[TriLUG] SCO Licensing fee's

[Mark]

Hi all-

I joined the list a few weeks ago and have mainly been lurking...you
guys can be pretty intimidating ;).

Anyhow, while I agree that this ploy by SCO is nothing more than a cheap
attempt at extortion, I wouldn't necessarily call it stupidity.  It
reminds me of a letter sent out by M$ a year or so ago to all local and
provincial governments saying that all agencies were subject to an audit
to make sure nobody was using pirated software.  IIRC, Virginia Beach,
Virginia wound up doing an internal audit and sent M$ a check after
finding out they weren't fully in compliance (although they most of
their software had legitimate licenses they could not account for).  A
scare tactic that paid off for M$.

The snail's pace of the U.S. legal system is not a problem at all for
SCO, rather I think they're counting on it.  The longer this drags out,
the more likely one of the 'Big Boys' will get so fed up with the whole
situation and give them exactly what they want, a buy-out (as already
mentioned by several people).

Just my $.02

Mark Seelenbacher

> 
> The major problem, aside from SCO's stupidity, is the fact that the US
> legal system is anything but "fast". IANAL (or even sane for that
> matter) but it appears that the US court system is so bogged down in
> legal skirmishes that it takes at least a year minimum before anything
> can go to trial.