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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."
In a desperate attempt to prevent interested parties from reading their crap, SCO has apparently taken it upon themselves to slashdot Groklaw. Impressive.
If we can't read it we have to believe them!
SCO files a court document which includes (to provide support for their claim) a link to a web page controlled by someone they KNOW to hate them?
"Your Honor, we demand he change it back. We ummm didn't know website text can be changed"
The mind boggles...
Finkployd
- when bottomfeeders and IP portfolios mix, one shouldn't be surprised by such actions... - sadder however, is that the U.S. court system allows this case to continue to be played out... - the big warning here is that no future technology endeavours or independent software developers are safe from venture capitalists, investment brokers, and reptiles that have passed state bar exams...
And that would actually be bad. Linux needs to be totally vindicated of containing any tainted SysV code, and there is finally a chance that the GPL will be uphold as a valid enforcabled license. The case being dismissed will not clear Linux just gives SCO more of a chance to spread even more FUD.
-- Ed Bugg --You have freedom of choice, but not of consequences.--
yes, but you would then have to assume that SCO had a case
Get paid to code OSS
Actually their claim is more targeted than that.
They claim specific rights to JFS as a derivitive work of UNIX, (which is like saying that your HKK turbocharger is a "derivitive work" of your Ford Mustang)and to a Linux SMP implementation.
Everything else that they claim to have claimed has actually been press release FUD. (See Jargon File)
The JFS claim rests entirely on the terms of contract and the legal definition of derivative works. No need to even look at the code since it is stipulated that IBM wrote the whole thing themselves.
The SMP claim depends upon the code in a very particular bit of code which may, but does not need to be, implemented in any particular Linux kernel.
This filing by SCO amounts to more FUD. I can't imagine it's going to fly. To make a claim you must provide evidence for that claim or go home. Defendant then defends against that evidence. If it isn't introduced as evidence, not need to defend. A claim is not evidence.
They're not only smoking, they're eating random mushrooms at the same time and the judege should throw their tripping asses out of court until they come back clean and straight.
KFG
Copyright law says you are not allowed to distribute without permission from the copyright holder(s). It does not stipulate what you must do to obtain that permission. That is left at the discretion of those that hold the copyright. If I hold the copyright on material, and I insist that you abide by the terms a license that I dictate before you are legally allowed to distribute *ANY* of the code I wrote, that is my perogative.
My having used the GPL does not cause derivative works to be copyrighted by me... You still own the copyrights on any lines of code that you wrote, but I still *DO* own the copyrights on any lines of code that I wrote as well, and if any of those lines happen to reside within software that you write, if you did not agree to the terms of the GPL, you are violating plain old ordinary copyright law.
End of story.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
That is exactly what IBM was trying to do. The case is in discovery and IBM had asked for exactly what lines of code SCO is saying they stole from SysV and put into Linux. When SCO wouldn't show the code IBM filed a motion to force them to submit it. This is SCO's reponse to that motion saying the motion needs to be denied because they are waiting for IBM to show them what parts of Linux came from SysV.
Nifty eh?
-- Ed Bugg --You have freedom of choice, but not of consequences.--
This case becomes more and more ridiculous. I wonder - could someone with appropriate standing subpoena information regarding SCO's $50 million to see if it really did come from Microsoft? If Microsoft were funding this, would that not be a pretty clear anti-trust matter?
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
I hate SCO just as much as the next guy, but the Amendments you cited are for criminal cases, and apply only to the government. This case is a civil matter, and therefore use a different set of laws. IANAL, so I believe SCO still has to prove its own case, but it isn't compelled to by those Amendments you listed above. -geoff313
Uhhh-huh-huh. He said infringer. Huh-huh-huh.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Just for the sake of beating a dead horse, I'd like to remind my fellow Slashdotters that SCO isn't suing over SCO's code being included in Linux. They are suing IBM for including IBM's code which they say they have rights to. Same with SGI. JFS, NUMA, XFS, etc are not, and never have been in any SCO products. Groklaw is slashdotted, so I can't RTFA, but I'm assuming they can't compare Linux with IBM's code base, and thats the problem. Someone mirror TFA please. ;)
Fishing expeditions are not allowed. When you are the plaintiff, you have to have your evidence ready before entering court. Defendant has much more leeway in discovery. Otherwise, as PJ pointed out, you could simply file claims against random people, searching for any infringement anyone might have done. This would be abuse of the court system. It would be like allowing the police to preemptively search random people's homes without reasonable suspicion. Sure, they would find more evidence and prosecute more crimes, but the benefits do not outweigh the consequences.
SCO shouldn't need evidence--everything is already laid out, "infringing" source code is known to all. But they have nothing, so they are abusing discovery to go fishing. IBM, on the other hand, can ask for pretty much anything, since they didn't bring action.
The plaintiff has to provide proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant is in the wrong.
Oops, you got it wrong again.
In civil cases, you must prove only that the "preponderance of the evidence" points to wrongdoing. In a civil jury trial, you only need a majority of the jurors to decide in your favor, not 100%.