Tech Law Prof Blog

It (SCO) Lives!

SCO, the company that refuses to die, is getting a cash transfusion from venture capitalists and unnamed Arab funding.  This is somewhere around $100 million.  This will either pay the legal bills and the money SCO owes Novell in royalties, or maybe continue this litigation soap opera as well.  The VCs claim excitement about new product lines, but who really knows.  Look for SCO to ramble around with arms extended muttering something about brains.

Here's Groklaw's take.

New Game All About the Shooting

There's an interesting story about the game The Club on CNET.  Apparently points are racked up for shooting everyone and everything, and as fast a possible.  That, apparently, is the only point of the game.  Where is Jack Thompson when you need him?

Yahoo! and News Corp. Getting Squishy?

The Yahoo!/Microsoft soap opera continues.  In our last episode, Yahoo! had turned down Microsoft's offer of $44.6 billion offer to buy the company.  Yahoo!'s stock rose and Microsoft's fell, affecting the real value of the deal.  Google swooped in to see if it could help out it's ailing little brother against the unwanted advances by Microsoft, but lost interest shortly thereafter, no doubt distracted by the bushels of cash it was generating through search advertising.  In the meantime, Rupert Murdoch said News Corp. had no interest in buying Yahoo!, but later said that maybe swapping swapping the MySpace, American Idol, and a few other web properties and cash for, say, oh 20% of Yahoo! might make some sense.  We're still waiting to see if Yahoo! says to News Corp., "make me the happiest search company alive," or if Microsoft continues to send more aggressive mash notes to the Yahoo! Board of Directors and stockholders.  Tune in again when we'll find out how Yahoo! deals with the choice between the arranged marriage and love at almost first sight.  Cue the organ music.

Catch up on more dirt in Ars Technica.

Microsoft Won't Give Up Pursuit of Yahoo!

And why should it?  Investors will likely sell Yahoo! out to Microsoft if the price were better.  Consider this article for that point of view.  Speculation on Microsoft's next step is here.  Oh, and 1,100 or so Yahoo! employees were let go.  Depending on the point of view, that may be liberated.  On to profitability!

Senate Supports Telecom Immunity in Spy Suits

The Senate voted to deny an amendment to the revision of the intelligence laws that would prevent the telecoms from receiving retroactive immunity for cooperating with the government for spying.  Obama votes for the amendment.  Clinton and McCain vote against.  Guess where AT&T's candidate donations will be going.  It's still not clear what's going to happen, as the House version of the bill has no immunity provision. Here's what the Vice President thinks:  "[T]hey want more time to let the opponents sort of air their grievances and probably vote on some more amendments before we go to final passage."

More here from the Washington Post on the vote, and here from CNET on the candidates' positions.

Patch Tuesday

It's patch Tuesday from Microsoft.  There are 11 patches covering 17 vulnerabilities.  More details are here.

Yahoo Rejects Microsoft Offer

Yahoo! has formally rejected Microsoft's unsolicited offer for the company.  The board basically thought the offer of $44.6 billion undervalued the company.  This will either prompt Microsoft to raise their offer, or pursue a host of other tactics to get the stockholders to sell.  Complicating this is the fact that Microsoft stock has dropped somewhat since the offer was made, making the deal less valuable to Yahoo! shareholders.

Here's the text of the email Jerry Yang sent to employees regarding the board's decision.