Hans Reiser to Sell Company

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Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday December 21, 2006 @05:09PM from the will-order-bits-for-cash dept.

DVega writes "Due to increasing legal costs, murder suspect Hans Reiser is seeking to sell his company. His lawyer William DuBois said he is running out of money to pay for his defense. DuBois added, 'This is a unique opportunity for someone to buy the company for pennies on the dollar. We welcome all vultures.' This is a good opportunity to own a filesystem and rename it after your own."

28 of 583 comments (clear)

Mising poll option by iriefrank · 2006-12-21 17:14 · Score: 5, Funny

CowboyNealFS?
Re:Nice quote by 13bPower · 2006-12-21 17:20 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's even funnier because he has to sell the company to pay the lawyer.
Unintended pun? by BigDumbAnimal · 2006-12-21 17:20 · Score: 5, Funny

he's seeking to sell off his open-source file system company, Namesys, to help pay mounting legal costs.
This is sad ... by Anonymous Coward · 2006-12-21 17:20 · Score: 5, Insightful

If he turns out to be innocent, it will be just that much sadder -- he will have lost his wife and be ruined. A justice system that is so where money often plays such a key role in influencing the outcome is a very disfunctional justice system.
1. Re:This is sad ... by Anonymous Coward · 2006-12-21 17:42 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  actually, I thought the opposite. It's sad that someone may be able to buy his way out of a murder conviction and walk away a free man.
2. Re:This is sad ... by tonyr1988 · 2006-12-21 17:47 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  or is USA run by evil lawyers?
  You must be new here.
3. Re:This is sad ... by theMerovingian · 2006-12-21 18:03 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  A truck driver frequently traveled through a small town where there was a courthouse at the side of the road. Of course, there were always lawyers walking along the road. The truck driver made it a practice to hit any pedestrian lawyers with his truck as he sped by.
  
  One day, he spotted a priest walking along the road and stopped to give him a ride. A little further along, as he approached the town, he spotted a lawyer walking along the side of the road.
  
  Automatically, he veered his truck towards the lawyer, but...then he remembered his passenger. He swerved back to the center, but he heard a "whump" and in the rear view mirror he spotted the lawyer rolling across the field.
  
  He turned to the priest and said, "Father, I'm sure that I missed that lawyer!"
  
  And the priest replied, "That's OK, my son, I got him with the door.
  
  --
  "If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
4. Re:This is sad ... by powerlinekid · 2006-12-21 18:06 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  From the evidence it doesn't look like hes very innocent.
  
  Blood found in his mother's house and a sleeping bag found in his car match his former wife's
  
  Prior history of aggression toward her which led to a restraining order.
  
  A motive in that he has been trying to get custody of his children and they will not give them to him.
  
  And of course this gem from SFgate:
  
  Hans Reiser's Honda was missing its front passenger seat when police seized it Sept. 19, Cavness testified in an Oakland courtroom. After technicians removed the carpeting from the front seat area, they noticed that the floorboard had been saturated with water, Cavness said.
  
  Inside the car, police found a 40-piece socket set, Cavness said. The tools appeared to have been used to remove four bolts that had been used to attach the passenger seat to the floor, she said.
  
  Also found inside the car, according to police, was a roll of trash bags, masking tape, a siphon pump, absorbent towels and two books: "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets," by David Simon, about the Baltimore police homicide squad, and "Masterpieces of Murder," by Jonathan Goodman, about notorious murder cases.
  
  All in all, I'd say its not looking good for him.
  
  --
  
  can't sleep slashdot will eat me
5. Re:This is sad ... by Anonymous Coward · 2006-12-21 18:20 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Also found inside the car, according to police, was a roll of trash bags, masking tape, a siphon pump, absorbent towels and two books: "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets," by David Simon, about the Baltimore police homicide squad, and "Masterpieces of Murder," by Jonathan Goodman, about notorious murder cases.
  Apparently there was nothing in those books about disposing of evidence.
6. Re:This is sad ... by Anonymous+Freak · 2006-12-21 18:40 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  As has been said, nope.
  
  Win or lose, you pay your own lawyer fees (which, if you go with the court-appointed attorney, is free,) and any fine. The fine is *NOT* considered paying back court costs, it is a deterrent.
  
  And you can only get your money back (and compensation for the hassle,) if you sue the government for wrongful prosecution and win. Basically, you have to prove that the government charged you when they knew you were innocent. (i.e. if they charge someone with murder, knowing full well that the accused didn't do it, because they know that the accused knows who did it. So they are charging one person with murder SOLELY to get that person to break and testify against someone else.) The trick, of course, is PROVING that the government KNEW that you were innocent. If they had even the slightest shred of circumstantial evidence, it can be hard to win one of these cases. (I was on a jury for one of these once. It was rather obvious that the government PROBABLY knew, but that wasn't enough to find against the government. The judge's instructions were very clear.)
  
  --
  Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
  The purpose of that site was not known.
7. Re:This is sad ... by jesboat · 2006-12-21 18:46 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It's not sad at all that he should be able to buy his way out of a murder conviction if he's innocent.
  
  It'll be sad if he buys his way out of the conviction when he's guilty, but we don't know that he's guilty yet.
  
  It's saddest for you to assume that he's guilty and if he'd need to buy his way out of a murder conviction if he's innocent.
8. Re:This is sad ... by ozbird · 2006-12-21 19:00 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  All in all, I'd say its not looking good for him.
  
  Are you sure? Try this Cluedo on for size: "Mr Ballmer, in the Honda, with the front seat."
9. Re:This is sad ... by rastos1 · 2006-12-21 19:13 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The point is that "you can afford one" as long as you have any property. You have to spend it all, before you are entitled to ex-offo. When all is said and done, you are left with nothing. Even if you win.
10. Re:This is sad ... by mabhatter654 · 2006-12-21 19:28 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  he knew for several days the police were going to investigate him...he had plenty of time to clean these things up! leaving sloppy evidence like book and tools in the car doesn't make sense. The wife was also known for playing very dirty also and milking it for all it was worth before the divorce was final(the sfgate news mentioned that earlier in the case) She did the usual "husband is beating me" routine but as they described it, it was almost fake (impression from news at the time)... but of course police take the report out on the MAN's fault, and because of that HE has to move out of his house, and HE can't have the kids.. even though everybody KNOWS the reports of abuse are fake or not fully true. She was cheating on him...in his house! and he had to get a new one. She was killed when the kids were with him... that almost points to the boyfriend as the suspect or a paid hit. It's almost like the OJ thing.. the setup evidence is almost TOO good... but pinning the suspect to the actual crime doesn't fit the time tables of where the POLICE say everybody was at. It's like the ex-wife did all the hard work to set the guy up as a bad guy for the divorce, but was living the wild life with somebody else... it's like a gift-wrapped mob hit and the police are falling for it while they have coffee with the real killer at the doughnut shop.
  
  I'm not saying he couln't have done it, but it's like the OJ case.. soon we'll be finding the police lab "embelished" some reports...mislabled where evidence came from...etc. once that happens, the police have failed to do their duty of running a clean show and you HAVE to let him go not knowing if the police lied, or just did crappy work. His reputation is stained forever, So they just bleed him dry with legal fees and call it good. Nobody gets BANNED from law enforcement for deliberately screwing up the trial!!! That's what's sick with the whole system right now.
11. Re:This is sad ... by oo · 2006-12-21 19:51 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  ...The judge's instructions were very clear.)
  
  Please don't forget that a judge's instructions are worthless and that you as a member of the jury have all the power and the final say. You have the power to decide whether a law is just or unjust and are free to ignore it and do as you wish. Anything that comes out of the judge's mouth means diddly-squat. What the law says means diddly-squat. You create the law if you're on a jury.
  
  Google for "jury nullification" if you want more info.
12. Re:This is sad ... by shadowmas · 2006-12-21 20:34 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  True it's sad to see an guilty person walk free.
  
  But it's sadder to see a innocent person goto prison.
13. Re:This is sad ... by 1u3hr · 2006-12-21 21:27 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Note to self: destroy copies of "Smartest Guys in the Room" and "Corporate Crime" after installing my program to skim the excess fractional pennies due to rounding bank transactions.
  Don't forget to get rid of your Superman III and Office Space videos.
14. Re:This is sad ... by bythescruff · 2006-12-21 23:45 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  "But it's sadder to see a innocent person goto prison."
  
  Wait for it...
  
  Wait for it...
  
  Yes, gotos are evil.
  
  --
  Chuck Norris: Socialism == a thousand years of darkness.
Re:Why pay for that? by doom · 2006-12-21 17:25 · Score: 5, Informative

Anonymous Coward wrote:
er, couldn't you just fork it and rename it whatever you want for free?

Provided you licensed it under the GPL, yes, you could do that.
The copyright holder has additional options, however -- Hans Reiser says that he actually makes some money selling the right to use his file system without telling anyone else that they're using it.
(Yes I know, but the corporate world is weird.)
Also, if you RTFM, you'll see that they mention proprietary add-on products, such as a file compressor
Re:WinFS by Fyre2012 · 2006-12-21 18:14 · Score: 5, Funny

Well, DOS is an Operating System. ReiserFS is a FILEsystem.

