'We're just like the RIAA,' says SCO

Is your daughter safe?

The SCO Group's masterful public relations tacticians have demanded that the company be compared to fellow IP (intellectual property) crusaders at the RIAA.

"We believe that there are important similarities between our recent legal activities against end users and those actions that have taken place in the recording industry," said SCO CEO Darl McBride, during a conference call today.

"It wasn't until the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) ultimately launched a series of lawsuits against end user copyright violators that the community at large became fully educated regarding the liabilities associated with using copyrighted materials without providing remuneration to the copyright owner. We believe that the legal actions that we have taken and will continue to take will have a similar impact on end users of Unix and Linux."

Does this mean SCO will start suing 13-year-old Linux users? Not yet.

It does, however, mean that SCO has kicked an already religious IP war to the next level, comparing itself to a dubious organization with dubious practices.

SCO professed its love for the RIAA while explaining new lawsuits filed against DaimlerChrysler and AutoZone. The DaimlerChrysler suit primarily revolves around SCO's accusations that the company put bits of Unix Systems V code into Linux. This would be a breach of contract between the two companies, according to McBride. SCO's main beef with AutoZone stems from the car parts seller's use of Linux servers.

(Funny enough, SCO's legal attack mechanism appears to be running on Linux.)

Away from these lawsuits, Judge Brooke Wells in U.S. District Court in Utah demanded that SCO show more of what it calls infringing code to support an earlier suit against IBM. Big Blue was also ordered to produce memos from top executives outlining IBM's Linux strategy.

And even farther away in Australia, an open-source company has filed a complaint with a consumer protection group charging SCO with hurting its business by causing fear around Linux. CyberKnights accuse SCO of being too vague in its assault against Linux. If only someone had thought of that earlier.

Have a alook at what the CyberKnights are up to.

And so ends one of the busier days in the SCO-Linux affair. Does it get any better than this? ®

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