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SCO Uses 3rd Parties To Spread Claims In Germany
kryonD writes "According to this Computer Weekly article, SCO is no longer allowed to spread their FUD in Germany. This wasn't even a court or government order, but an out of court settlement with a small company. They even get 'fined' EU10,000 by the company for every breach of the settlement. Although, it appears from the article that SCO is side-stepping the agreement by commissioning 3rd party firms to spread their FUD for them. The settlement happened last month, but this is the first I have heard of it. I wonder what made them back down so quickly."
We mentioned the settlement earlier this month (including prohibitions on making certain claims); the news is the attempt to circumvent it.
Go check Groklaw. IBM is asking for a declaratory judgement. SCOX trading tomorrow should be, um, amusing.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200403301 84527522
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5182078.html
Go not unto/. for advice, for you will be told both yea and nay (but have nothing to do with the question)
It was an out of court settlement. There is no precedent. RTFSummary.
The key thing here is that this was an out of court settlement. So there was no verdict, no ruling, no award... no precedent. Even if the judge had mandated this, many other countries don't attach the same sort of reverence to prior judicial decisions as the US does. Our reliance on precedence comes mainly from England (specifically common law). I don't know anything about Germany's judicial system so I have no idea what weight they give prior verdicts/rulings.
It's not illegal... it's just a violation of a contract, and you know how SCO loves to go looking for legal loopholes in contracts...
Microsoft. Check out some of the older stories on Microsoft's "encouragement" of investment companies to channel some of their funds into SCO. I'm too tired to provide the links tonight, but you can find it by searching for SCO under "Old Stories".
GreyPoopon
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Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
The settlement was for SCO violating an injunction which was granted by a judge. So I don't quite see your point.
I assume you're talking about the SCO case though regardless of your example. In the SCO case SCO was making public statements. In Germany a local linux organization or group (not sure of their exact status) took SCO to court.
Under their laws they were, in layman's terms, request an order that SCO put up or shut up. If SCO had put up they could have continued to talk about it and as well taken whatever action they felt necessary under the law. But SCO failed after the court gave them the grace period to provide some proof. The judge then issued the shut up order as the law provides.
I agree you want to know when you're infringing someone elses rights. In the US as in Germany people involved in Linux have been saying please tell us where it is and we'll remove your property . SCO has refused, so far.
At the same time would you want ACME Software House running around screaming that code you wrote was theirs? I doubt it. You'd better hire some lawyers and get cracking... And face the loss of business while ACME is lying... You don't have the benefit of a put up or shut up law to deal with those types of criminals. And SCO are criminals. Maybe not by criminal law but by any accepted moral standard.
I don't know anything about Germany's judicial system so I have no idea what weight they give prior verdicts/rulings.
They work only in a hierarchical system. Decisions a superior court makes are practicaly seen as precedents. However it is always possible for a minor court to decide otherwise if it has reason to do so.
The correct term would be "Fick dich, (du) Arschloch..."
(No need for the corteous "Sie", we are talking about SCO :-))
Move Sig. For great justice.
If you accept the above, and if you consider as well that Novell has told TSG early on that TSG is wrong about the copyrights, and that IBM knew Novell was doing this, you also know why IBM didn't buy out TSG.
That would make the answer to the more appropriate question who will claim to own Unix System V as simple as this: Novell.
JeR
They consider the BSD settlement to be invalid and will probably go after BSD at some point. Found one link here. Trying to find better details.
On Efeze - Most westerners know it by its Latin name, as Ephesus (the letter to the Ephesians was to them). The temple of Artemis was also had economic importance. And as far as I can remember, he is the only terrorist who attacked an architectural or artistic monument who sufferred damnatio memoriae. The story is that he started the fire simply to become famous, thus the damnatio memoriae was an appropriate punishment.