Hyman Rosen wrote: > > On 3/10/2010 5:14 AM, Alexander Terekhov wrote: > > That appeal was dissmissed recently. > > The appeal was dismissed because the parties settled. > Katzer agreed to pay Jacobsen $100,000 and to never
Yeah, yeah. http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/02/22/1615259/Delicious-Details-of-Open-Source-Court-Victory "At the start, the open source developer got hit with a large SLAPP fine (urgh), and finally got the judgement reversed and was awarded damages, but the article notes that: "This doesn't fully compensate Jacobsen for all of his time and expense over 5 years, but it was the best he could get." So, by not using the right OSI license, the developer opened himself to years of legal hassles and woes. Also, one wonders if by proactively suing, he ended up being worse off than by not waiting and then countersuing. Finally, it is noteworthy that since the DMCA was used on behalf of the open source developer, this may not be seen by opponents of that law as a victory at all, as it provides validation (if weak) of it's existence. If this is victory for the little guy, I'd really hate to see what defeat is like. " and "It took $30,000 up front and five years of legal wrangling. WORLD CLASS MINDS had to engage on the side of the good guys. Look at the outcome. $100,000 over 18 months and future disputes are sent to arbitration. $100,000 does not even begin to cover the legal costs of the angels here. If the good guy attorneys hadn't been working pro bono, our Hero would still be in ruinous debt. If not for the amazing charity in this case, Jacobsen's victory would be declaring bankruptcy. $100,000 probably doesn't even put a chip in the profits Katzer made by his theft. $100,000 isn't even $100,000 since it's being paid over time, which means the real net present value is less. Worse, "Both parties have agreed to ... arbitration." Do some googling on modern arbitration. It's so blatantly rigged you can't even properly call it a fraud. Corporate interest prevail over the little guys in something like 98% of all cases, and the remaining two percent get such token amounts you can't legitimately call it a "win." Katzer is free to pull some heinous new stunt tomorrow -- like filing entirely new patents claiming ownership of Jacobsen's work -- and he can remain comfortable in the knowledge that he has a 98% chance of getting away with it. "Aw, shut the Hell up, man. We got the precedent and that's what really counts." Really? A precedent that costs $30,000 up front to try to use? "Dude, seriously, STFU. We're making incremental progress towards a larger victory here. FOSS is gaining legitimacy in the legal world, and that's what really matters." I know. I've been hearing that for 20 years now. After twenty years of gaining legitimacy, it still only takes five years, two appeals and a team of pro bono attorneys to recover a token amount of somewhat less than $100K and a decision that all future disputes will be resolved in the favor of the bad guys. We're making wonderful progress. A few more such victories and we'll be lost. "Frackin' Hell, man, what the frack is your problem?!" My problem is that I want everyone else to come to the same excruciating conclusion I have. The System has a horrible bias in favor of the rich and powerful. The System will go out of its way to screw the weak and defenseless. That by Bruce's own admission, the System will take a tool like SLAPP, expressly designed to level the playing field, and use it to deny justice to those not rich enough to afford it. If Jacobsen hadn't had an extra $30,000 laying around, this case would have been over before it began. Justice is no longer blindly weighing merits, but is instead whoring herself out to the highest bidder. I want to change that, and we can change that when enough of my fellow citizens begin to understand just how corrupt things have become. But wearing rose-colored lenses and seeing this as a "victory" doesn't help us. Jacobsen and company had to wage a heroic, epic battle for a very. very tepid victory. The real costs of his case weren't covered, he hasn't been made whole for the time he lost, Katzer kept his profits and is still out there free to start stealing again tomorrow. " <chuckles> regards, alexander. P.S. "I'm insufficiently motivated to go set up a GNU/Linux system so that I can do the builds." Hyman Rosen <[email protected]> The Silliest GPL 'Advocate' P.P.S. "Of course correlation implies causation! Without this fundamental principle, no science would ever make any progress." Hyman Rosen <[email protected]> The Silliest GPL 'Advocate' -- http://gng.z505.com/index.htm (GNG is a derecursive recursive derecursion which pwns GNU since it can be infinitely looped as GNGNGNGNG...NGNGNG... and can be said backwards too, whereas GNU cannot.) _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
