Slashdot Mirror
Novell Bombards SCO with Summary Judgment Motions
rm69990 writes "Novell has filed 4 motions for Summary Judgment against SCO, which essentially ask the court to toss the remainder of SCO's case that isn't already being arbitrated between SUSE and SCO. One seeks a ruling from the court that Novell transfered none of the copyrights in Unix to SCO, which is backed up by many exhibits and declarations from people who negotiated the deal. Another, along the same lines, asks the court to toss the portions of SCO's Unfair Competition and Breach of Contract claims pertaining to the Unix copyrights. The third asks the court to rule that Novell did not violate the Technology License Agreement between SCO and Novell, and last and also least, the fourth seeks to toss the Slander of Title for the additional reason that SCO has failed to prove any special damages. These motions follow 2 motions for summary judgment filed by Novell late last year on 2 of their counterclaims."
Is the first post automatically scored -1 now or something? This is on topic and I'm sure a TON of us feel the same way. I am extremely sick of all the BS lawsuits, patents, and all the other non-programming crap.
I used to -hate- the GPL. Now, I like the LGPL and I'm starting to think the GPL is the right way to go after all. Could RMS actually be a visionary and not just a zealot? It's already undeniable that he's done the entire software industry a world of good by sticking to his beliefs.
And all because the world of corporate greed has managed to get a toe-hold on the world of programming.
I personally think they should make patents only good for 5 years, give everyone that currently has a patent 5 years remaining, and be done. In 5 years time, we'd see such a monumental growth in the software industry that it will be amazing. The simple stuff that was costing tons of money would come out as open source projects, and commercial products would in turn work on stuff that's truly innovative.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
> I used to -hate- the GPL. Now, I like the LGPL and I'm starting to think the GPL is the right way to go after all.
I think that for libraries and other software that can be used in various different applications, "public domain" is the way to go. Just like SQLite has done. Even it can be used in closed source, it still helps the human kind in general, because the less is needed to invent the wheel again. Of course there are other licenses which are equally good for this purpose.
For games and applications which codebase can't be used much for anything else except for forks of the application itself. GPL sounds like a good way to go.
The downside to putting your software in the public domain is that it gives you no way to disclaim liability for any damages that your software might inadvertently cause. If you want to give your software away without any strings at all, it's still better to retain copyright and distribute it under a permissive license like X11 or BSD that gives you the opportunity to attach a liability disclaimer.
For games and applications which codebase can't be used much for anything else except for forks of the application itself. GPL sounds like a good way to go.I don't think the deciding factor is as much the purpose of the code as it is the goal of the author. If your goal is just to give a one-time gift to all of humanity, then X11 or BSD is a good choice. If you'd like to structure your gift to encourage others to give, then LGPL or even GPL are appropriate.
It's like the difference between giving cash to everyone who wants some, homeless and corporate CEO alike, or setting up a trust to give your money away in a controlled fashion. Both are good things, it's just a question of what your goals are. The analogy is imperfect, of course, because however wealthy you are your money is finite, so each dollar you give to a CEO is a dollar you can't give to a homeless guy, a constraint that doesn't apply to software, but you get the idea. Maybe a better analogy is giving all of your money to the homeless now, or setting up a trust that invests your money and uses the return to feed the homeless forever.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
The declarations that Novell just filed would gut SCO's case all by themselves. SCO's case is so feeble that there are many things that would independently destroy it. All SCO has to do is lose on any of about ten different things and they lose the whole shooting match.
Consider the declarations of Braham and Amandia. These are both people who were directly responsible for negotiating and writing the contracts with Santa Cruz. They clearly remember the events that took place and have original documents to back them up. They say there was no intent by Novell to transfer the copyrights and they made darn sure the contract and the ammendment did not transfer the copyrights. Santa Cruz asked that the copyrights be transferred and Novell agreed only that Santa Cruz could use the copyrights to develop and sell the product they were developing.
These declarations directly contradict SCO's theories and the half remembered garbage of their witnesses who weren't actually involved in writing the contracts.
So, Novell could very well get their PSJ. In fact, Novell could get the psj even without these declarations because the wording of the contract and ammendment is clear and there is no written conveyance of the copyrights. The latter is required by law and the judge can decide the case as a matter of law (which is necessary for a psj). So you could be right. The new filings might not be necessary to decide the case.