Programmers that have to adapt their code to take in account daylight savings time.
That's Arthur David Olsen for all Unix, Linux, BSD, Macintosh, and then the guy from Microsoft. It's gotta be only one guy at Microsoft, the way of handling this in Vista is so dumb.
Glass is a win, too. Lasts forever in a landfill, but makes great house insulation if you recycle it. Given that sand mining in California is now from underwater, that's got to be a win. Paper and used cartons get bought, so I'd be surprised if they weren't a win too. Out here in Berkeley there's a biowaste can for yard and food waste, and they compost it en masse, with proper temperature and agitation, not like most backyard compost. The city doesn't buy fertilizer, and they get enough extra to hand out sacks of beautiful carbon and nitrogen rich black soil to the residents. Plants shoot up on that stuff. There is a commercial styrofoam recycling plant in Oakland.
The story I've heard is that Daylight Saving Time legislation is driven by the companies that make charcoal barbecue briquettes. They don't care if your home uses more heat in the morning. They just want you to have a nice, long, bright evening in which you will have the desire to use their products.
It's slashdot strategy. If late to a discussion, a reply to a high-ranked post will apppear higher than a reply to the article. But yes, it's really a reply to the article.
if he has been contributing code and not signing it over, then he owns the copyright on the work, period.
SFLC appears to have treated him as if he did not have a very significant portion of the program under his own copyright. I know that they have represented other authors who did not own the entire copyright of a program, but did own a significant portion of the work.
I don't think the OP even bothered to contact the SFLC..
That's possible, but the reason for rejecting him sounded like it could be for real.
You got your concern on the front page of Slashdot. That means that the company will make sure they're doing everything right, because all of their customers are going to ask them about it now.
That said, it's not at all clear that you had anything to complain about. If SFLC won't help you for the reason you gave, that means you don't have any standing in the matter. You can't sue anyone about it. So, there's not much use in complaining.
IMO, you should make real sure that you at least own the copyright of your own work before you contribute any more.
Your award, up to $5000, is paid by the producers, not the other party (that's how they get the other party to show up). Both sides get $100 for their appearance and $35/day. About 60% of the cases are dismissed with no award. And no lawyers allowed.
My problem with civil court is that both prosecution and defense take tons of money. You need a good attorney, you can be sure that the other side will have one. They work for five dollars a minute and up. So justice tends to go to the party with the deeper pockets. A lot of companies and individuals can't afford to play this game. If they are defendants their best option may be to settle regardless of whether it's justice or its opposite. That might indeed have been so with this case - the photographer could probably have walked away with no money and no lawsuit instead of spending two years to defend himself and win his own suit.
he would have had a lawyer to do all the work for free since the fees would very likely have been assessed against the defendants as well.
Only until he blogged about it and got sued. The infringer figured he'd settle for nothing just to be rid of the suit. Instead he stuck with this for two years. He didn't really make money that way. But he didn't have to swallow his pride. Pride can be an expensive and lonely pursuit. When you are in a fight with an idiot, it's hard for other people to tell which one the idiot is. But saving a few folks from having a mortgage with that guy is, IMO, doing good for the world.
You are extremely lucky that you had a judge who wanted to help you. It's an old truism that anyone who represents himself in court has a fool for a client, and you were a mega big - but lucky - fool this time. You had some sort of false belief that Justice - something that is not often seen in a court room - would prevail, and you probably still do. The worst part about this is that you are probably going to convince some other poor slob to try this, and he'll lose his home, his car, his bank accounts, and his freedom.
There are some people in the world who are entirely confident in their moral rightness, no matter how wrong they are. Such a person will seem forthright, etc., in a chance encounter. But I think you do see that he was clearly wrong about IBM: that company did not turn public opinion against SCO. I had a role in turning public opinion against SCO, and you did, and some zillion other Free Software / Open Source fans did. Mr. Yarro was still unable to accept, when you spoke with him, that there was a large community who fought him because they were morally offended. His own feeling of his moral correctness doesn't fit that, so to him it must not be true.
I just reply to the questions and don't look at who is asking them much. I don't think Slashdot ACs were ever a good idea and I make the most pessimistic assumption about them posislble: there is really only one anonymous coward, and he works for Microsoft, Bin Laden, and the Antichrist (and I'm not even a Christian).
Agreed. I have been trying to figure out if there was any reason for someone to couple a patent attack with SCO and if that was part of the reason for this deal. But it doesn't make sense. We have to start pushing hard, in the US, on patents. We're working on creating an American FFII to pursue this.
Well, there's not much question that we've beaten this case before hearings started. It is better to have the verdict and NOT settle or just let the case die than to leave it dangling. But I agree that it is possible for abusers to delay a case for 5 years before hearings even start. I would think that whatever subsequent cases happen, judges and defense will be informed by this case.
I think Darl was just a front, as Ransom Love was for Caldera. Ralph Yarro was the real boss of both. I guess he's out too (not sure), but IMO the new investor is pursuing the same program, and Microsoft is still behind it.
This is not a $100 Million dollar offer. That was hyperbole. There will be a line of credit, but going in there is only a couple of million to take the stock profit and then what they need to pursue the case and pay off interest on existing debt as it is billed. Say $10 Million max. Remember that the Benchmark investment was unwound? This one will probably go through the same thing.
Slashdot Mirror
That's Arthur David Olsen for all Unix, Linux, BSD, Macintosh, and then the guy from Microsoft. It's gotta be only one guy at Microsoft, the way of handling this in Vista is so dumb.
Try spending your summers in Southern Norway. It's never fully dark. And that's below the Arctic circle.
So, what's left is plastic.
Look at how Kingsford crows about the earlier institution of DST in this press release. I bet they do serious lobbying on this issue.
Bruce
That said, it's not at all clear that you had anything to complain about. If SFLC won't help you for the reason you gave, that means you don't have any standing in the matter. You can't sue anyone about it. So, there's not much use in complaining.
IMO, you should make real sure that you at least own the copyright of your own work before you contribute any more.
Bruce
It wasn't clear to me that the wikileaks folks really were properly served. Well, they were probably doing their best to avoid being properly served.
Bruce
Mostly not ask for justice. That really sucks, doesn't it? But think of how much you can lose.
Bruce
You forgot Judge Judy :-)
Your award, up to $5000, is paid by the producers, not the other party (that's how they get the other party to show up). Both sides get $100 for their appearance and $35/day. About 60% of the cases are dismissed with no award. And no lawyers allowed.
:-)
Bruce
My problem with civil court is that both prosecution and defense take tons of money. You need a good attorney, you can be sure that the other side will have one. They work for five dollars a minute and up. So justice tends to go to the party with the deeper pockets. A lot of companies and individuals can't afford to play this game. If they are defendants their best option may be to settle regardless of whether it's justice or its opposite. That might indeed have been so with this case - the photographer could probably have walked away with no money and no lawsuit instead of spending two years to defend himself and win his own suit.
Thanks
Bruce
Only until he blogged about it and got sued. The infringer figured he'd settle for nothing just to be rid of the suit. Instead he stuck with this for two years. He didn't really make money that way. But he didn't have to swallow his pride. Pride can be an expensive and lonely pursuit. When you are in a fight with an idiot, it's hard for other people to tell which one the idiot is. But saving a few folks from having a mortgage with that guy is, IMO, doing good for the world.
Bruce
Thanks
Bruce
I'm not a lawyer. I know when to use one.
Bruce
Bruce
I just reply to the questions and don't look at who is asking them much. I don't think Slashdot ACs were ever a good idea and I make the most pessimistic assumption about them posislble: there is really only one anonymous coward, and he works for Microsoft, Bin Laden, and the Antichrist (and I'm not even a Christian).
They haven't given up yet. Look at all of the OOXML dirty fighting they've done recently.
Thanks
Bruce
Plausable. Thanks!
It's really important to spread this point. People think that SCO has a $100M "War chest" now. Not so.
Bruce
I think Darl was just a front, as Ransom Love was for Caldera. Ralph Yarro was the real boss of both. I guess he's out too (not sure), but IMO the new investor is pursuing the same program, and Microsoft is still behind it.
Oops, that's "take the stock private".
This is not a $100 Million dollar offer. That was hyperbole. There will be a line of credit, but going in there is only a couple of million to take the stock profit and then what they need to pursue the case and pay off interest on existing debt as it is billed. Say $10 Million max. Remember that the Benchmark investment was unwound? This one will probably go through the same thing.
Bruce