March 17, 2004 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY
REVIEW) -- Discussion on message boards heated up across the Web after
hosting firm EV1Servers (ev1servers.net)
announced its decision to purchase UNIX licenses from the SCO Group.
While a handful of users showed support for EV1, many in the outspoken
open-source community condemned its decision.
Following EV1 CEO Robert Marsh's
announcement at the beginning of the month, the bulk of responses made
on the various Web hosting forums accused EV1 of helping to fund future
SCO lawsuits - which claim that the UNIX code found in Linux violates
its intellectual property rights. By doing so, forum users wrote, EV1
betrayed the Linux community it claims to support.
Marsh responded to the accusations
on the EV1Servers forum by reiterating that EV1 does not endorse SCO.
He added that SCO already had $60 million and EV1's licensing fee
(referred to as "worth seven figures" by SCO representatives, but
considerably less by Marsh) would not "go very far in defending an
action such as this, much less prosecuting one."
Forum users put up more than 440 replies to Marsh's statement in a thread that was viewed almost 63,000 times.
"It is absurd that you claim giving over
$1,000,000 to SCO does not help them," one user writes. "Even if you
paid SCO nothing, you've given them credibility, as you're the only one
to publicly take out a license. Had you wanted to stay out of this,
you'd not have agreed to go public and become SCO's poster child."
Another user writes, "I don't care if you
gave SCO 1$ or 1,000,000,000$, the fact you gave them ANY money is the
issue here for me. This is just ridiculous. Your money spent has made
the statement for you. If you truly did not endorse them nor believe
their claims as having any truth to them, you would not have paid such
a high price to buy their licenses."
Some users were so upset that they threatened to leave EV1, or felt they had no alternative.
"If I continue giving EV1 my business
now, I see myself essentially contributing to the fight against Linux
and open source software in general," one WebHosting Talk (webhostingtalk.com) user wrote.
Another just flat-out said he was
leaving. "Whatever the reasons EV1 has for bending over for crooks, I
simply won't be party to filling the legal war chest of crooks," the
user writes. "I'm moving my servers from EV1elsewhere starting today,
and will be transferring all of my clients out of there as well."
EV1 has not said how many customers - if any - it might have lost since its announcement.
Forum users said they were upset
because EV1 is a large enough company that its decision would likely
influence those of other companies. "The fact that they do this sends
the message that action like SCO's is okay, and will possibly open up
for a lot of similar bold fraud attempts from random companies," one
SitePoint (sitepoint.com) forum user writes.
On other forums, users accused EV1 of pulling a publicity stunt
because Marsh made his announcement about the decision to purchase the
licenses only days before his second data center was opened in Houston.
"If I had to guess, it was nothing more than a marketing deal," one person writes on the HostHideout (hosthideout.com) board. "I can think of some other hosts who I wouldn't be surprised if they signed up just to get their name in the paper."
"SCO will not win," another user writes.
"But this is a smart move anyway. Why? It got you people talking... and
not just you, a lot of people. It's better then paying for ads."
Marsh later said in an interview with theWHIR that while EV1 was expecting "a few concerns," he had not anticipated a reaction of the size the company encountered.
Whatever EV1's intentions, the issue was bound to come up again, and it did when eWeek revealed that Microsoft acted as a matchmaker for a $50 million investment led by Baystar Capital into the SCO Group.
The same news story, pointed out one
WebHosting Talk forum, raised suspicions that Microsoft played a part
in EV1's decision to purchase the license because of its ties as a
business partner to Microsoft.
