"SCOX: R.I.P.," says NASDAQ (and Belgian trash)

It's IT Blogwatch: in which SCO gets delisted from NASDAQ. Not to mention how Belgians deal with people who drop trash...

Sean Michael Kerner reports:

There are only so many times you can cheat the reaper. In the case of embattled Unix vendor SCO, it appears as though time has run out for its life as a publicly listed company on the NASDAQ stock exchange ... The developments represent the latest turn of events in the Unix vendor's long tailspin ... In his August decision, Judge Dale Kimball found that Novell was the owner of the disputed Unix and UnixWare copyrights [which] triggered SCO's formal bankruptcy protection. [more]

Christina Warren reminds us:

In short, SCO tried to claim intellectual property ownership of various parts of source code they claimed to be part of the open-source Linux kernel (one of the more insane claims, that SCO owned UNIX was legally dismissed in August 2007, and the actual owner of the UNIX and UNIXWare code, Novell, was awarded damages). SCO then sued manufacturers of competing Linux distributions for various claims ranging from the usage of SCO owned source code, trade secret violations and anti-competitive practices. [more]

Pamela Jones groks it:

The end game isn't turning out to be so much fun for [SCO]. What is the moral of the story? I'd say it's that you can't stop Linux or FOSS with manufactured lawsuits. Oh. And don't sue IBM unless you actually have a case. I think we can all agree on that, after the lawyering we've been privileged to observe since 2003. So, no more SCOX. It's SCOXQ.PK now, flatlined. [more]

John S. Quarterman:

The trouble started much farther back, when SCO decided to sue for intellectual property infringement instead of producing a product people wanted to buy. [more]

R@ven Bxxxx laughs:

Ha Ha Ha! Ho Ho HO! ... But there is more to this. I hope they finish those court cases before going under completely. [more]

Eggplant62 alleges:

If you look closely at the entire history of the case, you'll find that there was intent to deceive from the get-go. Darl and his minions all thought up this neato scheme to defraud everyone by claiming their IP was in Linux in hopes that someone would pay them off to shut them up. Unfortunately, IBM fought them tooth and nail through purposefully-prolonged discovery shenanigans ... [SCO] carried on the FUD at the behest of their master, the big software monopoly out in the Northwest. [more]

And orclevegam agrees:

SCO already had prior history with patent/copyright trolling. Based on their previous history it was fairly obvious that they hoped the lawsuit they brought against IBM would be settled quickly out of court rather than having to actually defend their ludicrous claims earning them a quick cash infusion for little actual work ... They probably would have been dead in the water long ago, but it seems that Microsoft and various parties (strongly suspected to be Microsoft shills) bought ridiculous numbers of bogus "licenses" from SCO to help shore up SCOs bank account. [more]

But Jeff W urges caution:

People around here are overreacting to this. Being de-listed from the NASDAQ doesn't really mean a whole lot, because they weren't counting on using any investor money at this point anyway ... SCO has even said they'll appeal the Novell ruling. This doesn't mean SCO is "dead" ... It's maybe one more nail in the coffin, but they've been building that coffin for a while now, and it's still not finished yet. [more]

And finally...

• How Belgians deal with people who drop trash
  

Buffer overflow:

• Schneier on Security: Airport Security Study
• mcwresearch: Spam Trojan pwnage, play-by-play
• dmiessler: Why People Should Submit Their Own Content to Social Sites
• Paul Glazowski: Apple, 20th Cent. Fox Sign Video Rental Deal
• Irregular Enterprise: Benazir Bhutto assassinated: Twitter's utility
• Dan Morrill: Unprecedented year in shutting down file sharing sites

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• Douglas Schweitzer: My new TomTom rocks!
• Lucas Mearian: Video: How CNBC tailored its headquarters IT systems
• Shark Tank: That darned oldfangled technology!
• Mark Hall: 3D Models 4 Sale
• Shark Bait: Retro Games in Stop Motion

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You too can pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Google privacy furore from feed reader sharing (and 56 geeks)
• Mozilla weaves web OS in cloud (and bad haircut day)
• ThinkSecret RIP after Apple settlement (and empty Sun)