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SCO Fined in Munich For Linux Claims
nordi writes "heise.de reports (in German) that SCO Germany has to pay a fine of 10,000 Euros (~10,800 US$) because they kept on saying that Linux contains stolen intellectual property of SCO. In May a German court had decided that SCO Germany must not continue making those claims." Yes, it's auf Deutsch, so break out babelfish.
Wow, First SCO story of the day! Lets see if we can go for more!
Here in the States, this simple, common sense ruling is still dozens of months and millions of dollars away.
Notice, also, that Germany has wisely put the smack down on the cult of Scientology for a decade now, while the American authorities are still under the delusion that it's harmless and legitimate.
But on the other hand, Germany embraces its own collection of stupid ideas, like the cradle-to-grave welfare state and the belief that Saddam wasn't worth getting rid of.
So it appears that the German FUD-suppression system is most effective when it comes to lunatic litigation, and not so effective when it comes to touchy-feely politics.
There's a term paper in here somewhere....
What Would Jesus Do
(for a Klondike bar)?
They are not.
the civil law system of each country in the EU is seperated. There are only a few links between them when it comes to civil rights.
Most countries in Europe (not the EU. The Council of Europe is somehwat larger than the EU... And the continent Europe is larger than the council of europe..) have ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. When the national way of procedure (Appeals, Revision, national supreme court) ends and you still think your human rights are violated, you are allowed to go to the Human Righs Court in Strasbourg (France).
This does not apply to the current SCO-case.
It might change in the future.
True, what I should have said to make my point more clear was: It's small price to pay to publicly get their case out, something which is especially hard to do, when you are going up agaist a mad mob like the communist/linux establishment. If the Linux community did get patented code from IBM or anywhere else, they should pay the price. Would you wish any less for a violater of the GPL or LGPL?
Although your post appears to be some kind of flamebait, you are dealing with valid points.
If Mr. Bremer (CEO of SCO GmbH in Germany) walks to the street and says "I personally believe that Linux is inviting the whole world to steal our code", it's okay.
The preliminary injunction only applies to the doings of SCO and its employees in business.
The short version (which omits many important points) is:
"The world sucks" --> nothing happens.
"SCO sucks" --> if you are a competitor of SCO, SCO might be able to request a preliminary injunction against this statement.
"You suck" --> under normal circumstances, "you" might be able to request a criminal investigation for insulting. Of course, there are situations where "you suck" might be justified.
Could you please specify why you think that there is a lack of freedom of speech in Germany in this case?
(personally, I agree to this article 130 of the German criminal law which makes it illegal to deny the murder of millions of people under the 3rd Reich)
i love when a US news site links to a german news article... fuck the germans... translate that shit you lazy bastards....