[Tech] Scontro SCO-Linux: il memo citato da Raymond e' reale, ma sarebbe stato 'frainteso'

Questa, almeno, la tesi di Blake Stowell di SCO:

Blake Stowell, SCO's director of communications, acknowledged that the leaked memo is real.



But, Stowell claimed, pundits had mischaracterized the memo's context. "We believe the e-mail was simply a misunderstanding of the facts by an outside consultant who was working on a specific unrelated project to the BayStar transaction and he was told at the time of his misunderstanding. Contrary to the speculation of Eric Raymond, Microsoft did not orchestrate or participate in the BayStar transaction."



Responding to the allegations, a Microsoft spokesman said: "The allegations in the posting are not accurate. Microsoft has purchased a license to SCO's intellectual property, to ensure interoperability and legal indemnification for our customers. The details of this agreement have been widely reported and this is the only financial relationship Microsoft has with SCO. In addition, Microsoft has no direct or indirect financial relationship with BayStar."



(...)



The alleged memo, to which Raymond referred as the "Halloween X" memo, is dated October 12, 2003 and penned by Mike Anderer, whom Raymond identifies as a consultant with a company called S2 Strategic Consulting, which has ties to SCO.



S2 had been hired, according to the contract to help "with the formulation and implementation of various options for Intellectual property management." In essence, S2 was to help SCO make money from its IP.



Four days after the alleged memo was distributed, on October 16, 2003, SCO received the $50 million cash infusion from BayStar Capital and other funders.



A number of industry watchers at that time questioned whether Microsoft had any involvement in the $50 million BayStar financing deal. Some pundits noted that by providing SCO with funding, Microsoft and/or other parties would be helping to fuel SCO's lawsuits against Linux vendors and customers, thereby benefiting Windows. Microsoft and BayStar officials both denied that Microsoft was involved in the funding deal in any way.

Fonte: eWeek.