Re:Microsoft Patent Application for 'sudo'?
by Corrado on Wednesday November 11, 2009 @07:08PM
(#936697)
Groklaw came to fame during the SCO crisis and offered great insight into the workings of the trial. PJ is|was not a lawyer but a para-legal who tracked the proceedings and converted all the legalese to human-speak.
Re:Microsoft Patent Application for 'sudo'?
by tptacek on Wednesday November 11, 2009 @07:15PM
(#936707)
I don't see a byline on this post. Did PJ write it?
Re:Microsoft Patent Application for 'sudo'?
by blasdel on Wednesday November 11, 2009 @08:10PM
(#936819)
Groklaw became popular for their incredibly earnest legal reporting on the SCO debacle, despite being incapable of ever getting their technical details straight.
Since I can immediately see when they constantly get the technical facts wrong, I feel I can't trust their legal interpretations at all, since I can't judge them so easily.
If you fuck up in a subject matter I know well, I'm not going to trust you about your claimed expertise.
Re:Microsoft Patent Application for 'sudo'?
by twinwing on Wednesday November 11, 2009 @07:23PM
(#936729)
Historically, It was the site to go to for day to day coverage of SCO V. Novell.
Personally, I go for the very well researched, though strongly biased, articles on issues pertaining to FOSS and licensing.
Particularly telling is the link on the left hand side of the site labeled "About Groklaw" where it states "It is Pamela Jones personal Creation" and "The information on Groklaw has been prepared as a service to the FOSS community in particular and the general public. It is not intended to constitute legal advice. PJ is a paralegal, not a lawyer."
If they do, it's not in evidence here. "Dude. It's sudo. With a GUI. For dummies." Presumably, the author knows that it's valid to take an existing idea and patent an improvement on it.
The author also wisecracks about the likelihood that Microsoft wants to collect a "toll" on everyone else's use of sudo. Leaving aside the fact that Microsoft isn't patenting sudo, surely the author realizes that if Microsoft wanted to patent troll the rest of the industry, they have a huge arsenal of far better patents to do it with?