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Kimball Rules: SCO's Objections Denied! Wells's Order Affirmed - Novell Goes 1st.
Groklaw ^ | Wednesday, November 29 2006 @ 04:51 PM EST | PJ

Posted on 11/30/2006 11:34:07 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

Feast your eyes on this: Judge Dale Kimball has affirmed [PDF] Judge Brooke Wells' June 28, 2006 Order. Here's the heart of it:

Having thoroughly reviewed and considered the briefing related to IBM’s Motion to Limit SCO’s Claims, the briefing related to SCO’s objections, the underlying previous discovery orders, and the arguments made at the October 24 hearing, the court finds that, even under a de novo standard of review, the Magistrate Judge’s June 28, 2006 Order is correct. The court finds that SCO failed to comply with the court’s previous discovery-related Orders and Rule 26(e), that SCO acted willfully, that SCO’s conduct has resulted in prejudice to IBM, and that this result–the inability of SCO to use the evidence at issue to prove its claims– should come as no surprise to SCO. In addition, the court finds that neither particularized findings on an item-by- item basis nor an evidentiary hearing is required to make these determinations. The court, therefore, affirms and adopts the Magistrate Judge’s June 28, 2006 Order in its entirety.

What does it mean? It means SCO is toast. Wells' order threw out most of SCO's evidence. They were too tricky by half (as Wells put it: "In the view of the court it is almost like SCO sought to hide its case until the ninth inning in hopes of gaining an unfair advantage despite being repeatedly told to put 'all evidence . . . on the table'”), they got caught, and now they have been punished. And so, what they face at trial is awful to contemplate, if you are a friend of SCO's. ...........

What's worse for SCO is, Kimball did a de novo review, out of an "abundance of caution," so they can't even appeal that issue.

(Excerpt) Read more at groklaw.net ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: groklaw; ibm; novell; sco

1 posted on 11/30/2006 11:34:13 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: N3WBI3

fyi


2 posted on 11/30/2006 11:34:49 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: All
From the past:

Leaked SCO Memo: Microsoft gave SCO $86 Million

3 posted on 11/30/2006 11:51:21 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: rdb3; chance33_98; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Bush2000; PenguinWry; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; ...

4 posted on 11/30/2006 11:53:55 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: ShadowAce
From the comments at Groklaw comes this piece of history:

B. Gates Rants About Software Copyrights - in 1980

*************************AN EXCERPT ********************************

Posted by Roblimo on Fri Jan 21, '00 11:00 AM
from the dark-side-of-software-history dept.

This is an interview with a young programmer and entrepreneur named Bill Gates, originally taped and transcribed in 1980. In it, Gates says, "There's nobody getting rich writing software that I know of." Gates also works hard to defend the idea of copyrighting software stored on magnetic media - mostly tape, back then - which the government didn't accept at the time, and talks at length about how no one will ever write software if they can't make money at it, why it's bad to share programs freely with friends, and generally makes it clear that 20 years ago Bill Gates was already well on his way to becoming what he is today. (More below -- including a special Slashdot audio bonus!)

The following is a transcript of the original recording of Dennis Báthory-Kitsz interviewing Bill Gates. This is a behind-the-scenes look at a programmer who's also a writer interviewing a programmer who's also a businessman. The material is unedited. The author had expected a discussion of philosophy and alternative ways of thinking; but the author was nonplused by Gates's emphasis on economic considerations rather than philosophical or legislative ones, or even the excitement that was a strong motivating force throughout the microcomputer community at the time.

This interview, conducted in March 1980, was one of several dozen written and taped exchanges between Báthory-Kitsz and Bill Gates, John Hersey, Bryan Mumford, Hank Watson, P. T. Wolf, and other software authors, computer club members, publishers, program traders, and general users, as well as Sarah Basbas of the Copyright Office.

The final article appeared in 80 Microcomputing, a magazine dedicated to the Radio Shack's TRS-80 Micro Computer System (later known as the Model I). It was the magazine's cover story, Have the Courts Smashed Software Copyright?, in the fall of 1980.

In the interview, the reference to Datacash vs. JS&A is a decision (79 C 591, September 26, 1979) in Illinois District Court that unequivocally held that "the object phase of a computer program was not a 'copy' within meaning of the Copyright Act of 1909 or common law" and "The Copyright Act of 1976 applies to computer programs in their flow chart, source and assembly phases, but not in their object phase." The decision terrified the software community, and was the reason for this article being prepared. CONTU was the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works, which held hearings on the validity of copyright as applied to computer software, and issued a report on July 31, 1978 (SuDocs No. 030-002-0143-8). The heart of the problem was human readability, which CONTU Commissioner John Hersey (author of Hiroshima and president of the Authors League of America) found absent from the "machine part" character of object code. However, in the intervening 20 years, copyright has been extended to computer object code and other material in non-human-readable form, and displayed copyright notices are no longer required.

Dennis Báthory-Kitsz, composer and technologist, was - in the halcyon days of small computing - the author of The Custom TRS-80, a best-selling book of hardware and software improvements, and Learning the 6809, a programmed learning text that focused on the Tandy Color Computer. He was president of Green Mountain Micro until its demise in 1986. He presently co-hosts the radio/cyber show Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar, writes and edits for The Transitive Empire, and consults in Web site accessibility for OrbitAccess.

Bill Gates was until recently CEO of Microsoft Corporation. Gates and Paul Allen wrote a BASIC interpreter in ROM for the TRS-80 (Level II, replacing the rudimentary, non-Microsoft Level I BASIC that was offered in 1977) that was both good enough and flawed enough to make the TRS-80 a hobbyist's dream. A generation of programmers and hardware jockeys were raised on its workings, and the venerable Model I-once called the Trash-80-has recently undergone a resurgence of interest along with other old "eight-bitters."

5 posted on 11/30/2006 12:09:19 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

SCO gets its wish in one sense, in that the IBM trial is delayed even further. OTOH, there might not be enough left of SCO to go to the IBM trial once Novell is over.

With its now recognized underhanded tactics and lack of evidence, I will be amazed if there is an SCO left in 2008. But that's what happens when you want to litigate rather than produce a product that consumers want.


6 posted on 11/30/2006 12:26:52 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Ernest: You can reproduce Groklaw stories in full, so long as you include the Creative Commons license info seen at the bottom of the page.


7 posted on 11/30/2006 1:21:30 PM PST by shadowman99
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

This is absolutely hilarious. I'll be interested in seeing what the pro-SCO spin will be from our resident trolls.


8 posted on 11/30/2006 3:12:52 PM PST by zeugma (I reject your reality and substitute my own in its place. (http://www.zprc.org/))
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To: shadowman99

I was just being lazy...stuff doesn't vanish from PJ's site....


9 posted on 11/30/2006 9:17:50 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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