapons of mass destruction to kill 15 Iraqis for every US soldier killed and torture and terrorize countless other Iraqis. There's an important distinction there.
McBride invaded IBM in March of 2003 based on claims that IBM had violated its license to develop, use and market a flavor of the UNIX operating system, a breach of contract, which SCO Group claimed invalidated the perpetual license granted to IBM by AT&T, the original developer of UNIX. SCO Group further claimed that IBM had infriged the copyrights it claimed to hold for the version of UNIX which IBM marketed (as well as all software IBM developed to work with its version of UNIX) by including some UNIX code in the Linux kernel. SCO Group claimed that it acquired these copyrights when it (then called Caldera International) purchased the UNIX business unit of a company called "The Santa Cruz Operation" (or SCO for short). SCO Group's ownership of copyrights has been brought into question by, among other things, a suit by Novell, Inc charging that it owns the copyrights SCO Group claimed to have owned in its IBM suit. Got that? It is important to note that after nearly three years of "discovery", depositions and other "pre-trial shenanigans", not one bit of evidence has been presented by SCO Group which suggests they have a case at all, let alone a "winnable case". McBride, it turns out, would be later embarrassed by the exposure of the fact that SCO Group still has its old Linux distribution avalable for download on its website, had, itself, incorporated UNIX code into Linux and was using Linux code in its UNIX offerings without proper attribution or license compliance. There's an important distinction there.
Shock and Awe
Bush launches a stunning air and ground war against a mostly absent opponent. A blitzkreig, if ever there was one.
McBride launches a suit, which, on the surface, to the uninformed, seems open and shut. Pundits begin predicting the death of Linux and maybe even free software.
Victory is Declared
Bush climbs out of a fighter jet and states that Major Combat Operations are over in Iraq. This much ballyhooed media event prominently displayed the President's impressive codpiece, thereby enhancing his credibility.
McBride states victory over IBM is all but certain. McBride's headshot prominently displays his tan, thereby enhancing his credibility.
Justifications Evaporate
Bush and his underlings engage in clumsy Jedi handwaves to divert attention away from the original justifications for the Invasion (sorry, "Liberation") of Iraq which seem to be evaporating like a puddle of liquid nitrogen on a hot summer day in Death Valley.
McBride and his cronies engage in clumsy Jedi handwaves to divert attention away from the crumbling original complaints and the fact that they simply can't seem to find any "actual evidence" to support their claims.
Costs Continue to Mount
Bush (well, his "advisors", using him as a proxy) uses budgetary tricks to hide the turdly cost of the war in the punchbowl of "supplemental funding requests". And where is all this money coming from? Certainly not from taxes. We're cutting those.
McBride has essentially bled SCO Group dry spending tens of millions of Dollars on a truly frivolous lawsuit supported by (as far as I've heard from everyone other than SCO Group) nary a shred of actual direct evidence, while allowing the actual "product" to languish and die on the vine.
It's Not The End Of The World, But You Can See It From Here
The Bush administration's actions have sent Iraq spiralling toward civil war. The rest of the Middle East is shaking itself apart. Practically the entire Islamic world has a death warrant out for the US and its allies.
SCO Group has made litigation its principle product, which has alienated all but the most desperately addicted of its customers. SCO Group's stock price has been, essentially flatlined in the sub-five-Dollar area since the inception of the suit, down from a peak of around $70 in 1998.
All in all, I don't really see the big difference here... I mean SCO Group's IBM suit seems like a high-precision scale model of the Bush Administration's "Operation Iraqi Freedom". Both actions appear to me to be little more than thinly-veiled self-serving pillaging expeditions
Or, perhaps not.
Just to look at them, you might not think that Darl McBride (CEO of SCO Group) and George W. Bush (nominally recovering addict, son of aristocratic billionaire powerbroker, war hero and former president of the US George H. W. Bush [and, arguably, the current President of the United States]) are "separated at birth", like Michael and LaToya Jackson or George W. Bush and a common garden variety chump. Oops. Typo. Chimp.
Anyhow... I was just looking at an article on the Salt Lake Tribune's website and it occurred to me... The Bush administration's poorly thought-out, deviously mis-justified, badly prosecuted "liberation" of Iraq and SCO Group's poorly thought-out, deviously mis-justified, badly prosecuted IP/Copyright/Contract lawsuit against IBM reveal striking parallels, which should cause all but the most sheep-minded among us to shudder at the aparent use of the same playbook.
