Contractors to Bear Burden if SCO Chases AU Govt

Peter writes "Contractors are set to bear the burden of SCO legal action if the company chases Australian Government departments. Apparently there are provisions in the Australian Copyright Act which allows the govt to assume IP rights then negotiate a "fair and reasonable" payment for those rights. This is in addition to contract provisions which state that contractors must accept liability for third party IP disputes."

Comments

.au OSS

[tomknight]

It's nice to see that the .au gov't are actually looking seriously at open source in the first place....

Tom.

Re:.au OSS

[Trejkaz]

Isn't it possible to implement an open source solution which doesn't involve Linux?..

Threats Alone

[millahtime]

It is truely quite amazing how far a good (by good I mean good at his/her job) lawyer can get on threats alone. I am really quite in awe.

Re:Threats Alone

[The Angry Mick]

What's really unfortunate though, is that, after the dust has settled and its all over but the shoutin', the lawyers are very seldom ever held accountable for their actions.

If, say, it turns out that SCO is in fact in league with the devil, and that David Boies joined SCO's cause fully aware of any lies told thus far, "justice" should demand he be punished alongside Darl McBride. What will most likely happen, though, is that Boies will only get to jack his fees by about a million bucks or so.

Re:Threats Alone

[gcaseye6677]

Providing a vigorous defense, where the client's interests are represented to the fullest, is much different than manufacturing evidence to be used in a baseless lawsuit which is part of a stock scam. If this can all be proven, I'd say Boies could definitely face criminal charges for helping with the fraud along with professional sanctions for legal misconduct, which would probably mean being disbarred. We can only cross our fingers and hope that this scumbag is never allowed to file a lawsuit again.

What a great system!

[Fortress]

Wow, the govt in AU can appropriate copyrighted material and negotiate payment later? This has a number of great uses outside of getting free M$ software.

Imagine a govt library that has every book, newspaper, magazine, etc in its catalogue, all without paying for it! Or better yet, a govt website with mp3s of every song ever written, all free for the download...the end user might be in trouble though.

Now, wasn't that more interesting than the obligatory SCO bashing in the other posts?

Re:What a great system!

[oolon]

Funny you should say that, in the UK publishers of books are required to send the British Library a copy of the book (on acid free paper) without charge as part of the copyright entitlement process.

James

This is huge

[GreenCrackBaby]

I'm an independant contractor, and when I sign my contracts (usually through a headhunter-type firm) there are provisions in my contract for assumption of IP violation risks and liability for my work. In other words, I agree to take responsibility for any and all IP violations that arise as a result of my work.

Normally this isn't a big deal, as the gist of these types of clauses is to prevent contractors from plagerising existing code or assuming full responsibility if they do. However, if you are a contractor who is in a position where you have to recommend a software product or hardware vendor, this SCO shit can be a huge black market for open source adoption.

A normal, independant contractor should not and will not assume this type of risk if they are smart. Even if they are sure that SCO's case is bunk (as I am). They probably will lose their contract regardless, and the cost to an independant contractor would be huge.

In other words, good luck finding contractors who willingly will reccommend that a company adopt Linux now.

Thankfully my wife is an IP lawyer, so I'm ready for a fight if need be, but I don't think most contractors are as lucky as me.

Re:This is huge

[CowboyBob500]

I'm an independant contractor, and when I sign my contracts (usually through a headhunter-type firm) there are provisions in my contract for assumption of IP violation risks and liability for my work. In other words, I agree to take responsibility for any and all IP violations that arise as a result of my work.

I'm an independent contractor too (albeit in the UK) and I've seen things like this in potential contracts, along with all kinds of other nastyness - one particular one I often see is that if I supply code written by me and licensed under the GPL then that code must be relicensed to become the property of the client (its never worded like that but that's what it essentially means). I always request that these clauses get taken out of the contract or I don't sign. It's not like there isn't plenty of other work out there, at least here in the UK. I turned down 5 contracts before landing my current one for similar contractual reasons. Anyone who signs a contract like that only has themselves to blame if it comes back to bite them. Plus, I hope you have indemnity insurance and public liability insurance, if not what the hell are you doing?

Bob

Re:AU to SCO:

[cshark]

It's really not that unusual. Indiana state has something similar in their contracts. Along with the ability to ask for a complete refund for services rendered, wilst still recieving the services.

Many states, and countries do these sort of things. Ever noticed why only a very small pool of companies are willing to work as government contractors? There's a reason for that. I'm not knocking it though.

Of course, any liability for Linux would only be incurred if a) the government is extensively using Linux and b) SCO can somehow prove ownership and origin of the code.

I wouldn't count my penguins before they hatch.

Re:You can only sue the gov't if it lets you.

[azzy]

> It's a threat, see? The sovereign government of .au just needs to tell SCO that the interests of their Linux users outweighs any private "IP" ownership rights of some sleazy American co.

Not exactly. Just the government can't be sued. but contractors that supplied the government /can/ be.