Novell Poised To Strike On Slander Of Title Claim 221
Xenographic writes "As seen in this Groklaw article, Novell is moving to dismiss SCO's slander of title claim with prejudice. They key to it is that SCO needs Novell's claims to be "knowingly false" to establish malice. Since the judge's own order on the motion to remand (see also part 2) questions whether there really was ever actually a copyright transfer, Novell's assertion that there was no transfer cannot be knowingly false, so SCO's case falls apart. Unfortunately, as Novell points out, the judge would be doing this without actually deciding the underlying issue of who owns what copyrights, and SCO could file a completely different suit for breach of contract or something, even though SCO would be unable to refile this slander of title suit. As an aside, I should mention that this isn't the first or only controversy over defamation we've seen in this fiasco by any means."
Free Software and the Idiots who Buy It (Score:5, Informative)
Disadvantage of US vs British legal system (Score:5, Informative)
Here in the UK (well England and Wales at least), as you may know, the loser in litigation generally has to pick up the winner's legal fees. Where the claim was, e.g. an abuse of process, the fees can be payable on a punitive ("indemnity") basis. If either side is on a shaky financial footing, they can be forced to pay money into court to cover their opponent's litigation risk.
Is anyone thinking of taking these sort of rules into the US system? Or would that not work with the constitution?
Same judge in the IBM case (Score:3, Informative)
Another goods thing about Novell exposing SCO's games is that Judge Kimball is also presiding over the SCO v IBM case.
Re:Disadvantage of US vs British legal system (Score:3, Informative)
As an example of how bad it is, the Las Vegas casinos were offered information on terrorist activities around various casinos, they declinded because once they know about the threats they will have more problems with the lawyers if anything happens then then whatever possible damage the terrorist could do.
Here is one article on 2004 US election [newsbatch.com]. The American tort reform association [atra.org] has article detailing the various changes that various stats are doing.
Re:Disadvantage of US vs British legal system (Score:5, Informative)
Secondly, the government Legal Aid scheme exists to fund such actions, if the Legal Aid Service's lawyers think you have a good case. Like a State Defender, but for prosecutions and civil cases.
Re:Free Software and the Idiots who Buy It (Score:3, Informative)
Ouch!
Re:Free Software and the Idiots who Buy It (Score:5, Informative)
Of course, there's also Freiler's Maxim:
Re:Disadvantage of US vs British legal system (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why not just make this go away? (Score:3, Informative)
Others, who are not quite as quick on the uptake, must be fought simply to prove that the policy is valid.
SCO just happens to be one of the latter group.
Re:Free Software and the Idiots who Buy It (Score:2, Informative)
Re:A little history ... (Score:3, Informative)
Linux was inspired by Minux. But to say it is "based on" Minux is to say that every work of art done by every student since the beginning of time is "based on" the work of the teacher. I don't know many teachers who would take that position.
Minux is a microkernel; Linux is a monolithic kernel. Changing one into the other would be like taking a dog and morphing it into a horse - very unlikely.
sPh
Re:A little history ... (Score:5, Informative)
Could it be more beautiful? (Score:3, Informative)
If you develop on the platform your IP may belong to the world and the value of that IP is part of your Linux price. I'm waiting for the day that someone at GM realizes that Linux developers there regularly talk to their Ford counterparts to solve critical problems and, because may they need to, provide access and confidential information about the company in the process. The Ford executives shouldn't feel too smug because similar information is flowing out of them. And key technologies may not belong to either because of this practice. [emphasis mine]
Wow, I don't know if I could point out a more misunderstood statement regarding the GPL than this.
In the first place, developing on Linux doesn't obligate you to release your code under the GPL. So, unless you're an idiot and release your code to the world, you could market and sell Linux applications without ever revealing your source. But that would be selfish - you've benefitted greatly from the benevolence of others, yet you feel no need to give back to the same community that gave so much to you? Let me guess, you're still trying to avoid paying taxes, too?
Basically, the GPL prevents IP theft. The terms are simple - if you steal our code, you have to make your code available to the public, or risk a lawsuit. In fact, GPL'ing a piece of software is a sort of insurance policy against code theft - if someone copies my GPL'd code into their product, I can then demand they distribute their source code as well. Hence, it serves as a deterrent to the corporate parasites and leeches who make their living by stealing and repackaging the work of others.
