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IBM Motion to Limit SCO Claims Granted
Kalak writes "IBM's motion to limit SCO's claims to those that have specific version, file and line numbers has been granted, in part. At the end of last year, SCO made 294 allegations. IBM asked for dismissal of 198 of them due to lack of this information, 1 SCO withdrew, 1 IBM withdrew from the request, and 185 of them have been dismissed from the case. This leaves 107 of the charges are left to be addressed by means other than lack of specificity (such as public domain, BSD code, who owns it, etc.) As usual, Groklaw, has discussion, as well as the Order and an excellent chart of the history of alleged violations has been created as well."
It's got to be sooner rather than later. The whole travesty look like a dam beginning to leak now. Let's hope it resolves cleanly, with a lot of positive press for Linux.
Another consultant who stuck it out.
"We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
Well, here's the big question...
There's two possible reasons behind this particular lawsuit. One is because the SCO execs want to go after IBM for extortion. The other reason is because Microsoft is trying to go after Linux.
If the second is true, any actions from here may be oriented towards preventing Microsoft from being revealed as the Man Behind The Curtain, rather than winning.
Gentoo Sucks
Know what's funny? I just figured out that prosco.net is now a parked domain. I guess they didn't have the heart to keep pretending anyone wanted to read it.
Viper is the preferred editor of the Emacs operating system.
GAH! I corrected you and screwed up the numbers myself.
Judge Wells allowed *11* of IBM's 198 disputed claims (23, 43, 90, 94, 186-192) and barred the rest.
The Statue of Liberty is America's lawn jockey.
I just hope IBM aren't satisfied with just grinding SCO into fine powder.
I hope they go after the company directors (I want to see them do some jail time), I want IBM to press a complaint with the bar against SCO's lawyers (I hope they never practice law again). I hope SCO's expert witnesses get prosecuted for perjury. I hope IBM turns on Baystar and forces some answers out of them (I'd love to see Baystar go down too).
Even the more peripheral individuals and companies around this case deserve a good kicking. I hope forums like this won't let anybody forget which companies supported SCO or bought "Linux Licences" and which journalists backed their case (in particular - let's make sure every time DiDio makes some pronouncement everybody remembers what she said about how solid SCO's case was).
It's time make sure everybody who assisted SCO suffers. It's time to make some examples. It's time to get vindictive.
The fact that the Judge sanctioned SCO for "willful disobedience" rather than "bad faith" is analogous to Scooter Libby being charged with obstruction of justice rather than treason or some other more serious crime. In both cases the judge/procecutor/investigator knows the party is guilty as hell but life is easier by going with the easier to prove charge.
The judge is simply trying to avoid wasting appellate judges time by not giving SCO anything they can reasonably dispute (i.e. "it wasn't bad faith because she can't read our mind").
"Nobody wants the Patent Wars, it is a doomsday device"
More importantly, the big patent holders don't want patent wars before software patents are properly established in Europe.
She's also entertaining. I would have expected most legal decisions to be dry and technical, but she uses some layman concepts that suggest she's well aware her audience includes a lot of non-lawyers. My favorite item is on page 34: