Everyone here seems to be either ranting or siding with the guy. Before I take my position, let us look at the facts:
Richard talks to the county sheriff and tells them that he can host the sheriffs department website for free! the sheriff is happy and agrees. Three years down the line richard comes and says, "we can earn money!". Proposes advertising. Sheriff is happy. After some time, its clear there isnt so much money coming in from the ads, so he says to sheriff, pay me for the service or else... sheriff gets mad and refuses! Richard goes home and shuts down the webpage and demands $300K! The sheriff wants to set up the website and finds out that Richard owns the domain name! What to do? Being a cop, he arrests Richard and charges him for extortion, using a computer to commit a crime, larceny by conversion and obstruction of justice... his argument being, "the exorbitant demand amounts to extortion."!
Now the tables are suddenly turned on Richard, as he now has to justify himself although he was giving the service freely which means that he could walk away whenever he wanted and that he owned the sites name!
I think Richard is right here and no matter what the sheriff calls it, its not extortion / kidnapping / ransom.
But this is the US and the justice system has its owncrazy way of working!
What Univention used against SCO is what the Germans call "Beweislast" (burden of proof). According to German law, the burden of proof lies with the plaintiff. This means SCO cannot, according to German law, make public statements threatening anyone about anything especially if this would undermine the accused (Linux in this case), before the accusations or claims have been proved to be true in a court of law. This is how things should be since it stops alot of unecesarry lawsuits
Re:Germany has a sense of humor
on
Germany Muzzles SCO
·
· Score: 5, Informative
What Univention used against SCO is what the Germans call "Beweislast" (burden of proof). According to German law, the burden of proof lies with the plaintiff. This means SCO cannot, according to German law, make public statements threatening anyone about anything especially if this would undermine the accused (Linux in this case), before the accusations or claims have been proved to be true in a court of law. This is how things should be since it stops alot of unecesarry lawsuits
I have been trying to follow this case in the last few weeks so as to understand what SCO's case is all about. I don't think most readers have really bothered to find out why SCO is suing IBM and Linux companies. SCO's problem with IBM is that, SCO owns UNIX code which they have licensed to IBM. IBM improved on the original code and distributes a UNIX derivertive under the name AIX. Then came Linux and IBM started contibuting code to Linux which is GPLed. SCO claims that IBM took part of the original UNIX code (AIX code) and put it in Linux, which is GPLed. SCO recons that everything that IBM has put in Linux ought not to have been there as they were contibuting closed scource material owned by SCO!
SCO now thinks that they can solve the problem (they can't stop GPLed stuff from being further distibuted because its out there already) by getting linux owners and companies to pay them for the code that IBM introduced into Linux. Thats all there is to it!
The GPL will NOT be tested! It cannot be tested, it will only be a tool for SCOs case
it seems like getting the life sentence is becoming a trend in America. Know about the Californian "Three Strikes and you are out" Law? (Basically commit three crimes and you automatically get a life sentence!). The danger I see here is the "life sentence" getting watered down so that after some time people will start demanding harsher punishments.What happened to four years without parole?
Expect to be liable to a death sentence one day in a few years.
I fully agree, I like Audiogalaxy too. I got hooked up on it about a year ago and what I like about it is that I can find ANY song I want and in good quality. No matter how old it is, it's there! It kind of reminded me of Napster when it was big only better because it ran in the background.
Well I also hope another client like them would come up. They are really good at what they do.
You haven't been reading any British newspapers in the past months or so? If you had, then you would have noticed the huge scandal the british goverment had, involving diamonds, arms and Sankoh. Sankoh delivers the diamonds, Britain delivers the arms and training personell (merceneries). Crank up google and read about it!
By the way Sierra Leone is not Senegal just as Germany is not Finnland!Africa is a continent!
Actually, food is not the priority in Africa. It is possible to live in Africa without money as long as you have a piece of land and the rains come as predicted. When it doesn't rain then there is famine and food comes to the top of the priority scale. Stop the war in southern Sudan and you will never have to ship food to them. This hapenned to Uganda. During the 15 years of civil war, they had to import food, but now ther is peace and they sort of do batter trade, they give food as payment for what they import.
Basically Africa is experiencing major forms of transformation. Africa is changing culturally economically and technologically. I like to compare it to someone who keeps on moving from town to town, state to state, renting houses, trying to raise a family and spending more money than he is earning along the way. What happens is quite obvious, broke with creditors hanging on his neck, a brocken home or at least, rebellious kids if the wife is still loyal to him. All the wars , famine and poverty we see in Africa today are a complex result of history, mismanagement and cultural demise the likes of Rwanda and Burundi.
