On Sun, 24 Aug 2003 14:20:02 -0400, Brian K. White wrote:

[snip]
>> I just talked to the VIAWEST NOCC, and the SCO and CALDERA web/FTP
>> sites are blackholed because some lovely miscreants are DDOS'ing them.
>>
>> When the attack stops, they'll lift the block at InterNAP.
>>
>> LER
>
> I would blame this on sco's management.
>
> Obviously you can't please everyone, but that doesn't mean you have to
> go so incredibly far out of your way to antagonize a planet full of
> fresh young linux whiz-kid hackers just itching for something to flex
> their muscles on.
>
> Shrewd.
>
> It must say somewhere in the very early chapters of the "IT Industry
> Organization Operators Handbook" "Don't piss off all the hackers on the
> planet unless your servers are deep in a salt mine and not connected to
> the rest of the world and powered off and disassembeled. It doesn't
> matter if you are 'right'"

Understandable though it may be, there's nothing shrewd about this DOS
attack - it's blemishing the (so far) unspoilt reputation of sensibility
of the Open Source community. In Eric Raymond's words at
http://linuxtoday.com/infrastructure...2400126NWCYLL:

"With whatever authority I have, I ask that the DOS attack cease
immediately. Please stand down now. We have better ways to win this fight.
There are at least three reasons running a denial-of-service against SCO
is a bad idea:
First: We're the good guys. But that doesn't matter if we aren't seen to
be the good guys. We cannot fight our war using vandalism and trespass and
the suppression of speech, or SCO will paint us as crackers and maybe win.
Let's keep the moral high ground here. Second: We have other tools that
are more powerful. We have an astonishingly strong set of facts on our
side. SCO has been caught in multiple lies, wholesale IP violations, and
defamatory statements. The way to destroy them is with legal weapons. We
can do that. Third: SCO is its own worst enemy. Every time its
spokespeople open their mouths, they dig their company's grave a little
deeper. Consider their statements at SCOforum and what followed. We're in
an even stronger position than we were three days ago."

In other words: give 'em enough rope to hang themselves. As recent events
suggest, SCO is perfectly capable of orchestrating it's own well-deserved
demise. The more utter bogus they launch into the world, the faster this
realm of greed, slander and paranoia can be burnt to the ground, ploughed
over and forever buried - by legal means that is. This DOS attack is
probably the best thing that could happen to them now, so it's vital that
it stops as soon as possible.

Richard Rasker

--
Linetec Translation and Technology Services

http://www.linetec.nl/