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Groklaw gets some anti-Linux competition
But new SCO site bans comments for fear of being drowned out...

By Stephen Shankland

Published: Friday 15 October 2004

The SCO Group plans to launch a website to chronicle its legal battles relating to Unix and Linux, as part of an effort to counterbalance Groklaw.net - which was set up to poke holes in the company's legal claims.

The site, to be called Prosco.net, will feature an archive of legal filings, hearing dates and SCO positions on various matters, spokesman Blake Stowell said Tuesday. The Utah-based company plans to launch the site by 1 November, he said.

"The site will be designed to be informational for people desiring to follow the company's litigation. We've received a lot of feedback from people saying, 'I would like to follow what's going on, but I would prefer to not have to visit Groklaw,'" Stowell said.

Groklaw, run by paralegal Pamela Jones, provides legal filings and detailed analyses of SCO's legal cases with IBM, Novell, AutoZone, DaimlerChrysler and Red Hat. It's popular with open-source fans who generally disparage SCO's legal attacks.

Jones runs Groklaw as an amateur project, with assistance from contributors who report on court hearings, provide commentary and transcribe legal files into searchable text. But Groklaw led to a paid offshoot: A start-up called Open Source Risk Management hired Jones to compile a history of Unix intellectual property for a project called Grokline.

SCO argues that IBM copied proprietary Unix technology into open-source Linux, violating its contract with SCO. Big Blue rejects the charge and has countersued with three claims of patent infringment. SCO's suits don't seem to have slowed the spread of Linux.

Unlike Groklaw, SCO won't let others post their opinions on its site - due to fears of being drowned out, apparently - Stowell said.