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Court Throws Out Grsecurity Libel Lawsuit Against Bruce Perens (reason.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the saw-you-in-court dept.

Long-time Slashdot reader SlaveToTheGrind writes: As previously discussed on Slashdot, Grsecurity developer Open Source Security sued Bruce Perens for allegedly defamatory statements about Grsecurity's licensing policies. Thursday, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler of the District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the lawsuit, holding that Perens's statements were not libelous:

"Mr. Perens counters, and the court agrees, that the blog posts are opinions about a disputed legal issue, are not false assertions of fact, and thus are not actionable libel. . . . Mr. Perens -- who is not a lawyer — voiced an opinion about whether the Grsecurity Access Agreement violated the General Public License. No court has addressed the legal issue. Thus, his "opinion" is not a "fact" that can be proven provably false and thus is not actionable as defamation."

While Open Source Security technically has the ability to amend its complaint to allege a new legal theory, Judge Beeler said any amendment likely would fall under California's anti-SLAPP statute: "Mr. Perens's statements were made in a public forum and concern issues of public interest, and the plaintiffs have not shown a probability of prevailing on their claims."

48 comments

  1. Costs to Bruce Perens ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And how much money and time has the poor guy had to spend to get this judgement ?

    1. Re:Costs to Bruce Perens ? by Idarubicin · · Score: 5, Interesting
      It's hard to say what his out-of-pocket costs might be. One of his business ventures is a consultancy called Legal Engineering; Perens is the CEO. From his website:

      ...Bruce Perens is the bridge between lawyers and engineers, helping one to understand the other. He instructs engineers in how to comply with legal requirements and how to deal with intellectual property issues in their own work, and produces clarity for attorneys who are working on issues of computer software.

      He may well have had attorneys with suitable expertise already on retainer. Even if not, the marketing value of being on the "right" side of a dispute like this could have tremendous promotional value for him, his brand, and his company--the sort of advertising that no amount of money could buy.

      I'm not saying that it's fair that Perens was out any time, money, or inconvenience, or that Grsecurity wasn't trying to abuse the system by filing a spurious lawsuit. But this isn't an instance of a lone blogger's David bravely duking it out against all odds against a giant corporate Goliath. Perens definitely has the knowledge, contacts, and resources to effectively respond to this sort of threat, and is almost certainly one of the dumbest possible choices Grsecurity could have made to sue. Of all possible defendants, Perens is among those with the most to gain from successfully defending against this flimsy suit.

      --
      ~Idarubicin
    2. Re:Costs to Bruce Perens ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bruce Perens has had his anti-SLAPP motion dismissed in order to allow the plaintiff one try to amend their complaint. But the court found no fault in Perens anti-SLAPP motion, they just denied it to give the plaintiff time to amend, and the anti-SLAPP was dismissed without prejudice, meaning Perens can file it again whether or not the plaintiff amends their complaint. The court said in their ruling that they were likely to find for Perens. It is hard to see how any change to the complaint could save the case for the plaintiff, since Perens words were already held not to be defamatory. If the court approves the anti-SLAPP, Bradley Spengler and his company will have to pay all of Perens legal fees.

    3. Re:Costs to Bruce Perens ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could also argue that large customers who already know him could be frightened away by the publicity. Probably just a couple of months ago IBM was about to grant Bruce a $10M contract for 2018. Then the manager took fright. It's because it's impossible to quantify this kind of speculative damage/benfit that courts work on actual costs incurred, which will be pretty clear. Bruce will be billed by his lawyers by time and the amount of time spent on this case will be the amount he should get back. In fact it will be less because the other side almost always manages to question whether some of it was really needed.

  2. Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Who is Bruce Perens?

    1. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He's a frequent /.er that's famous for his open source contributions.

      Just google him.

    2. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cue BeauHD posting a slant piece on him being a Russian KGB Agent in 5, 4, 3, 2...

    3. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by hey! · · Score: 3, Funny

      Is this some kind of John Galt meme, or do you not actually know how to use Google?

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    4. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who is Bruce Perens?

      If you don't know who Bruce Perens is then you don't belong on slashdot. Now vamoose

    5. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm Bruce Perens!

    6. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've never had a Slashdot account, so I don't know the answer:
      Is there some account recovery process that can help poor Bruce get access again?

    7. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Who is Bruce Perens?

      You see those curved symbols on your keyboard that look like this ( and this )?

      He invented those. Without Parens, the LISP programming language would never have come into being, and C++ and Java would look more like COBOL. Not only that, but the entire communication mechanism known as "emoticons" would not exist, so no one would be able to communicate on the internet. Since emoticons lead to emojis, and emojis are required for text messaging, you would not have text messaging without Bruce and his parens.