No, using GPL'd software for development won't give your IP to the world, as you suggest. But, the GPL ensures that code leeches can't steal the work of others for the sake of personal profit. You, Rob, didn't write the Linux kernel, nor the GNU utilities and libraries, and hence, have no right to use code you haven't written against the will of the author. Why is this so hard to understand? All the GPL says is that if you use someone else's code, you have to respect their terms. Is that really so hard?
Re:Free Software and the Idiots who Buy It (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Filed copyrights? (Score:4, Informative)
No, in the memorandum, Novell clearly states that the copyrights ownership is a separate matter for US Copyright Office or another case to decide. In this case, the judge only needs to determine if Novell has a valid case that they own the Unix copyrights. The judge already determined that the transfer of ownership document (Amendment 2) is ambiguous at best and he is leaning that in favor of Novell that they never transferred such copyrights. The judge does not have to decide who owns them but that Novell can demonstrate that they have legal grounds to claim that they own Unix copyrights for the case to be dismissed because "knowingly false" requirement.
Re: Rob Enderle flips out (Score:3, Informative)
Wow! Nice link! That's one disturbing piece of work. I took enough psych to see that the man is clearly egomaniacal, I'm curious if he's borderline delusional. Anyone with more training have an insight?
Nor is this well formed apologetics as he fundamentally contradicts himself more than once. For example, he attacks the working man since he asserts that the majority of Linux users are not entrepeneurs. Not that the majority of any OS users are entrepeneurs but ok. So he calls people who work for a living "zombies". Later he proposes to be championing the case of the working man. Dude, you just called him a zombie! (And you wonder why people threaten you?)
Also enjoyed the inference that many Linux users are clueless morons who don't code or play video games!? First, the fact that Linux finally has some non-coders using it is an indication that it is getting more user-friendly. Secondly, do you really want to compare the coding skills of the average Linux user with, say, the average XP user? (Not bashing any of the bright coders who do use XP but you also realize that you do not represent the average user.) And video games? Ooo, how sinister is that? What does that have to do with anything? (However you can make the case that Osama Binladen doesn't play video games. Is it such a stretch to think that non-gamers might be terrorists?)
But let's not throw out the good with the bad. His point that no one has the right to threaten him (or anyone else) with violence is just. Point taken. This is an area where the OSS advocates need to take note and clean up their image a little.
You still get the feeling he's using the image to try to paint Linux advocates as the bully and SCO/Microsoft as the victim.
Too weird.
Re:Why not just make this go away? (Score:4, Informative)
"In this country, it is a good idea to kill an admiral from time to time, so as to encourage the others."
In 1756, Admiral Byng was ordered to prevent the French from taking Minorca. He was supplied with a fleet of thirteen ships that were both ill equipped and undermanned. To make room for the soldiers he was to receive from the Gibraltar garrison, his marines were reassigned to other squadrons.
In Gibraltar, when he requested the reinforcements, Byng was rebuffed, as the local governor feared a French attack on his city.
The admiral sailed on to Minorca-- but his initial engagement with the French fleet proved disastrous. The relative positions of the French and British fleets made the standard "Fighting Instructions" ineffective-- the leading ships of Byng's line engaged the French fleet unsupported, and as a result, were quickly dispatched. Byng refused to break up his line, and shortly thereafter. was forced to withdraw, as his remaining forces could not possibly relieve the siege, even in the absence of a French fleet. He sailed for Gibraltar, and Minorca was taken. Byng was arrested, court martialed, and shot, as he had failed to do his duty.
"Pour encourager les autres" is a rationale for exceptionally harsh punishment. If IBM were to sue SCO for patent infringement, receive the remainder of SCOs assets in a settlement, and then symbolically burn SCO to the ground, such actions could be construed as "Pour encourager les autres,"
Re:Free Software and the Idiots who Buy It (Score:4, Informative)
Read what I have written so far. [fallinggrace.com]
- Neil Wehneman
Re:Free Software and the Idiots who Buy It (Score:4, Informative)
Oh my god, I know there have been a lot of comments about how this guy's a troll, but just reading that crap is amazing.
SCO is being attacked? Didn't they start all this? Oh, I see, they were just defending their rights that "heroes died for"... What a blatent pull at heartstrings. What utter crap.
Doug
Re:Enderle speech has been sanitized (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Free Software and the Idiots who Buy It (Score:3, Informative)
Confused (Score:1, Informative)