As part of the settlement, the German subsidiary agreed not to claim
publicly that proofs of copyright violation would be provided soon, unless
they are provided to Univention within one month from such an announcement.
In addition, the unit committed to pay Univention a penalty of €10,000 (US$12,000)
for each instance of future violation of the agreed obligations. With its
unsubstantiated claims, SCO was intimidating Linux customers in Germany
and damaging the reputation of Linux, Ganten said. "We needed to react and
we did," he said. "And we understand that U.S. courts have caught wind of
our settlement. Maybe that's why SCO is so nervous."
As it happened, the licensing deal
placed Marsh's company in the very center of the SCO Linux dispute. SCO portrayed
EV1 as a model client for its licensing plan -- a company that had recognized
the "importance of SCO's valuable IP asset," according to SCO CEO Darl McBride.
Reaction from Linux users, however,
was negative, and the deal was widely criticized on EV1's own online discussion
boards. "Had you wanted to stay out of this, you'd not have agreed to go
public and become SCO's poster child," wrote one member in EV1's user forums,
the day after the deal with SCO was announced. "I am looking into other hosting
alternatives specifically due to your stance with SCO," the member wrote.
"We got the hate mail, we got the group
of people who interpreted our agreement as validating SCO or endorsing SCO
or any number of things," said Marsh.
"All of a sudden we went from being
reasonably good guys to being, in some people's eyes, akin to the devil.
And that's certainly something that weighs heavy on our minds, because we
always want to do the right thing," he said.
So how does Marsh feel about the deal
nearly a month later? "Would I do it again? No. I'll go on the record as
saying that," Marsh said. "I certainly know a lot more today than I knew
a month ago, in a lot of respects."
Though Marsh admitted that EV1 has
lost some hosting business since the deal, he said it is not out of line
with the number of sites EV1 loses in a typical month.
On March 25, Internet research company
Netcraft Ltd.'s Sites on the Move section reported that EV1 had lost 1,080
Web sites in the previous 30 days, but according to Marsh, a loss of 800
to 1,300 sites per month was normal for EV1. Because of new business, EV1
had experienced a net gain of more than 3,300 sites during the same period,
he added. "We churn a lot of sites," Marsh said.
The big loser in this matter may be
SCO, said Dion Cornett, an analyst with Decatur Jones Equity Partners LLC,
an equity research firm based in Chicago. Having their first publicly announced
customer express second thoughts over the deal so soon after its announcement
may make it difficult for SCO to sign up other customers, he said.
"For Robert (Marsh) to say that he
would not do the deal again, that's certainly going to be heeded by anyone
that SCO talks to in the future," Cornett said.