This does not mean that there is no hope for Africa. On the contrary.There is hope and alot of potential in Africa, but like I have experienced in Geneva, Switzerland while visiting the UN and WTO everytime someone mentions Africa, people always list the current problems Africa is experiencing, but at the same time no one is offering any practical solutions. Imagine you wanting to write a new programme and you keep on making a list of the details involed in programme instead of generalizing them and tackling them. If I take this analogy in the case of Africa, Problem 1:war; Solution: stop war. And we find that we do not have to send food to the country anymore! Problem 2: Comunication and Transport; Solution: Build the necesarry infrastructure. And again we see the education and world view of the country changing. No more dictators because of democracy and the number of educated work force encourages people to invest in the country!etc
This may sound naive, but I did not hear anyone either in the UN, World Bank, World Trade Organisation or the EU Members mention any "constructive" plan to help Africa tackle it's problems when I was in Geneva. By the way this were guys ment to be dealing with "African Issues" Africa does need the internet just as anyone in America, Europe or Asia. It is a small step, but if you look at it generally it will solve many other problems like; No teachers will have to be sent to any African countries because the lectures from Prof. X can be viewed online. Books do not have to be donated to schools. Information on how to dig a borehole can be found online.etc.
So let us support this cause. It will make a difference!
This is exactly how Microsoft came to dominate the market in the first place. "Everyone"...let me say most people...buy microsoft products. Its not the system administrator who decides what people should buy.People buy what is mostly available and widely used. They also have been updating windows and word up to now - without complaining about the cost - so what will stop M$ from following the same old order? Just check the browser trend and see how people are switching from Netscape to IExplorer. What do you think will stop people from using.NET bundled with Whistler(Heard of the licencing practice being introduced)?
.NET + Whistler WILL be a serious threat to Linux! Look the facts on the ground and you will notice that this is the truth!
No matter what you do, let the local electrician and plumber be able to fix the system!
A friend of mine lives in a house with such an "inteligent" system and has to wait up to two weeks for the software engineer to come by when something breaks down.
Virtual-actual:fusing time, event, construction, circulation and display into one surface.Ben van Berkel.
Slashdot Mirror
Everyone here seems to be either ranting or siding with the guy. Before I take my position, let us look at the facts:
Richard talks to the county sheriff and tells them that he can host the sheriffs department website for free! the sheriff is happy and agrees. Three years down the line richard comes and says, "we can earn money!". Proposes advertising. Sheriff is happy. After some time, its clear there isnt so much money coming in from the ads, so he says to sheriff, pay me for the service or else... sheriff gets mad and refuses! Richard goes home and shuts down the webpage and demands $300K! The sheriff wants to set up the website and finds out that Richard owns the domain name! What to do? Being a cop, he arrests Richard and charges him for extortion, using a computer to commit a crime, larceny by conversion and obstruction of justice... his argument being, "the exorbitant demand amounts to extortion."!
Now the tables are suddenly turned on Richard, as he now has to justify himself although he was giving the service freely which means that he could walk away whenever he wanted and that he owned the sites name! I think Richard is right here and no matter what the sheriff calls it, its not extortion / kidnapping / ransom.
But this is the US and the justice system has its owncrazy way of working!
If you havent gotten it by now, it would be the right time to shout "SELL!"
This is how it should have been done right from the start. The question is, what if SCO have a case and they prove it?
What Univention used against SCO is what the Germans call "Beweislast" (burden of proof). According to German law, the burden of proof lies with the plaintiff. This means SCO cannot, according to German law, make public statements threatening anyone about anything especially if this would undermine the accused (Linux in this case), before the accusations or claims have been proved to be true in a court of law. This is how things should be since it stops alot of unecesarry lawsuits
What Univention used against SCO is what the Germans call "Beweislast" (burden of proof). According to German law, the burden of proof lies with the plaintiff. This means SCO cannot, according to German law, make public statements threatening anyone about anything especially if this would undermine the accused (Linux in this case), before the accusations or claims have been proved to be true in a court of law. This is how things should be since it stops alot of unecesarry lawsuits
I have been trying to follow this case in the last few weeks so as to understand what SCO's case is all about. I don't think most readers have really bothered to find out why SCO is suing IBM and Linux companies. SCO's problem with IBM is that, SCO owns UNIX code which they have licensed to IBM. IBM improved on the original code and distributes a UNIX derivertive under the name AIX. Then came Linux and IBM started contibuting code to Linux which is GPLed. SCO claims that IBM took part of the original UNIX code (AIX code) and put it in Linux, which is GPLed. SCO recons that everything that IBM has put in Linux ought not to have been there as they were contibuting closed scource material owned by SCO!
