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Judge Slams SCO's Lack of Evidence
An anonymous reader writes "News.com has reported that the federal judge overseeing the SCO Group's suit against IBM has voiced loud skepticism about SCO's case. "Viewed against the backdrop of SCO's plethora of public statements concerning IBM's and others' infringement of SCO's purported copyrights to the Unix software, it is astonishing that SCO has not offered any competent evidence to create a disputed fact regarding whether IBM has infringed SCO's alleged copyrights through IBM's Linux activities," said U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball." Commentary available on Groklaw as well.
One can only wonder what kind of good news SCO can/will make out of this... So far they've been very able to turn bad news into good news with lame excuses.
If "the U.S. adopts a 'loser pays' court system similar to the UK" small parties can be bullied into submission even easier : [company to the suing private person] "I've got more money than you, and you will be paying my expenses too, so who do you think will win, and who will be left with a debth he will not be able to pay of for the rest of his life ?"
:-)
Actually, both systems have their ups and downs
You can sue for legal costs. My mother's accounting firm is doing so with the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency for dragging on a fraud investigation for years, when there was no fraud to begin with.
But apparantly, some judges are taking some action against frivolous lawsuits already.
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I don't know why they're doing this, but I've tended to agree with others and wonder if:
(a) SCO started this because they thought they could get IBM to buy them, making all of the SCO executives rich, but then
(b) when IBM clearly signalled it wasn't going to fall for that old trick, SCO had to keep making a strong public appearance of a credible case in order to avoid getting sued -- or worse, SCO executives jailed by the SEC for some form of stock fraud. I.e., if they lose to IBM in a fair trial the executives can claim they honestly thought they had a case. If they simply give up and admit they never had a case, then what kind of legal attacks from shareholders or the SEC might they they open themselves up to? At this point, mayby Darl is just trying to avoid personal liability and an assault on his own personal assets.
I hope that after I die the one word people use to describe me is "resurrected."
Sure they can try. But that would be an in the form of an appeal to the Federal Appeals Court. Which, btw, is not an easy task. You kinda of get an idea of Judge Kimball's attitudes when you read his legal briefs. And from the way he writes and thinks, he is a pretty tough judge. I would be intriqued to find out how many of his cases have been reversed on the appeals level. Also, when their is so much evidence to support the censor, I wouldn't worry. If there was a whole bunch of evidence, then unfair bias could be alleged, but not when SCO keeps saying there is a mountain when there isn't. Besides, this could actually be seen as an attempt to over SCO the chance to recover their case. By "warning" SCO to come up with something substantial on which the basis of their claims lie, the Court is allowing SCO the chance to actually get it "day in court." If SCO had been playing fair the entire time, SCO provided sufficient evidence and the evidence supported the claims, then I could see the case being moved or getting started up in another venue. But you have to remember, Utah is home to SCO. So finding a better home might be a little difficult.
The views expressed are mine own and do not express the views of my employer.
By allowing this case to proceed to a final conclusion he's making sure it will be SCO's final resting place; the coffin will be nailed, screwed, glued and welded shut. IBM's countersuit for expenses will be swift and merciless.
John