The SCO Group, Inc. has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. This is interesting news, but not necessarily good news.
For one, it increases the likelihood that the lawsuits will be settled rather than tried, leaving a lot of questions unanswered. It would be far better for the Linux community (and the F/OSS community in general) to have these questions answered once and for all in court.
Then there is the matter of timing. SCO’s bankruptcy filing comes at a very opportune time: first, they were just handed a summary judgment (which, contrary to McBride’s claims, they haven’t yet appealed) saying that they don’t own the Unix copyrights and trademarks after all, which means they owe Novell a boatload of money (95% of their SCOSource revenues, if memory serves); second, the Novell case was just about to go to trial, and SCO failed to secure a jury trial, which was the only way they would have had a chance of winning. Filing for bankruptcy means that
- Novell isn’t likely to see any of that money any time soon, if ever
- The trial is suspended indefinitely, because under chapter 11 rules, a creditor isn’t allowed to sue a debtor.
Considering SCOs past behavior, I have to wonder—do you see it coming?—whether this is, in fact, just the latest in a long series of deliberate delaying moves…