Groklaw - Digging for Truth

SCO's 8-K About the Yarro Loan
As of March 5, 2010, The SCO Group, Inc., (the “Company”) obtained funding for $2.0 million in postpetition financing (the “Loan”) in the form of a secured super-priority credit agreement (the “Secured Credit Agreement”), from a group of private lenders including Seung Ni Capital Partners, LLC, Jan Loeb, Leap Tide Capital Management, Inc., Steven Shin, Henry C. Beinstein, Stanley A. Beinstein, Neil J. Gagnon, Robert Dyson, WBS LLC, Ne Obliviscaris, Ltd., Darcy Mott, Clemons F. Walker and Herbert W. Jackson (collectively, the “Lenders”). Other than WBS LLC and Robert Dyson, all of the other Lenders listed above are direct or indirect shareholders of the Company. Proceeds from the financing will be used to fund the Company’s operating and administrative expenses, as well as litigation-related expenses. In order to document this financing arrangement, the Company entered into a separate Secured Credit Agreement, Stock Pledge Agreement and Security and Pledge Agreement in favor of each Lender. The Secured Credit Agreement and related documents, described below, which were entered into by the Company in connection with the $2.0 million financing were approved by order of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on March 5, 2010 (the “Bankruptcy Court”).

[PJ: So now we know the list of names. It's that same ole gang of SCOfolk.] - SEC.gov

Microsoft Sees a Window in Google’s China Woes
In an interview published Thursday in the state-run China Daily, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie, chides Google for its impetuous behavior, and suggests that it should take a more mature approach to China. ...

Over the years, foreign executives have frequently made the mistake of copying the way that Chinese officials deal with their superiors. The approach is best summed up in the Chinese phrase “pai ma pi” – “slapping the horse’s rear”. The problem with sycophancy isn’t so much that it’s offensive to watch, but that it’s a lousy business strategy. China may enjoy the kowtow, but it doesn’t respect it. - Wall St. Journal

It Ain’t 2007, But at Cravath, Revenues are Back on the Upswing
But what’s perhaps most intriguing to us is that, in what will likely go down as one of the worst economic years in U.S. history, revenues were up at some firms. And not just up a little, but up significantly. That brings us to Cravath, Swaine & Moore.- WSJ Law Blog

Supreme Court Unveils New Web Site Design
The Supreme Court's long-awaited Web site redesign was unveiled this morning at supremecourt.gov, bringing the site into the 21st century only a few years late....

"Visitors will find that the Supreme Court Web site has an updated and more user-friendly design. The site continues to provide online access to the Court's slip opinions, orders, oral argument transcripts, schedules, Court rules, bar admission forms, and other familiar information. But it also has several new features, including enhanced search capabilities, an interactive argument calendar, improved graphics, and additional historic information. The Court plans to continue to update and expand the site's features over time. The process of launching the new design may occur over several hours, but the new version of the Web site should be available to all users by the end of the day."

[PJ: Here's their new transcripts of oral argument page.] - BLT

Facebook Users Targeted in Massive Spam Run
Facebook's 400 million users have been targeted by a spam run that could infect their computers with malicious software designed to steals passwords and other data, according to security researchers at McAfee. - Jeremy Kirk, PC World

Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely
More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments. - Wired

HTC Vows to Defend Against Apple Patent Suit
HTC has responded to Apple's patent suit to give notice that it intends to vigorously defend itself against allegations of patent infringement. Unlike other ongoing suits--such as the dispute between Nokia and Apple--HTC is not launching a countersuit accusing Apple of also infringing on its patents, but it isn't planning on going down without a fight. - Tony Bradley, PCWorld

Is Microsoft About to Declare Patent War on Linux?
Taking legal action against *all* companies producing software stacks for smartphones would allow Microsoft to claim with some semblance of plausibility that it was not specifically targeting Linux this time (unlike its previous sabre-rattling statements about patent infringement that were specifically aimed at Linux). But the net effect would be that Linux would be the chief victim of such an approach, since any companies using it in their smartphones are likely to end up doing deals with Microsoft – and hence implicitly accepting its claims – whatever the open source community might think or want. It would be like Novell's pact with Microsoft, writ large and much worse.

As the final line of Gutierrez's piece puts it: Apple v. HTC was not the beginning of this process, and it isn’t the end of the story either. - Glyn Moody, ComputerWorld

FCC Broadband Plan Calls For Enhanced Cyber Defenses
Additionally, the plan suggests that policy makers make a concerted effort to clarify -- and possibly separate -- the relationship between users and their online profiles to drive user privacy.

Among other things, the plan recommends that any organization collecting personal information would be required to allow consumers to be aware of what information was being collected and give them the option of consenting or declining to such collection, while enabling them to control the disclosure of personal information to any third party at their discretion. - Channel Web

Microsoft to appeal $106 million VirnetX patent verdict
VirnetX, a software corporation founded in 2005, has prevailed in a patent-infringement lawsuit accusing Microsoft of willfully infringing on two patents for automatic and secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology. The Texas jury recommended an award of $105.75 million, which is less than half of the $242 million that VirtnetX asked for. Still, the verdict was a very positive one for VirtnetX. "Our clients are very happy with today's verdict," said VirnetX counsel Douglas Cawley in a statement. "We hope this decision sends a clear message to patent infringers everywhere that they will be held responsible for wrongly profiting off the hard work of others." - ars technica

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