The Beginning
Bush invaded Iraq in March of 2003 based on claims that Saddam Hussein al Tikriti posessed massive stockpiles of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" which had, as yet, not been found by UN inspectors, but which were known beyond a doubt to be there by our illustrious intelligence services (the same intelligence services which failed, I might add, to raise sufficient alarms about al Quaeda... or however you like to spell it...)... Sarin nerve gas... rape rooms... weapons of mass destruction... mobile weapons labs... aluminum tubes... remember all that? It is important to note that the US government claims to know nothing more about Saddam Hussein and his tyrranical rule than it did when we were selling him arms in the '80s. Ultimately, the Bush Administration characterizes Saddam Hussein as a "madman", a "mass murderer" and a "terrorist", and uses this for justification to "liberate" the country by employing US weapons of mass destruction to kill 15 Iraqis for every US soldier killed and torture and terrorize countless other Iraqis. There's an important distinction there.
McBride invaded IBM in March of 2003 based on claims that IBM had violated its license to develop, use and market a flavor of the UNIX operating system, a breach of contract, which SCO Group claimed invalidated the perpetual license granted to IBM by AT&T, the original developer of UNIX. SCO Group further claimed that IBM had infriged the copyrights it claimed to hold for the version of UNIX which IBM marketed (as well as all software IBM developed to work with its version of UNIX) by including some UNIX code in the Linux kernel. SCO Group claimed that it acquired these copyrights when it (then called Caldera International) purchased the UNIX business unit of a company called "The Santa Cruz Operation" (or SCO for short). SCO Group's ownership of copyrights has been brought into question by, among other things, a suit by Novell, Inc charging that it owns the copyrights SCO Group claimed to have owned in its IBM suit. Got that? It is important to note that after nearly three years of "discovery", depositions and other "pre-trial shenanigans", not one bit of evidence has been presented by SCO Group which suggests they have a case at all, let alone a "winnable case". McBride, it turns out, would be later embarrassed by the exposure of the fact that SCO Group still has its old Linux distribution avalable for download on its website, had, itself, incorporated UNIX code into Linux and was using Linux code in its UNIX offerings without proper attribution or license compliance. There's an important distinction there.
Shock and Awe
Bush launches a stunning air and ground war against a mostly absent opponent. A blitzkreig, if ever there was one.
McBride launches a suit, which, on the surface, to the uninformed, seems open and shut. Pundits begin predicting the death of Linux and maybe even free software.
Victory is Declared
Bush climbs out of a fighter jet and states that Major Combat Operations are over in Iraq. This much ballyhooed media event prominently displayed the President's impressive codpiece, thereby enhancing his credibility.
McBride states victory over IBM is all but certain. McBride's headshot prominently displays his tan, thereby enhancing his credibility.
Justifications Evaporate
Bush and his underlings engage in clumsy Jedi handwaves to divert attention away from the original justifications for the Invasion (sorry, "Liberation") of Iraq which seem to be evaporating like a puddle of liquid nitrogen on a hot summer day in Death Valley.
McBride and his cronies engage in clumsy Jedi handwaves to divert attention away from the crumbling original complaints and the fact that they simply can't seem to find any "actual evidence" to support their claims.
Costs Continue to Mount
Bush (well, his "advisors", using him as a proxy) uses budgetary tricks to hide the turdly cost of the war in the punchbowl of "supplemental funding requests". And where is all this money coming from? Certainly not from taxes. We're cutting those.
McBride has essentially bled SCO Group dry spending tens of millions of Dollars on a truly frivolous lawsuit supported by (as far as I've heard from everyone other than SCO Group) nary a shred of actual direct evidence, while allowing the actual "product" to languish and die on the vine.
It's Not The End Of The World, But You Can See It From Here
The Bush administration's actions have sent Iraq spiralling toward civil war. The rest of the Middle East is shaking itself apart. Practically the entire Islamic world has a death warrant out for the US and its allies.
SCO Group has made litigation its principle product, which has alienated all but the most desperately addicted of its customers. SCO Group's stock price has been, essentially flatlined in the sub-five-Dollar area since the inception of the suit, down from a peak of around $70 in 1998.
All in all, I don't really see the big difference here... I mean SCO Group's IBM suit seems like a high-precision scale model of the Bush Administration's "Operation Iraqi Freedom". Both actions appear to me to be little more than thinly-veiled self-serving pillaging expeditions
Or, perhaps not.
posted by UrsusPacificus at 1:23 PM
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