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SCO Asks IBM To Make SCO's Case For It
acousticiris writes "According to an analysis of Friday's memorandum from SCO on Groklaw: 'If I had to characterize it in a brief sentence or two, the sentence would be that SCO tells the court, "How are we supposed to know what code IBM misappropriated? It's up to them to prove our case for us."...' It's also interesting to note that in Friday's memorandum, footnote 4, SCO uses Eric Raymond's Jargon File entry for FUD to take pot shots at IBM (footnote 4). Evidently, Eric was not pleased, according to the updated entry."
Go awAY. Your stupid poSTs have annoyED me for montHS now.
Saturday, October 25 2003 @ 06:22 AM EDT
It's time to analyze SCO's Memorandum of Law in Opposition to IBM's Motion to Compel Discovery, which we posted as text yesterday. If I had to characterize it in a brief sentence or two, the sentence would be that SCO tells the court, "How are we supposed to know what code IBM misappropriated? It's up to them to prove our case for us. It's not for us to hand over the code; it's up to them to show us every bit of code they ever donated to Linux. Then, we'll go over it and find whatever we can find. And anyway, we've given them plenty of stuff just today, so who needs a motion to compel? Let's just forget the whole thing."
In short, they don't want to show the code this exact minute.
They bad mouth IBM some more, tell a fib or two, by my reckoning, and then sit down, saying the motion should be denied. Let's go over the document piece by piece.
"It has been said that things have both an ostensible and a real reason. Ostensibly, IBM filed its motion to Compel to force SCO to answer interrogatories and produce documents because it had failed to do so. The reality, however, is that SCO not only timely responded to IBM's discovery requests, it then engaged in weeks of lengthy conversation, correspondence, and emails to resolve and clarify discovery issues and ultimately agreed to supplement its responses. But supplemental responses were not all that IBM was seeking. If that were the case, IBM would have waited until today, when supplemental responses were promised and were in fact served. No, what IBM really desired was a forum within which it could construct its stilted and inaccurate mischaracterization of SCO's claims, behind which it could hide its own failure and refusal to provide meaningful discovery responses. As detailed below, IBM's motion is without merit and should be denied."
Here SCO tells the judge that there is no need for any Motion to Compel. They told IBM they'd give them their supplemental answers (that they should have given them from the beginning but didn't until after "weeks of lengthy conversation, correspondence, and emails" made them agree to do it) by today. We did, so why did they file a Motion to Compel? There are pretend reasons used as a cover, they say, and then the real reason. And the real reason was so IBM could have a forum to mischaracterize SCO's claims and so it could hide from their own failure to give SCO meaningful answers to *their* discovery requests. In short, the defense is, IBM hasn't answered all our questions either. Never mind that IBM sent its interrogatories to SCO weeks before SCO sent IBM its interrogatories.
This is certainly a novel way to respond to a Motion to Compel Discovery. SCO has been accused of refusing to turn over information and documents it must turn over, and their answer is, well, they didn't either. Their secondary answer is that although they had not turned the materials over by the date of the filing of the Motion, IBM should have been able to trust SCO's word. Heh heh. IBM already told the judge in its Motion to Compel that the reason they were filing was because SCO had absolutely refused to tell them that they would produce the materials requested, not that they were pokey.
So now, somebody's mistaken or lying. Either SCO told IBM it'd turn over everything IBM asked for by the 23rd, or they refused to commit themselves to doing so, which is IBM's story. So, who do you believe? I think the rest of the document makes clear that when SCO says it offered supplementals, it still didn't mean it would answer all IBM's questions or provide everything IBM asked for.
"At its core, IBM's Motion to Compel Discovery asks for answers to interrogatories that fit its own mischaracterized theories of the case, rather than answers that relate to the actual allegations made by SCO in the Complaint."
IBM is asking us things that don't relate to
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Ah, Eric. Always the pinnacle of restrained wit and tact.
Seriously, he could be charged with libel for his "SCO has become a nest of liars and thieves" comment, and probably should. At any rate, he keeps missing a major point of open source: If you release it to the general public under a given license, then everyone who abides by that license can use it. Military (domestic and foreign both), IBm, and SCO. SCO, for instance, can use the jargon dictionary just fine, and he doesn't HAVE to like it! He made his own bed, now he can lie in it.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Let me get this straight--according to ESR, SCO has become "a nest of liars and thieves compared to which IBM at its historic worst looked positively angelic."
Which IBM is that? You mean, the IBM that built and supplied the technologies enabling Hitler's Germany to systematically slaughter six million innocent human beings?
This is IBM's angelic history compared to SCO's devilry? I think ESR needs to reconsider his priorities.
Life after capitalism? The participatory economics project
Well forgive me, oh mighty anonymous coward, for making a mistake in the workings of a foreign country's legal system. I feel so useless now.
Don't feel useless, AC, as you were perfectly correct. Criminal libel (while fairly rare) is an offence both in the UK, and also in the USA and you *can* be charged with it. Even in Utah apparently.