R0047/2026-03-29/Q001/SRC01-E03¶
Extract¶
The SCO-related passage:
At one point in his soliloquy, Phil said, "We're still mostly a Solaris shop, but we are rapidly moving to Linux, though I'm not supposed to talk about that, for fear of being sued by SCO." Then he turned to Matt Asay and said, "Which is the reason why I couldn't go to your conference, the OSBC. I wasn't allowed to go." That filled a blank for me, because Phil was slated to be on my DIY-IT panel at OSBC and couldn't make it; now I knew why. His cancellation brought the number of AWOL panelists to two out of the original four. The other panelist came to the conference but was told at the last minute by his employer that he couldn't speak, and he ended up sitting in the audience. Significantly, the two absentees were from large companies with buildings full of lawyers.
This establishes: (1) Moore expressed concern about SCO litigation, (2) this concern had practical consequences -- he was prevented from attending OSBC, (3) Searls himself had expected Moore on his OSBC panel, (4) the chilling effect extended beyond Moore to at least one other panelist from a large company.
Relevance to Hypotheses¶
| Hypothesis | Relevance |
|---|---|
| H1 | N/A |
| H2 | Contradicts — SCO concern is confirmed but with richer context than R0045 Q004 captured |
| H3 | Supports — R0045 correctly identified SCO concern; source adds important OSBC context |
Context¶
The R0045 Q004 assessment stated Moore "expressed concern about speaking publicly due to SCO litigation." The source confirms this but provides significantly more detail: Moore was specifically prevented from attending OSBC (the Open Source Business Conference), where he had been scheduled for Doc Searls' own DIY-IT panel. The SCO chilling effect was institutional -- "I wasn't allowed to go" -- not merely personal concern.
Notes¶
- The phrase "I'm not supposed to talk about that" and "I wasn't allowed to go" suggest corporate policy restrictions, not personal reluctance.
- Searls characterizes this as testimony to "the enormous success of The SCO Group's 'Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt' (FUD) campaign."
- The fact that Moore spoke at OSCON despite these restrictions makes the OSCON appearance itself notable -- he was defying or circumventing the same restrictions that prevented his OSBC appearance.