High Barratry

Lyrics © 2004 Stephen Savitzky. CC-by-nc-sa. \tttoHigh Barbary (trad)

The company now known as The SCO Group was once called ``Caldera.'' I'd always wondered why it was named after a kind of gigantic crater caused by the collapse of a magma chamber.


Lyrics [pdf]

This really needs an introduction that mentions both The SCO Group, originally a Linux distributor called Caldera that changed their name when they got delusions of grandure and started suing their customers over bogus IP claims, and barratry, which is what they were doing.

C G F G
Of a c ompany called S-C- O, the tale  I'll briefly t ell
C G F G
With  G-P-L, our s oftw are  all is free
G C F C G C F
Who t urned th eir hands to b arr atr y when s oftware wouldn't s ell
G C G F C G C
S ailing through the l eg al str aits  of H igh Barratr y

``And are you selling Linux or old Unixware?'' said we
With GPL, our software all is free
We're the owners of all Unix come demanding of our fee!
Sailing through the legal straits of High Barratry

You've stolen code from System V and given it away
With GPL, our software all is free
So buy licences for Linux, or we'll sue and make you pay
Sailing through the legal straits of High Barratry

They first sued IBM over a million lines of code
With GPL, our software all is free
Though a subroutine or two from BSD was all they showed
Sailing through the legal straits of High Barratry

Well, RedHat sued them next so they went gunning for Novell
With GPL, our software all is free
Autozone and Daimler-Chrysler soon were on their list as well
Sailing through the legal straits of High Barratry

Then lawsuit and lawsuit we fought for many a day
With GPL, our software all is free
'Till the research done at Groklaw blew their cases clean away
Sailing through the legal straits of High Barratry

Oh, please buy us out, the SCOundrels made their plea
With GPL, our software all is free
But the buyout that they'll get is in a court of bankruptcy
Sailing through the legal straits of High Barratry

And oh, it was a sorry thing to hear them rant and roar
With GPL, our software all is free
With their options underwater as their stock sank through the floor
Sailing through the legal straits of High Barratry

Though they started as Caldera selling Linux long ago
With GPL, our software all is free
Soon a huge volcanic crater will be all that's left of SCO
Sailing through the legal straits of High Barratry