[NCLUG] Organizing against SCO?

[milesd]

So... wait a second... The only way a case gets to trial is if the 
proscecution is clearly right?

Is there no way for a defendant to win once the battle hits the trial phase?

***begin logic explanation***
If P then Q
Q does not imply P...

"If OJ is guilty, he will run,"... "OJ ran therefore OJ is guilty" Not 
logically sound. One possible reason among the millions of possible reasons 
for OJ to have run was because he was afraid he wouldn't get a fair trial. 
(note, I do not want to discuss the OJ trial here)
***End logic explanation***

That IBM has not yet blocked the case is only evidence that IBM has not yet 
blocked the case. It does not imply anything else.


>===== Original Message From jbass at dmsd.com =====
>Sean Reifschneider <jafo at tummy.com>
>> You seem pretty confident that IBM is clearly in the wrong here.
>> What is it that has so convinced you?
>
>Just direct experience that courts generally dismiss claims without
>merit during pre-trial motions, thus it takes some convincing evidence
>for the judge to grant the case to advance to discovery stage which
>opens the company up internally to the defense team and experts.
>
>It could be that SCO was in error and court is allowing a sham to
>proceed, but even that has ramifications.
>
>The copyright law is not available as a back door into an arbitrary
>competitors internal communications. Any laywer pressing such a
>frivolous claim risks contempt of court for themselves and their
>clients, plus the risk of damages in a counter suit.
>
>So, at least from my experience, the odds are that SCO has a case
>that will resulting in a ruling against IBM, otherwise the IBM lawyers
>would have had it blocked by now. Probably the only question at the
>end of discovery is if the SCO legal team can present enough evidence
>to justify a substantial damage award, which may include legally getting
>all areas of the Linux kernel that IBM has contributed code to ruled
>as tainted. Since SCO appears to pressing the failure of clean room reverse
>engineering practice (and is likely to do so at HP, Sun, SGI, and other
>genetic UNIX licensed companies as well should they prevail) this raises
>serious questions for all areas of Linux (and open software in general)
>where contributors had access to licensed code and engineering standards
>are weak.
>
>I'm not personally happy about this, as UNIX is replaced with Linux
>that pretty much means the end of my livelyhood as a kernel engineer
>if those of us with long UNIX track records are unable to participate.
>
>Hopefully the outcome will be some large damage awards, and negotiations
>to keep Linux free.
>
>John
>_______________________________________________
>NCLUG mailing list       NCLUG at nclug.org
>
>To unsubscribe, subscribe, or modify your settings, go to:
>http://www.nclug.org/mailman/listinfo/nclug