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IBM Subpoenas Baystar, Deutsche Bank, Renaissance and Yankee Group
Monday, November 03 2003 @ 03:57 AM EST

IBM misses nothing. They have just subpoenaed the money people: Baystar Capital, The Yankee Group, Renaissance Research Group, and Deutsche Bank Securities. They have also filed a third set of interrogatories and requests for documents that SCO will have to repond to, assuming they ever respond to anything.

There was a conference on the 31st before the administrative judge, who has set November 21 as the date for a second conference. If at that second conference there is still a problem with discovery, then the Motion to Compel Discovery will be argued on December 5 at 10:00 AM.

So things are progressing nicely, and the noose tightens around SCO's neck. They have to show the code and particularize their claims. Judges will let you get away with delays at the start, to give you every benefit of the doubt, which you want if you are ever in a court battle, but the honeymoon doesn't last long.

It looks like the judge is putting SCO on notice that they have a real deadline now, and should they fail to meet the November deadline without a mighty good excuse, the Motion is already set for oral arguments. She could instead have said that she wanted both sides to report back to her in November and then she'd see what to do. Instead, she set a firm date for oral arguments, so it's a kind of a warning that they've delayed as long as they can get away with. Oral arguments on a Motion to Compel -- well, that is, to say the least, what you want to avoid, if you are SCO.

The information is up on the paid Pacer listing, but not on the public one. Here are the details, exactly as listed on Pacer.

10/30/03 60 -- Certificate of service re: Dft IBM's third set of interrogatories and third request for prod of docs by Intl Bus Mach Inc [Entry date 10/30/03]

10/30/03 61 -- Certificate of service by Intl Bus Mach Inc re: subp served on Baystar Capital, The Yankee Group, Renaissance Research Group, Deutsche Bank Securities [Entry date 10/31/03]

10/31/03 62 -- Minute entry:,Counsel for both parties present. Discussion held re: status of discovery. Parties to reconvene for a status conference set for 11/21/03 at 10:00 a.m. before Judge Wells. If at that time it is determined that a hearing should be held re: Motion to Compel (docket entry #44), that hearing will be set for 12/5/03 at 10:00 a.m. Court adjourned. status conference set for 10:00 11/21/03, Motion hearing set for 10:00 12/5/03 for [44-1] motion to compel Discovery ; Judge: BCW Court Reporter: Electronic Tape No.: 29 Log No.: 6030-6325 Court Deputy: alp [Entry date 10/31/03]


  


IBM Subpoenas Baystar, Deutsche Bank, Renaissance and Yankee Group | 139 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
IBM Subpoenas Baystar, Deutsche Bank, Renaissance and Yankee Group
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 04:17 AM EST
Pssst! Hey SCO...Happy Halloween from IBM!

PJ, as usually, you stun us with your vigilant efforts, even after
3AM.

Thanks for your efforts on behalf of the community and all Linux
and OSS users.

[ Reply to This | # ]

IBM Subpoenas Baystar, Deutsche Bank, Renaissance and Yankee Group
Authored by: DrStupid on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 04:39 AM EST
Looking forward to reading IBM's third set of interrogataries. Always good
stuff!

[ Reply to This | # ]

A mighty good excuse?
Authored by: eibhear on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 04:56 AM EST
and should they fail to meet the November deadline without a mighty good excuse

Would the judge accept "the cat ate it"? A very powerful defence among children, I believe.

Éibhear

[ Reply to This | # ]

IBM Subpoenas Baystar, Deutsche Bank, Renaissance and Yankee Group
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 05:23 AM EST
This is a fairly offhand comment, but something I'm considering for the moment;
SCO's sock puppetry could be about producing a negative image of the GPL, not
to consumers or people that know it's finer points, but to governments.

What started me on this course was that SCO was making a song and dance about
including Samba; corporate behaviour would normally suggest a C&D order
because they'd become a bette noir, but the GPL is non-exclusionary; Samba
maintained a moral high ground, and apart from the semi-mythical DDoS attack,
the Linux community at large has maintained a moral high ground (which has been
some source of pride, when I know that a majority of people would like to see
the ground under SCO salted.)

