Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 09:52:06 08/20/03
Go up one level in this thread
On August 20, 2003 at 01:46:41, Alastair Scott wrote:
>On August 20, 2003 at 01:01:17, Christophe Theron wrote:
>
>>SCO is doing a desperate attempt to gain something for some of the copyright
>>they own on a very very old Unix. This attempt is sponsored by Microsoft.
>>
>>After that they are dead.
>>
>>The bottom line of this story is that Linux represents such a big threat for
>>you-know-who that their are trying whatever desperate dirty trick in an attempt
>>to stop it.
>>
>>That is futile.
>
>I have a conspiracy theory sans Microsoft:
>
>1. Find an obscure, and superficially plausible, attempt at your company making
>money from third parties;
>
>2. Make an huge fuss, with threats against the third parties, which gains
>publicity and drives up the share price;
>
>3. Hope that one of the targets of the fuss buys your company (by offering a
>premium above the already-inflated share price) to make it go away;
>
>4. Failing that, sell shares at the already-inflated price before the whole
>edifice collapses.
>
>That would be a much surer way of company directors making money for themselves
>than boring stuff like supervising the developing and selling of a product, and
>I'm surprised it hasn't been tried more often.
>
>(I'm also surprised that the US authorities aren't investigating the "drives up
>the share price" bit; the mechanism I have specified seems all too easy to do).
>
>Alastair
I agree with you that all of this can be done without Microsoft, and actually I
don't think SCO took Microsoft into account when they took their decision to sue
IBM.
The reasons you mention above are certainly the real reasons behind their moves.
It's just that they have received what I would call a real fishy "unconditional"
support from Microsoft almost immediately.
When was the last time Microsoft has handed a few million dollars to a company
threatening them with IP issues without going to court first?
For example when Microsoft stole the code from the disk compression utilities
written by Stac and included it in DOS and then in Windows 95, they did not give
them money until a court forced them to do so.
I think Microsoft's executive take most of their tricks from the "The 36
strategies of Ancient China" (sometimes improperly called "Sun Tzu's Asian Art
of War"). Just a few examples that apply well to this case:
Strategy 3: Kill with a Borrowed Sword
When you do not have the means to attack your enemy directly, then attack using
the strength of another. Trick an ally into attacking him, bribe an official to
turn traitor, or use the enemy's own strength against him.
Strategy 9: Observe the Fire on the Opposite Shore
Delay entering the field of battle until all the other players have become
exhausted fighting amongst themselves. Then go in full strength and pick up the
pieces.
A Google search will point you to many references of these strategies, or in my
opinion the manual of cynism and hypochrisy. If you feel that your moral
integrity and ethics are blocking your professional life, the 36 strategies can
help you! :)
Christophe
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