    8. Re: Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What is this some kind of special club? That was a seriously stupid comment.

    9. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was going to ask the same question. I also have no idea who or what "Grsecurity" is.

      Slashdot should focus on things that affect all nerds, not some niche, esoteric crowd.

    10. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well it's confirmed, /. is dead! I tried to post the lyrics to "Will the real Bruce Perens please stand up" and the lameness filter rejected it.

      So long and thanks for all the fish

    11. Re: Who is Bruce Perens? by orlanz · · Score: 0

      He works for the CIA as a North Korean agent who the KGB thinks defected and then used to spy on the Brits. MI6 thinks he is a lost American tourist that can not seem to find his way out of their building.

      On a side note, I hope he never goes to NK... this post might get him in a lot of trouble.

      Side side note, queue all the govt AI systems that read this post and elevate his security clearance because it appears too low.

    12. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 4, Funny

      Try explaining this photo. :-)

      --
      Bruce Perens.
    13. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No thanks. That sounds gay.

    14. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, he is an effeminate white male so check YOUR privilege!

    15. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Congrats, Bruce! Way to go.

      I will say I would never willingly do business with a company that so easily files false libel lawsuits. Every company I've ever seen that does so is unstable (think, Donald Trump).

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    16. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by mysidia · · Score: 2

      Just another privileged white male.

      There is not a single person who can post to Slashdot who is Not privileged in some way. At least Bruce Perens is making a stand against evil, and injustice, and free speech suppression with his "privilege": Unlike you, anonymous coward, who are just abusing your privilege to try and insult a great man.

    17. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. I am.

    18. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      Funnily enough I knew who Bruce Perens is but had to bing John Galt.

    19. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Dantoo · · Score: 1

      Every day I come to /. looking for a genuine LOL moment. Today I got it from the teh Bruce.

    20. Re: Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The KGB has not existed in 25 years, you flaming MORON.

    21. Re: Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And I invented the cat. Miaow!

    22. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by technosaurus · · Score: 2

      WTF is bing?

    23. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      I went to school in England, they told us that they were invented by Hinge & Bracket.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    24. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by hey! · · Score: 1

      You were fortunate in your assignment of college roommate, then.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    25. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you, and the person who modded you up, not realize that you're responding to an obvious troll? For fuck's sake.

    26. Re: Who is Bruce Perens? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The KGB has not existed in 25 years, you flaming MORON.

      Not under that name, anyway. I don't think using an outdated initialism (wtf Mozilla, why is that perfectly cromulent word not in the dictionary? Are you new?) qualifies one for MORON status.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    27. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I prefer his brother Bruce Endparens.

    28. Re: Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fake news. Superimposed soldiers. ;)

    29. Re:Who is Bruce Perens? by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      Is this some kind of John Galt thing, or do you not actually know how to use Altavista?

      (Continued on page 94)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    30. Re: Who is Bruce Perens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You had Altavista? You were lucky. We had to use Archie or a card catalog!

  3. Bunch of wankers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I guess Grsecurity is not only violating the GPL, the organization is also run by lying wankers.

  4. Any Plaintiff That Sues by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For libel and fails should themselves be guilty of libel and pay both the defendant and courts.

    1. Re:Any Plaintiff That Sues by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read about the Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) and the laws that compensate the defendant.

  5. A Word from Bruce Perens by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5, Informative

    I apologize for not participating in this discussion, but it is obvious legal hygiene not to discuss the suit until it's all over. There are some things I can discuss: Here is the Court Order, and I would like to introduce you to my Wonderful Legal Team. Valerie, Stanley, and I are having a good time over the winter break and wish you all happy holidays. Don't worry about me, and I'll explain what costs I have, if any, when this is over.

    --
    Bruce Perens.
    1. Re:A Word from Bruce Perens by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      Thanks for reporting in, Bruce, and congratulations!

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    2. Re: A Word from Bruce Perens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you Bruce for fighting for all of us. Best of luck to you and your team on whatever challenges you may still be facing.

      If possible, at some point in time, I for one would be very eager to read more about the background of this case from your PoV.

  6. Welcome to Slashdot by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Who is Bruce Perens?

    You are definitely new here.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Welcome to Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been reading Slashdot since 98 and I have no idea who "Bruce Parens" is either. Is he supposed to be famous or something? Why should we know of him?

    2. Re:Welcome to Slashdot by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I've been reading Slashdot since 98 and I have no idea who "Bruce Parens" is either.

      You are lying about one of those things. Either you haven't actually been reading Slashdot, to which Bruce is a frequent contributor and where he is frequently mentioned in stories relating to legal conflicts in the Open Source and Free Software world, or you know who Bruce Perens is. Either way, you're a liar.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"