So, we skip to the latest stage. SCO is thrashing around on the lip of the
Sarlacc, trying to avoid mentioning anything that they have...then they go and
directly attack the GPL, which has to have been the target all along...and then
place themselves in the situation where if they invalidate the GPL, they will be
in breach of hundreds of copyrights. The corporate solution would be a flurry
of C&Ds, which looks terrible from a PR angle, and neatly segues into the
'indemnification' angle...all of a sudden Linux is made of so many parts that
defending from lawsuits would be nigh on impossible...SCO could become the
poster child of what happens when you don't have a neat and tidy 1-to-1
relationship with your software vendor.

I'm sorta thinking aloud really because I couldn't see a long term strategy,
and there does appear to have been some in the background, however shallow.
There's certainly been a lot of playing to the peanut gallery recently, and
that can only be for the benefit of the media.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Sweeeeeet!
Authored by: Grim Reaper on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 05:46 AM EST
There's gonna be some bitch-slapping at trial ;-)

---
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10); R.I.P. -
SCO Group, 2005/08/29

[ Reply to This | # ]

IBM Subpoenas Baystar, Deutsche Bank, Renaissance and Yankee Group
Authored by: maxhrk on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 06:29 AM EST
i am trying to think of metaphor but I thought of hurricane..


For instance, there is SCAMX company building right there is in the hurricane..
but right now SCAMX company is in the eye of the hurricane(imagine that..) and
is quite safe for now, but they are near out of the eye of the hurricane and it
going to be quite a diaster big time for SCAMX. It not going to be pretty at all
either. expect them to face the worst before IBM's wrath. (heh, i hope this is
perfect metaphor for this).

Anyway. I hope this metaphor is useful for this case and so on.


CHEER!


P.S. PJ you did great job as always(again!)


---
SCO: Linux... I am your.. father.

[ Reply to This | # ]

IBM Subpoenas Baystar, Deutsche Bank, Renaissance and Yankee Group
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 06:57 AM EST
???-RE: 10/30/03 61 -- Certificate of service by Intl Bus Mach Inc re: subp
served on Baystar Capital, The Yankee Group, Renaissance Research Group,
Deutsche Bank Securities [Entry date 10/31/03]

If, SCO did a dog and pony show (talking about code all the time) for these
folks to "sell em" on SCO's "inside" strategy... then,
IBM most likely wants to know EXACTLY what SCO is saying to others THAT they are
not saying to the court?

Otherwise - why get these folks to visit as party to the court proceedings in
order for them to start talking ?

[ Reply to This | # ]

IBM Subpoenas Baystar, Deutsche Bank, Renaissance and Yankee Group
Authored by: belzecue on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 07:29 AM EST
Please, please, please let this mean that DiDio will be taking the stand under
cross examination!

My fav quote:

"They are striking the right note of righteousness and
responsibility," she told NewsFactor. "They have said they are
willing to work with users by creating a pricing plan for them."-- Laura
DiDio, 2003-07-21

[ Reply to This | # ]

More war news from the other battle front
Authored by: tcranbrook on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 07:59 AM EST
Mass. vs. Microsoft: Uphill battle starts Tuesday

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2003-11-03-msoft_x.htm

"Yet Howard University law professor Andrew Gavil, who represents Sun
Microsystems in a separate antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, believes there
is a chance Reilly can get the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to
send the case back to Kollar-Kotelly to expand the remedies. "I do think
there is still a real possibility the (appeals court) is going to have the final
word here," Gavil says."

[ Reply to This | # ]

Any Bets?
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 08:27 AM EST
Now who in Groklaw would be willing to bet that it's not M$ money filling
SCO's litigation cookie jar?

[ Reply to This | # ]

What happened to the previous article?
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 08:50 AM EST
(Forgive me for posting this here, but I see no better place.)

What happened to the previous article? Last night about 5:00am GMT I checked in
here and the article following "IBM's Amended Counterclaims Against SCO
as Text" was a transcript of an interview with Linus Torvalds. Now that
interview is gone with no explanation.

[ Reply to This | # ]

PJ quoted in the press
Authored by: pfaut on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 08:55 AM EST

Looks like someone's using GrokLaw as a source for updates on the cases.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=49585

[ Reply to This | # ]

The socio-political merits of SCO's case
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 09:09 AM EST
Looking at this one from the outside and reading the history of SCO and Caldera
- this is beginning to look like an attempted coup detat on the Linux OS from
within the ("rightwing section") of Unix community.

One can make an argument - that there has never been a better time for such an
exploit - and one should interpret the seemingly illogical SCO strategy inside
the context of a larger American political reality.

