And we thought they were dead :-)

[Dan Jenkins]

  On 7/10/2010 9:13 AM, Jeffry Smith wrote:
>  Judge Kimball rules as a matter of law the contract was clear, and
>  tSCOG didn't get the copyrights.  tSCOG appealed to the 10th circuit
>  that it should be a jury who decide.  10th Circuit ruled ruled that,
>  even if Judge Kimball was right (they actually stated in their
>  decision Novell had compelling arguments), it was for a jury to
>  decide (as tSCOG asked for), and sent it back to the district court,
>  where Judge Kimball recused himself (for reasons I don't recall), so
>  it ended up with Judge Stewart for jury trial.  The jury (which
>  tSCOG asked for) ruled tSCOG didn't get the copyrights (probably not
>  helped by Darl testifying they didn't need the copyrights to conduct
>  business under the APA, only for their new extortion scheme).  tSCOG
>  appealed to Judge Stewart on the grounds, basically, that the jury
>  they had asked for had to be wrong (to quote a movie line "I object
>  on the grounds its damaging to our case").  Judge Stewart denied
>  their appeal.   Now they're appealing back to 10th Circuit that both
>  the jury (that they asked for) and Judge Stewart must be wrong,
>  because no one could possibly rule against them.  My suspicion is the
>  10th will deny them this time, but IANAL, so who knows?
>
> > I would suspect that this is only a formality, and they plan to
> > appeal to SCOTUS.
 >
>  I suspect they'll continue to appeal as long as they can.  Of
>  course, there's no requirement SCOTUS hear the appeal :)

Thank you, Mr. Smith for your clear summation. I've long since last 
track of the in & outs of all this.

Other than the FUD (or otherwise) impact on Linux, I would not be 
interested in this matter, as I neither enjoy soap operas nor reality 
TV. The fact that this travesty has ground on so long both amazes and 
appalls me (IANAL, so perhaps this is common & normal, though it boggles 
my mind).

When the dust settles, and truth & justice triumph (in other words, 
Linux, through its avatars, Novell & IBM), hopefully there are enough 
resources to reimburse those who suffered through this process. If not, 
more revenue, and emotional catharsis, could be raised to compensate, 
through A Modest Proposal of mine: Confine Darl, the various attorneys, 
Yarrow, and the other SCO miscreants to a desert island, which is 
well-equipped with hidden cameras, though with as few resources as SCO 
truly had, and see what develops. Revenue could be generated by selling 
advertising and gambling on individual participants dominance & length 
of survival. It would have much of the appeal of those game shows, soap 
operas and reality TV, which appear to captivate much of society. While 
it would be appropriate to deliver the Survivors-to-be to the island via 
a train wreck, however, a plane wreck would work (as it is the 21st 
century and our metaphors do need an update - plus I haven't figured out 
how to have a train wreck on a desert island). We could thrill to their 
emerging micro-society (ala Lord of the Flies), watch their gambols 
through the wilderness as they realize they truly are Lost and chill to 
their rising awareness that they themselves are the only protein source 
on the island. As I couldn't come up with a T-Rex to put on the island 
to eat any of the lawyers (for comic relief), this is then an 
alternative: Darl & Yarrow, after capturing the attorneys (Dewey, 
Cheatam and Howe) in a long, long chase, broil them over a fire in an 
attempt to extract their only remaining value.

Think I could get any takers to my Modest Proposal?

-- 
Dan Jenkins, Rastech Inc., Bedford, NH, USA, 1-603-206-9951
*** Technical Support Excellence for four decades.