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| | | August 10, 2003
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Sunday, August 10, 2003 |
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SCO finds itself on the defensive
The SCO Group was slapped with lawsuits from two of the most powerful players in the Linux market -- Red Hat and IBM.
On Monday, North Carolina-based Linux vendor Red Hat announced it had filed a lawsuit against what it called SCO's "unfair and deceptive" campaign and sought preliminary injunction against the company's continuing dispersion of "untrue" claims.
Three days later, IBM filed counterclaims against SCO's arguments that Linux is an "unauthorized derivative" of UNIX, saying that by distributing its own version of Linux under the General Public License (GPL) in the past, the company has bereft itself from the right of proprietary claims. In addition, the New York-based computer giant alleged SCO is infringing four of its patents by illegally incorporating IBM technology into its UNIX products.
Despite the legal offensive of major Linux advocates, SCO seemed undeterred on Tuesday, when the company detailed its Linux licensing plan. The SCO Group, which claims Linux infringes its UNIX intellectual property, began seeking $699 per server processor and $199 per desktop PC from Linux customers. According to the group, the license fee for servers will be increased to $1,399 per processor after October 15 this year.
In the conference call used to announce the new licensing scheme, SCO's President and CEO Darl McBride slammed Red Hat's suit against his company, dubbing it a clear indication the Linux community is unable or unwilling to filter out UNIX intellectual property from the operating system's kernel.
More from: AP (via InformationWeek) | CNET News.com 1 2 3 4 5 | ComputerWorld 1 2 | CRN | E-Commerce Times | InfoWorld | The Inquirer | InternetNews.com 1 2 3 | LinuxWorld | The Mercury News | VNUNET.com 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | The Washington Post
Microsoft could face a $3 billion EU fine
The European Commission, the regulatory body of the EU, warned Microsoft its business practices are continuing to violate European antitrust laws. In a statement of objections sent to the Washington-based software giant, the commission is giving a "final opportunity" for the company to comment on its preliminary conclusion that Microsoft's abuses are "still ongoing."
The EU can fine the software maker up to 10 percent of its annual worldwide sales, or $3.2 billion in the case of Microsoft. In reality, however, antitrust fines have been substantially lower.
In its report, the commission finds Microsoft has been trying to monopolize two key areas of its business: low-end server and multimedia playback software. The body says the company is deliberately developing its software in a way that hinders interoperability of competitors' products. The statement also notes Microsoft has been taking a dominant role in the online media distribution business by incorporating its media player into the ubiquitous Windows operating system.
The European Commission could potentially oblige Microsoft to share all necessary Windows source code with its competitors, in order to give them a fair opportunity to develop fully compatible products. It also advises the company to either cease shipping Windows Media Player with Windows or include a competitors' player along with the operating system.
Analysts, however, note that even in the unlikely event of a $3 billion fine, Microsoft's financial status quo will not be affected as the company sits on $49 billion pile of cash reserves.
More from: AP (via The Washington Post) | CNET News.com 1 2 | ComputerWorld | CRN | InformationWeek | InternetNews.com | Reuters | VNUNET.com | Wired News
Novell buys Ximian, mulls NetWare's fate
On the eve of the annual LinuxWorld Expo, software maker Novell announced the acquisition of privately-held Linux vendor Ximian. Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Ximian will be transformed into Novell's Linux business unit based in Massachusetts.
Coinciding with the buyout, Novell executives hinted the company is to shift its primary focus to the open-source community and may eventually stop developing its flagship NetWare operating system. Once NetWare sales represented most of Novell's earnings, but the company has seen a continuing decline of interest in the product.
Analysts explained Ximian's acquisition was a logical move in this transition. Ximian's founders have been prominent open-source developers and creators of the GNOME graphical user interface. The Linux software maker has also been working on a project to enable Microsoft .NET applications to be run on Linux platforms.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 | CRN | InternetNews.com 1 2 | InternetWeek | VNUNET.com
In Other News...
 A U.S. District Court Judge upheld a guilty ruling against the world's largest online auction site, eBay, saying the company has indeed been infringing on a patent of Virginia inventor Thomas Woolston. Judge Jerome Friedman told eBay to pay Mr. Woolston and his company MercExchange $29.5 million for unlawfully using technology related to selling fixed-price merchandise. He did not, however, issue an injunction order, noting Woolston's lawyers failed to prove continuing use would cause him irreparable harm. eBay said that although it believes the patents involved are invalid, it would stop using the controversial technology.
Macromedia released public beta of the next version of its popular Flash player. The update includes performance enhancements, which would enable web animations to be processed up to 10 times faster. Macromedia also unveiled ColdFusion MX 6.1 -- the latest upgrade of its web applications building suite.
Oracle's hostile takeover bid for enterprise software maker PeopleSoft is under review from Canada's antitrust regulators. The acquisition offer is already being scrutinized by U.S. federal authorities, state attorney generals and the European Union.
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