In the aftermath of Sep 11 and the subsequent "USA war on terror"
many Americans have voiced concerns about the gradual erosion of civil
liberties. For instance , we have had reports that the USA government now has
the right to demand records form public libraries to find out what kind of books
people are reading. The USA government has also met with thorough condemnation
from almost all major governments for their unilateral actions and disregard for
international rule of law. It should also be understood that one of the main
reasons many governments are looking at Linux and specifically Open Source as an
alternative to USA based multicorporate proprietary software - is that they are
concerned about what the USA government may be forcing Microsoft and others to
do behind the scenes - in the name of the "war on terror". I know
this is true for China and many are of the opinion that the same is true for
Germany and other European counterparts.

At the very best - SCO's attack on the GPL appeals to the basest of rightwing
McCarthian instinct. Therefore SCO's claims make little or no sense from a
legal point of view - but I recon they are hoping for a Republican judge with an
"good ole American way" and "anti-communist" prejudice.

SCO is calling the GPL "in violation of the (American?)constitution,
violation of (American?) antitrust laws, violation of (American?) export laws,
violation of (American?) copyright laws. The Open Source community is still
practising a from of global Communism here - or is that not true? They may even
be actively collaborating with "terrorists" in insisting that Open
Source software should be available to all groups and nationalities. I guess
there are quite few American judges that would subconsciously be influenced by
the rather unsubtle hidden message and would easily overlook the technical
merits of this case.

[ Reply to This | # ]

IBM should Subpoena Johnathon Cohen
Authored by: Thomas Frayne on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 10:48 AM EST
As long as IBM is subpoenaing analysts, Johnathon Cohen should be added to the
list.

In September, I filed a complaint with the SEC, charging Cohen with membership
in the conspiracy to pump and dump SCOX.

For the contents of the complaint, see
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=tomf+sco+sec&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&am
p;oe=UTF-8&selm=pan.2003.09.16.23.00.58.181511%40sjpc.org&rnum=1

[ Reply to This | # ]

IBM Subpoenas Baystar, Deutsche Bank, Renaissance and Yankee Group
Authored by: rand on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 11:43 AM EST
Discussion held re: status of discovery. Parties to reconvene for a status conference set for 11/21/03 at 10:00 a.m. before Judge Wells.

Should we read into this that the magistrate couldn't broker a truce, and kicked it upstairs for action ("You two just wait 'till your judge gets home!")?

---
#include "IANAL.h"

[ Reply to This | # ]

SCO motivators
Authored by: tcranbrook on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 01:20 PM EST
I am sure that it is market movements like this one that is driving SCO to
desperation.


http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2003/10/27/american_express_adopts_linux.html

[ Reply to This | # ]

Find regarding Deutsche Bank
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 05:21 PM EST

Just did some googling "sco ibm october 2003" and found this little tidbit regarding Deutsche Bank:

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/gms v/6576682.htm

Second paragraph of article states:

"For William Hewlett, the Hewlett-Packard heir who led the charge against HP's controversial $19 billion acquisition of Compaq, Tuesday was a day of mixed emotions. Watching HP contend for the biggest percentage decline on the Dow this morning was clearly cause for dismay. But doing so on the same day that the SEC fined Deutsche Bank AG $750,000 for not disclosing a conflict of interest in its involvement in the HP-Compaq merger proxy fight must have made him smirk. While the SEC's action doesn't change the outcome of the merger, it does validate Hewlett's criticism that Deutsche Bank was not fully forthcoming when it changed its vote to favor the merger at the eleventh hour last year (see "Hewlett-Paqard sitcom renewed for second season")."

[ Reply to This | # ]

IBM Subpoenas Baystar, Deutsche Bank, Renaissance and Yankee Group
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 05:51 PM EST
Does anyone NOT believe that MS has some of their $$$ in all this.... what
business is stupid enough to throw 50 mil away (the recent SCO investment) -
only MS could really benefit, and only MS could easily throw the $$$ away, and
only MS has a $50 million reason!

[ Reply to This | # ]

The Curious Incident
Authored by: jdos on Monday, November 03 2003 @ 10:39 PM EST
Adapted from "Silver Blaze" by Arthur Conan Doyle:
    I saw by the inspector's face that his attention had been keenly aroused.
    "You consider that to be important?" he asked.
    "Exceedingly so."
    "Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
    "To the curious incident of RBC Dominion and IBM's discovery list."
    "RBC Dominion is not on the list."
    "That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

[ Reply to This | # ]

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