How Not to Get Snookered by Claims of "Proof" of Copyright Infringement

How Not to Get Snookered by Claims of "Proof" of Copyright Infringement(groklaw.net)

21 points by NeilCJames 15 years ago | 5 comments

tzs 15 years ago |

Note that the Engadget author that paralegal PJ is lecturing on copyright law is an actual copyright lawyer.

kenjackson 15 years ago | |

It's been clear to me for a few years that PJ/Groklaw is not coming for a lawyer. Her agenda is clear and generally her arguments not compelling unless you're already in her camp.

It's unfortunate, because when Groklaw first began I thought it to be very useful. The more tangential issues she goes into the less interesting, useful, and credible it has become.

tzs 15 years ago | | |

Groklaw is still very useful. I don't find the legal analysis itself all that useful, but it usually links to primary sources that I can analyze myself.

I'm not a lawyer, but when I got burned out on programming I took a break and went to law school with the intent of going into IP and corporate law. After the final year, I had one paper to complete for an IP seminar to get the degree, and intended to write it over the summer. However, I went back to my old programming job as a summer, found that my programming mojo was back and stayed, and never got around to finishing that paper!

Natsu 15 years ago | |

Does she have some personal thing with Florian? Half the article is about him and has nothing to do with copyright law.

tzs 15 years ago | | |

Before mid-2005, Groklaw coverage of Florian simply cited his work against software patents in a few stories on that topic.

Then there was little or no mention of him until the Oracle purchase of Sun was under discussion. Florian joined Monty of MySQL in opposing the sale, citing as one of the reasons that because MySQL was under GPLv2 only Oracle would be able to fund MySQL development by selling proprietary licenses (MySQL's business model). The theory is that to make a viable fork of MySQL should Oracle turn out to be bad, you needed to be able to sell proprietary licenses to fund development. (RMS criticized the proposed sale on similar grounds).

Groklaw decided that this was FUD against GPL (and hand waved away RMS's similar view), and then brought up the Munich Linux migration to show Florian is an evil anti-FOSS person. For those who don't remember that, Florian and other anti-software patent activists, along with the Green Party, wrote a letter to Munich officials raising the issue of potential software patent problems in free software. Their aim was for this to slightly disrupt the project enough for the press to take notice and write about the dangers of software patents.

It in fact did disrupt the project. The Munich Linux migration was put on hold for a week while patents were discussed, and the press picked up on it. Some people decided that since Microsoft would obviously like Munich to stick with Windows, Florian must have been working for Microsoft, and the anti-Florian FUD has been flowing ever since.

The next thing Florian did that ticked off Groklaw is criticize IBM. Groklaw seems to have a soft spot in its heart for IBM, so criticizing them is not welcome there.

PS: The Munich Linux migration is a top contender for worst-managed software migration of all time. That one week delay Florian caused in order to get publicity for the dangers of software patents is a drop in the bucket compared to the massive schedule slips that followed. For those who enjoy spectacular failure, there's a blog that has been following the show: http://limuxwatch.blogspot.com/