SCO now thinks that they can solve the problem (they can't stop GPLed stuff from being further distibuted because its out there already) by getting linux owners and companies to pay them for the code that IBM introduced into Linux. Thats all there is to it!
The GPL will NOT be tested! It cannot be tested, it will only be a tool for SCOs case
it seems like getting the life sentence is becoming a trend in America. Know about the Californian "Three Strikes and you are out" Law? (Basically commit three crimes and you automatically get a life sentence!). The danger I see here is the "life sentence" getting watered down so that after some time people will start demanding harsher punishments.What happened to four years without parole?
Expect to be liable to a death sentence one day in a few years.
I fully agree, I like Audiogalaxy too. I got hooked up on it about a year ago and what I like about it is that I can find ANY song I want and in good quality. No matter how old it is, it's there! It kind of reminded me of Napster when it was big only better because it ran in the background.
Well I also hope another client like them would come up. They are really good at what they do.
You haven't been reading any British newspapers in the past months or so? If you had, then you would have noticed the huge scandal the british goverment had, involving diamonds, arms and Sankoh. Sankoh delivers the diamonds, Britain delivers the arms and training personell (merceneries). Crank up google and read about it!
By the way Sierra Leone is not Senegal just as Germany is not Finnland!Africa is a continent!
Actually, food is not the priority in Africa. It is possible to live in Africa without money as long as you have a piece of land and the rains come as predicted. When it doesn't rain then there is famine and food comes to the top of the priority scale. Stop the war in southern Sudan and you will never have to ship food to them. This hapenned to Uganda. During the 15 years of civil war, they had to import food, but now ther is peace and they sort of do batter trade, they give food as payment for what they import.
Basically Africa is experiencing major forms of transformation. Africa is changing culturally economically and technologically. I like to compare it to someone who keeps on moving from town to town, state to state, renting houses, trying to raise a family and spending more money than he is earning along the way. What happens is quite obvious, broke with creditors hanging on his neck, a brocken home or at least, rebellious kids if the wife is still loyal to him. All the wars , famine and poverty we see in Africa today are a complex result of history, mismanagement and cultural demise the likes of Rwanda and Burundi.
This does not mean that there is no hope for Africa. On the contrary.There is hope and alot of potential in Africa, but like I have experienced in Geneva, Switzerland while visiting the UN and WTO everytime someone mentions Africa, people always list the current problems Africa is experiencing, but at the same time no one is offering any practical solutions. Imagine you wanting to write a new programme and you keep on making a list of the details involed in programme instead of generalizing them and tackling them. If I take this analogy in the case of Africa, Problem 1:war; Solution: stop war. And we find that we do not have to send food to the country anymore! Problem 2: Comunication and Transport; Solution: Build the necesarry infrastructure. And again we see the education and world view of the country changing. No more dictators because of democracy and the number of educated work force encourages people to invest in the country!etc
This may sound naive, but I did not hear anyone either in the UN, World Bank, World Trade Organisation or the EU Members mention any "constructive" plan to help Africa tackle it's problems when I was in Geneva. By the way this were guys ment to be dealing with "African Issues" Africa does need the internet just as anyone in America, Europe or Asia. It is a small step, but if you look at it generally it will solve many other problems like; No teachers will have to be sent to any African countries because the lectures from Prof. X can be viewed online. Books do not have to be donated to schools. Information on how to dig a borehole can be found online.etc.
So let us support this cause. It will make a difference!
Are there any Mentors (Elves) out there willing to listen to the same old questions being made by some beginner?
This is exactly how Microsoft came to dominate the market in the first place. "Everyone"...let me say most people...buy microsoft products. Its not the system administrator who decides what people should buy.People buy what is mostly available and widely used. They also have been updating windows and word up to now - without complaining about the cost - so what will stop M$ from following the same old order? Just check the browser trend and see how people are switching from Netscape to IExplorer. What do you think will stop people from using .NET bundled with Whistler(Heard of the licencing practice being introduced)?
.NET + Whistler WILL be a serious threat to Linux! Look the facts on the ground and you will notice that this is the truth!
No matter what you do, let the local electrician and plumber be able to fix the system!
A friend of mine lives in a house with such an "inteligent" system and has to wait up to two weeks for the software engineer to come by when something breaks down.
Virtual-actual:fusing time, event, construction, circulation and display into one surface.Ben van Berkel.