If you mean Windows should drop NTFS, purchase this, rebrand it and have it ready for Vista's release, than i think you're either trolling or a little naive.

heh, maybe Hans was in deals to sell it to MS (WinFS), but his concience ate away at him, and he ultimately refused. In return, they killed his wife, and now they get their FS on the CHEAP!

--
This is not the greatest .sig in the world, no. This is just a tribute.
oh great by circletimessquare · 2006-12-21 18:44 · Score: 5, Funny

here comes the GoldenPalace.com file system

those guys will buy anything if it gets them a free bit of news/ pr

--
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
the most tasteless entry? by Tumbleweed · 2006-12-21 18:47 · Score: 5, Funny

The IToldYouNotToBotherMeWhenImCodingBitch file system.
Possible name by SeaFox · 2006-12-21 19:04 · Score: 5, Funny

OJSystem
.
.
.
(for Open Journaled System, of course)
Re:Vultures by Mr2cents · 2006-12-21 21:15 · Score: 5, Funny

If ReiserFS uses a magic value somewhere, I suggest it to be changed to 0xDEADBABE.

--
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Re:Why pay for that? by igb · 2006-12-21 23:32 · Score: 5, Interesting
Hans Reiser says that he actually makes some money selling the right to use his file system without telling anyone else that they're using it.
(Yes I know, but the corporate world is weird.)

I've got one of the machines that is covertly Reiser4 under the hood, I believe. I can see why a vendor would want to keep it quiet, too.
- Firstly, the admission that you don't own the filesystem (in the sense of employing all the major contributors) is a worry for many customers.
- Secondly, if you want to put your own secret sauce into the filesystem (perhaps hooking it more intimately into your product's volume management, or providing a shortcut API into your block level IO, or doing extra things for fast failover between control units, or whatever) then you don't want to have to pass this stuff out GPL'd.
- And finally, if you want to use an otherwise-GPL'd filesystem linked into a non-GPL real-time executive like VxWorks (no relation to VxFS, confusingly) or QNX, having a non-GPL version of the filesystem probably saves everyone a lot of lawyers bills.
I'm not sure I approve of this as a GPL enthusiast --- hey, I had code on the Emacs 17.61 tape! --- but as a customer I don't think I care too much. You don't get to have much oversight of the components used in products you buy unless you're entering into the wild world of source escrow, and buying a non-GPL'd version of a GPL'd product is no different to the OEM buying something completely closed, and in many ways better (I still get the many-eyes thing, up to a point).
ian
Re:I'll pay 10x revenues by m-wielgo · 2006-12-22 00:34 · Score: 5, Funny

wait, .002 dollars or .002 cents???
Re:WinFS by zerocool^ · 2006-12-22 02:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

Dude, welcome to linux. Windows has One File System(tm) because... it's easier. Linux has 129 filesystems because 129 different people think each one is the best at what it does.

I love linux, but sometimes too much choice is a bad thing. If linux was a car, there'd be 18 steering wheels and no air conditioning, but you'd be able to change the radio stations from the hubcaps.

--
sig?
Re:WinFS by swillden · 2006-12-22 04:21 · Score: 5, Interesting

Linux has 129 filesystems because 129 different people think each one is the best at what it does.
No, Linux has several file systems because there's no such thing as a perfect file system, and even if there were, it hasn't been achieved yet.
Each of the file systems out there has different strengths and weaknesses. If you need maximum reliability, you need a fully journaled file system (data and metadata), but you pay for that reliability in terms of performance. In most cases, you don't need that, but it is important that your file system not become corrupted by a power failure, or similar problem. For those, metadata journaling is enough. In yet other cases, raw speed is the goal, so journaling is a bad idea.
But speed vs. reliability is only one issue to consider. Another is space efficiency, particularly for systems that will have large numbers of small files. Most file systems use one disk block (e.g. 1KB) even for a 100-byte file. Others (like reiserfs) can pack small files together. But that efficiency introduces complexity, which can reduce reliability. So space efficiency vs. reliability is a consideration.
Another tradeoff is read performance vs. write performance. Yet another is performance of small files vs performance of large files. Yet another is reconfigurability -- can file systems be grown or shrunk in-place, perhaps even while in use? That's another tradeoff against complexity and the associated reduced reliability.
For the desktop user, it doesn't really matter. You'll notice little difference regardless of which file system you choose. But there are applications in which the choice of file system can make a significant difference in system performance, space efficiency, reliability, or flexibility.
Windows has One File System(tm) because... it's easier.
No, Windows has one file system because Microsoft has never focused on technical excellence. Mediocrity is often an excellent business strategy, and it has certainly proven to be good to Microsoft, but that doesn't mean we can't have better.

--
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