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| German Court: SCO Must Pay a Fine. Yes. Again. - updated |
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Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 02:54 PM EDT
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SCO was taken to court again in Germany, by one of the companies that got an injunction years ago, Heise is reporting, and now it must pay a fine to the company, Thinking Objects Software GmbH. Three companies took SCO Germany to court back then, and this is one of the three. I'll show you a computer translation first of the headline in Heise. It is perfection:
SCO Group Germany must check software updates of the nut/mother
company message to read out Sounds like a job for ELIZA. I'll try to explain what I understand the article to be saying, but if you have a better translation, please provide it.
SCO was enjoined from making certain claims in Germany, and it signed an agreement in 2003 not to say them there, because its alternate choice was to have to prove them immediately, so it chose silence. As a result, SCO can't say in Germany that Linux violates SCO's IP or that end users could be liable for violations of SCO's intellectual property or that Linux is an unauthorized derivative of UNIX. Unless it can prove it. Good luck with that. SCO hasn't been successful proving that anywhere, so it can't say that in Germany. But the US website makes such claims, which were apparently shown in Germany too. Naughty, naughty. It seems that SCO pled the "we didn't see what the US was doing when it updated the page" defense, but it was told that it used that excuse once before, so now it must pay a fine to the complaining company. Here's an incident that happened in 2007, to refresh your memory. And here's a 2003 offense, for which SCO was ordered to pay a 10,000 EU fine. Are they incorrigible? Well. Let's leave that to God. However, the Heise report indicates that they are at least repeat offenders.
In human terms, it is saying that when the SCO Group -- the "nut/mother company" in the computer's inspired phrasing -- in the US updates its website, the German branch has to check to make sure nothing illegal to say in Germany appears there. Here's a snip from the article, computer-translated:
The SCO Group GmbH, a daughter of the American enterprise SCO
Group Inc., has to check their InterNet appearance after software
updates of the nut/mother company for errors. This applies at least if
the same error already occurred in the past. This legal concept showed
today the regional court Munich I, on which Jens Horstkotte, which
represented the company legally, got involved in a comparison, with
which the GmbH 10,000 euro to a IT Dienstleister pay must (Az. 21 O
1929/08)....
Cause procedure in Munich was now that the SCO Group GmbH expressions
over alleged law breakings by Linux, because of which the enterprise
was already warned 2003 and omission contracts had then locked after
an interruption in the InterNet appeared again. The Thinking Objects
GmbH, represented by attorney Friedrich Bernreuther, had complained
because of violation of the omission contract, on which the SCO Group
GmbH appointed itself to the fact that the forbidden expressions
without their knowledge had been up-played inadvertently over a
software update the American nut/mother company. Resident of Munich
the regional court expressed the view in the negotiation that it was
function of the SCO Group GmbH, which URL, under which the forbidden
expressions appeared, to check at least after software updates.
When attorney Horstkotte stated the fact that the GmbH is not informed
about such updates found the judges the fact that it would have been
quite reasonable the enterprise to provide over such processes
knowledge since generally admits was that updates could lead to such
problems. Quite SCO got only in the point that the expressions in
English language, callable under a com Domain, do not fall under the
area of responsibility of the German GmbH, why the lawyers of the two
parties agreed on suggestion of the court on a comparison, which can
be recalled within three weeks.
If someone can provide a better translation, I'd appreciate it. You can't top the headline, I don't think, but if you could clarify some of the details, that would be great.
Update: Groklaw member OmniGeek offers this translation: SCO Group Deutschland Must Review Parent Company's Software Updates
Following software updates by its parent firm, SCO Group GmbH, a subsidiary of
American firm SCO Group Inc., must review their Internet presence for errors.
This applies, at a minimum, when the same error occurred at least once in the
past. This interpretation of the law was accepted today by the Landgericht
München I [Munich state court I], whereupon Jens Horstkotte, the firm's legal
representative, consented to an agreement by which the company must pay 10,000
Euros to an IT service provider. He also offers this summation: SCO Deutschland had been prohibited by court order in a prior case from claiming
in Germany that Linux infringed Unix copyrights. (The Heise story makes a neat
play on the German title of the Michael Ende book, "The Neverending
Story.")
The US parent company updated the company's Web site (it seems the offending
statement was the infamous SCO Partner letters), and the offending claims
reappeared. One of the original plaintiffs, Thinking Objects GmbH, read of it and
went to court to have SCO fined. SCO's counsel claimed it was inadvertent and
resulted from a software update; the judge said SCO Deutschland was obliged at a
minimum to review the Web site for prohibited statements when it was updated.
SCO's counsel said they'd not been informed of the update; the judge countered
that they could reasonably be expected to find out for themselves, since
software updates are known to cause this problem.
