You might not know it from some of the coverage, but The SCO Group now appears to be facing annihilation in its lawsuits against IBM, Novell, Red Hat and Linux users AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler.
That's since last Friday, when Novell finally had to file its response to a lawsuit SCO originally filed waaaay back in January 2004. . . .
If "annihilation" seems like too strong a word, understand this: If Novell gets the preliminary injunction it's asking for, SCO will no longer have any money. None. SCO would be out of business -- something IBM, Red Hat, AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler could never have made happen.
And Lamlaw's What would bankruptcy "do for" or "do to" SCO?
Well, generally a bankruptcy filing permits the company to get their affairs in order while holding off paying creditors for awhile. That is nice, you say. But what else does it do?
It puts a "trustee" in charge. (That means someone else.)
The trustee in bankruptcy is going to be picked (or approved) by the bankruptcy court and effectively replaces current management. Now normally this replacement is not so dramatic. After all a trustee on the list would not likely know how to run an airline company or a computer software company. But, a trustee would know law suits.
All of sudden neither the current lawyers for SCO nor the current management at SCO would be calling the shots. You know, the shots across the bows of IBM, Red Hat, DaimlerChrysler, Autozone, Novell or even all those Linux customers. . . .
Certainly, if a review of the IBM or Novell cases showed solid evidence that could help SCO at trial, those cases would likely continue. The same would be true with both the Red Hat and Autozone cases. But if the review only discloses smoke, mirrors, fraud, deceit, false public claims and misrepresentations, substantial changes could be in the works. . . .
[T]he trustee is only going to care about protecting the SCO corporate assets and getting out from money losing cases and business plans. If there is proof of copyright ownership, copyright violations, contract breaches, etc., then fine. If not the books get closed out. Just keep in mind that Red Hat, IBM and now Novell have sued for damages caused by SCO's false public statements. And the trustee will be making its own decision on those key issues as well. Should the trustee decide SCO does not hold those copyrights, SCO is done. Get out the fork.
