Re: [tlug] Re: is there a real possibility that Sco get what it claims?

[Raymond Regalado <fwgk5942@example.com>]

On 2004.2.3, at 07:19  PM, Fredric Fredricson wrote:

> I have also been following groklaw since October 2003 or
> so but I would not be so sure. I would say that they still
> have a few percent chance to screw things up for the Linux
> community.

Since not everyone can be perfectly *rational*, of course things could 
get screwed up, i.e. end up on the irrational end.

> The problem with groklaw, as I see it, is that it is very
> biased and contains a lot of SCO-bashing.

Granted groklaw is hardly sympathetic to SCO, but at least most of the 
"bashing" that I've read there tries to be based on the reasonable 
interpretation of *facts*.

> Not that SCO do
> not deserve the bashing but if things where so black and
> white as they appear at groklaw SCO would never have started
> the battle, no matter how stupid they may be.

On the other hand, things may actually be as black and white as groklaw 
makes them out to be.  It's just that not everyone can see things as 
they are, and so SCO may yet have a chance.

> The problem, from the Linux community point of view, is
> that most people are not programmers and do not understand
> the issues at all. A jury will probably not contain a
> single person with programming experience and they would
> have to rely on expert witnesses, and I am sure SCO could
> dig up some "experts" ready to testify their behalf.

By all means let the *experts* deal with the whole thing.  The 
"experts" should be able to sift FUD from fact better and thus be able 
to prove who is right.  If it so happens that SCO is wrong, then any 
true experts that SCO can dig up will *not* be able to testify in their 
favor.

> Personally I do not doubt that SCO got it all wrong but
> I would not be comfortable that a layman jury would
> get it right.

It's up to the lawyers on both sides to show that their case is based 
on fact, logic, reason, truth...  Contradictory positions cannot both 
be right, and so an appeal to the facts and their correct 
interpretation ought to make it clear that one side is right and the 
other wrong.

>  The best hope is that SCO get thrown out
> of court in the SCO vs. IBM case but I can not really
> se that happen in the RedHat and Novell cases.

Let's hope that the judicial system would "work" in this case.

Cheers,

Raymond