SCO Deutschland did successfully argue that they could not be held responsible
for English statements made on a Web site in the .com domain; for this reason,
at the suggestion of the court, the parties agreed on a penalty payment to the
plaintiff; SCO Deutschland has three weeks to formally object to this
settlement. Note the last detail, that SCO has three weeks to appeal. Either side can. And SCO is not responsible if the English site is viewable in Germany. Yahoo's BabelFish does a comprehensible job of translating the entire article here.
Another member, Andras, offers this further translation:
SCO gained notoriety due to the neverending tale of its two lawsuits: the
one it brought against Novell regarding the copyrights and licensing issues
surrounding Unix; and the one against IBM, which is about the allegation
that IBM illegally published parts of SCO's proprietary source code in
Linux. As far as the rights to Unix are concerned, a court ruled that SCO
infringed Novell's copyright and that SCO owes Novell licence fees.
Currently, SCO is operating under Chapter 11 of US bankruptcy law, but hopes
to attract a new investor, in order to, among other things, be able to
continue the IBM litigation about the alleged stolen code in Linux.
The proceedings in Munich were initiated because statements of the SCO Group
GmbH regarding alleged infringing code in Linux reappeared in the Internet
after a while, even though the company had already been ordered to cease
making these statements in 2003, and even though it had signed a declaration
of discontinuance with a penalty clause. It was because of a breach of this
declaration that Thinking Objects GmbH (represented by Mr. Friedrich
Bernreuther), brought the suit. SCO Group GmbH pleaded that the statements
appeared on the web unintentionally and unbeknownst to them, due to a
software update deployed by their parent company. The District Court ruled
that it was the SCO Group GmbH's task to check the content of the webpage
where the statements they were enjoined from making appeared, at least each
time updates were installed.
Mr. Horstkotte submitted that the GmbH wasn't being notified of such
updates; to which the Justices replied that it would have been reasonable
for the company to make sure they learn about the updates, as it was common
knowledge that they could lead to such problems. Nevertheless, the court
conceded the point that the German GmbH couldn't be held liable for the
statements appearing on a .com website in English(*). The counsels of the
parties, urged by the court, entered a settlement rescindable within the
next three weeks. Thanks, everyone, for the help in getting a more accurate and complete picture.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 03:06 PM EDT |
| #1 [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: OmniGeek on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 03:22 PM EDT |
I would translate it as follows:
SCO Group Deutschland Must Review Parent Company's Software Updates
Following software updates by its parent firm, SCO Group GmbH, a subsidiary of
American firm SCO Group Inc., must review their Internet presence for errors.
This applies, at a minimum, when the same error occurred at least once in the
past. This interpretation of the law was accepted today by the Landgericht
München I [Munich state court I], whereupon Jens Horstkotte, the firm's legal
representative, consented to an agreement by which the company must pay 10,000
Euros to an IT service provider.
---
My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on
espresso.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Erwan on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 03:24 PM EDT |
If any
---
Erwan[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Erwan on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 03:26 PM EDT |
Please quote the article's title.
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Erwan[ Reply to This | # ]
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- Bloated carcasses of 2,000 developers - Authored by: JamesK on Thursday, August 21 2008 @ 09:38 AM EDT
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| Authored by: Erwan on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 03:27 PM EDT |
As usual.
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Erwan[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 03:45 PM EDT |
'Nut' is in this sense 'What you screw a bolt into'.
If you think of the 'Nut' as the shape of the mother, and the 'Bolt' as the
shape of the father, you'll understand.
Isn't German wonderful ? It's not intended to be coarse; just rather literal.[ Reply to This | # ]
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- Nuts Bolts Screws - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 05:21 PM EDT
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 03:49 PM EDT |
They are also Repeatedly Offensive.
In Oh SCO many ways[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: bmcmahon on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 04:01 PM EDT |
That's lovely. The German word "Mutter" can mean "mother",
or "nut" as in "nuts and bolts" -- hardware, not produce.
Being unable to resolve this ambiguity, the translation software simply punted
and provided both. What's especially fun is that there is also an ambiguity in
English, so using the same scheme to translate from English back to German would
result in something like "Nuss/Mutter".
Break out the (g)Nutella!
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 04:33 PM EDT |
| As a *BSDer I hope G power wins. [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Alan(UK) on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 04:34 PM EDT |
| The offending letter is STILL
up on their web-site. Does this mean that they will have to pay out repeatedly
until it is taken down? As it is addressed to me, I take a personal
interest. ---
Microsoft is nailing up its own coffin from the inside. [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 05:15 PM EDT |
| Very appropriate for SCO - I love it. [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: tiger99 on Wednesday, August 20 2008 @ 06:40 PM EDT |
| Keeping us provided with free entertainment! But I can't make up my mind whether
it is supposed to be comedy or tragedy. This latest episode is certainly a
FiaSCO. [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, August 21 2008 @ 07:26 PM EDT |
http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/SCO-Group-Deutschland-has-to-check-
heise does english too.[ Reply to This | # ]
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