spinynorman Posted November 14, 2003 Report Share Posted November 14, 2003 (edited) iphitus, Gowator: thank you sir but please don't call me sco because I am not. einamo... In case you got lost in Gowator's explanation :P , iphitus wasn't calling you SCO: he wasn't addressing you in particular, he was just venting his feelings about that company... Gowator was agreeing with that. Anyway, welcome on board. :) Edited November 14, 2003 by spinynorman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland Posted November 14, 2003 Report Share Posted November 14, 2003 (edited) This is the first time Linus has ever been served legal papers other than speeding tickets, so he's looking for lawyers now. scary. I've never been sued so I don't know: what could happen if when sued you write a letter to the court saying that you have no time nor money to wast with your agressor's stupidities and don't care at all ? roland edit: just syntax error.. Edited November 14, 2003 by roland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah31 Posted November 14, 2003 Report Share Posted November 14, 2003 Please never refer to me as SIR.... okay madame :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest einamo Posted November 14, 2003 Report Share Posted November 14, 2003 einamo.... Ermmm. how did you get the idea myself or iphuitus were... Gowator & iphitus: Ouch... sorry sorry sorry... I am terribly sorry for my stupid misunderstanding... that is what happens when talking with someone and quickly reading the messages. humaneasy: you can not be so sure they will share their open source os with the rest of the world. If they do, then the open source movement will more likely prevail everywhere and the world will be a tiny little bit better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzatch Posted November 15, 2003 Report Share Posted November 15, 2003 Roland scary. I've never been sued so I don't know: what could happen if when sued you write a letter to the court saying that you have no time nor money to wast with your aggressors stupidities and don't care at all ? Well here in the states they just kindly send you another letter ordering you to make it to court then if you miss the second time a nice sherif comes to your house and escorts you to court. If you loose the case and can't pay then you stand a good chance of having a new home with a few new overly affectionate room mates. :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmac Posted November 15, 2003 Report Share Posted November 15, 2003 http://www.guardian.co.uk/microsoft/Story/...1001267,00.html If people realkised the implications of this I reckon it would antagonise a great many. http://www.guardian.co.uk/microsoft/Story/...1074817,00.html There are some lovely twists in this. Even if the GPL adjudged illegal in the US it does not follow that the EU will follow suit. The EU for all its faults has shown itself capable of acting against large companies, and not just American ones either, for monopolistic activity. "The other thing that I wanted to say is that I am worried about Linux because if it didn't make in the States, then it is unlikely for it to have a chance somewhere else. And it's about time for the economy to recover so Linux will be less interesting for the companies to use. " Come on microsoft put your prices up and have ridiculous licence restrictions, behave like a monopoly these could be your death throes. Personally I think/hope alternatives would become more attractive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Baco Posted November 15, 2003 Report Share Posted November 15, 2003 Let's say we write a common, public, official, stamped, signed and countersigned letter to the SCO case judge, saying something like: "Your honor, We, users of GNU/Linux, have choosen to use this OS for years because we believed the GNU GPL under which its code is released was protecting us against any copyright and patent claim from companies like SCO. As of today, we find ourselves in a peculiar situation where we could be sued for illegal practices like copying, modifying and distributing software code that does not belong to us and for which no rights to do such things have been granted. In other words, we might be sued for a "crime" we did not known we were commiting: under its terms, the GPL authorized us to do whatever we wanted. We are honest citizens, and if we are really breaking the law, we want to know how, where, and since when, in order to correct the situation asap. If SCO claim is funded, we need to know. Otherwise, how could we be condemned if there are no evidences of our crime ? Actually, we are the innocent victims of a very late SCO decision to claim property on parts of the GNU/Linux code. We are simple users and developers of software code, and it is not in our intention or interest to support one side or another in this trial. As an act of goodwill, and in order to save public money, we are ready to release to the court all the source code we use, and most important, all its history back to the original code writers. Would you be kind enough to ask SCO to do the same thing, so you can compare it to ours ? As regular users of the software involved in this case, and since we are the potential victims of the consequences of the trial between IBM and SCO, we are ready to help you on this matter. It is our interest to get ourselves out of this situation asap. This puts us in a perfect position to examine and verify the evidences. ...." Etc... I know it sounds pretty hyprocrit (knowing you free software zealots :P !). But look: in the french legal system, there's a thing called "partie civile". Anybody "indirectly" involved in a trial (like being a "second level" victim or accused) may ask the judge the have access to the evidences and eventually ask for a symbolic indemnification, or even sue one of the two trial parties. Imagine a group of 100 GNU/Linux users asking the judge to do so...We don't really care about IBM or SCO...Afterall, we have our own very private and egoist rights to defend in this case, no ? ;) Another way to have access to a trial files when you're not directly involved in it is asking the judge to be sued for the same crime, because you think you may have committed it without knowing it, and you want to prepare your defense for future eventual cases. Its very frequent here. I wonder it this is possible in USA. Might be a good way to win a free flight to America...But what about the return ticket if SCO wins ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzatch Posted November 16, 2003 Report Share Posted November 16, 2003 As a fall back any lawyer I believe could argue that since the GPL was written years ago and subsequently followed and accepted by the majority then it should stand as a legal document. Sco shot any argument against this down when it released a copy of the GPL and followed it as though it was a legal and binding document. Thats also the part they are saying that they didn't understand fully when they did it. Unless the GPL could be shown to be against any other longer accepted law then the states judges will find it very hard to shoot down. Now that most every other company has accepted it as a binding contract then it will probably be upheld. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted November 16, 2003 Report Share Posted November 16, 2003 Pzatch.... I agree..the question is what are they doing. I tend to follow the proposal put forward by Ix a long time ago that the whole thing is nothing but manipulating the stock as they sell off huge chunks every time. Hence the lag between IBM and SGI.... the subpoena's of Cox and Torvalds just go along with this.... What do they aim to achieve in court? Nothing, neither do they care. This just makes it look like they are confident, boosts the stock price while they sell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted November 16, 2003 Report Share Posted November 16, 2003 :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzatch Posted November 17, 2003 Report Share Posted November 17, 2003 Just wait until the court day gets closer. You'll see SCO trying anything including the totaly ridiculous just in hopes of getting a little more good press before everything in court comes out in public and they look like fools. I wouldn't be suprised if just before court time they "find" evidence of actual physical breakins into their offices and theft of their code. Or even supposed intimidation threats from linux advocates. I bet SCO puts off the court day until all the executives get their cut of the inflated stock sold. Then the exec's will resign, retire, get fired by a buddy, move to a different division or just basically skip out and leave the next patsy to take the heat. Like rats on a sinking ship. We can write the letter but the judge has in all probability already heard the same arguments from the people already involved. We can write a 'friend of the court' letter giving our opinions and ideas but it would have to be truly sincere and have well reasoned arguments. Whats the record of the judge who's hearing the case? He might not take kindly to letters and think its an insult to his intelligence. He is just a person after all. He also might not know that SCO is owned in part by microsoft. Something over 15% from what I hear. It could be enough that M$ could be brought in as a witness. Do we have a local legal beagle to help out on this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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