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Groklaw's PJ Says SCO's Demise Greatly Exaggerated
blackbearnh writes "Last week, the net was all abuzz with speculation that SCO was finally gone and done for. With the final judgment in SCO v. Novell in, and SCO millions of dollars in the hole to Novell, it seemed like the fat lady had finally sung. But like most things in the legal system, it isn't nearly that simple. O'Reilly Media sought out Groklaw's Pamela Jones, and got a rundown of what's still alive, and why a final end to the madness may be many years away. 'Summing up, it looks bleak for SCO at the moment, but let's enter the alternate realm of SCO's best-case scenario in its dreams: in that realm, SCO wins on appeal, which one of SCO's lawyers indicated might take a year and a half or five years, and the case is sent back to Utah for trial by jury, which is what SCO wanted (as opposed to trial by judge, which is what it got), then everything listed above (except for the IPO class action) comes alive again, presumably, depending on what the appellate court decides. Then SCO is in position once again to go after Linux end users, as well as IBM, et al.'"
Even when it appears to die in the last issue, there's a miraculous and vengeful comback story.
Just remember that cutting off the head won't kill it. Its arms and legs will be gone but the head will still be around biting and yelling at people, like Jack Thompson.
This deserves a +5 Funny if for no other reason than the best Jack Thompson reference ever.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
You are correct that it is a holdover from British law, but it does not refer only to the Lords. It comes from the 39th Article of the Magna Carta, which reads:
Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut disseisiatur, aut utlagetur, aut exuletur, aut aliquo modo destruatur, nec super cum ibimus, nec super cum mittemus, nisi per legale judicium parium suorum vel per legem terre.
legale judicium parium ("the lawful judgment of his peers") means exactly what the parent thinks it means: that the defendant shall be judged by a jury of people of his own condition. A commoner would have a jury of commoners, a lord would have a jury of lords. Since the United States Constitution does not recognize differences among the condition of citizens in the sense that Great Britain does, by definition any American citizen is the peer of any other. So every defendant in every American jury trial gets a "jury of his peers".
Latest conspiracy theory: PJ is paying Daryl $100 a week to keep the lawsuit going so as to drive traffic to Groklaw.