Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Broadcast 2000 removed from public access
From: Joe Pfeiffer (pfeiffer_AT_cs.nmsu.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 12 2001 - 22:24:32 EEST
I did use the words "very stupid". Just because the laws screw the
average person, doesn't mean I agree with it. But from what was said by
the Broadcast 2000 web page and general speculation, they are not
worried about being sued by the company using their product, but instead
by the investors in the company that went down. There are strong hints
that such idiot lawsuits have already succeeded in wasting some open
source developer somewhere.
As my dad used to say, ``it's a free country. Anybody can sue you.''
And it's up to you to spend the money to defend yourself.
Here's a story: years and years ago, dad was on the board of directors
of an investment firm. The firm was sold, and the new owners left the
country with all of the investors' money. An attorney organized a
lawsuit on behalf of all the investors, for all the money they'd lost
plus punitive amounts in the millions of dollars -- against the former
board, on the grounds they hadn't exercised ``due care and
diligence.'' Eventually, it became clear that this was just a
shakedown, and that for a few thousand dollars each the board members
could pay off the attorney (that's not how it was phrased, of course;
it was a settlement, and the attorney's fees were virtually the entire
amount of the settlement). Quite a while later, dad saw in the paper
that someone had tear-gassed the attorney's office. He told me he
hadn't done it, but if they ever caught the guy who did he'd
contribute to his legal defense fund. It's attorneys like that who
are responsible for all the lawyer jokes.
I'm curious, though -- does anyone know of any specific suits that
have been brought against open-source developers after companies have
failed? I can easily picture it happening...
-- Joseph J. Pfeiffer, Jr., Ph.D. Phone -- (505) 646-1605 Department of Computer Science FAX -- (505) 646-1002 New Mexico State University http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~pfeiffer SWNMRSEF: http://www.nmsu.edu/~scifair
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