[PLUG] ANNOUNCEMENT: April PLUG Meeting

[Eric Harrison]

On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, Jeme A Brelin wrote:

>On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, Evan Heidtmann wrote:
>> On Tue, 2004-03-30 at 16:05, David Mandel wrote:
>> > 				  HOW-NOT-TO
>> > 		   Avoiding Intellectual Property Quagmires
>> > 				      by
>> > 				  Zach Welch
>> >
>> >       I have a complete description of this talk which I'm not sending
>> >       out until I get Zach's approval.  His lawyer and clients' are
>> >       reviewing the description at the moment.
>>
>> Is the irony contrived or real? :-)
>
>I assumed it was contrived, but I guess we really should ask...

If you have to ask, it is a clear indicator that you have not spent
much time dealing with lawyers. This not a snotty, sarcastic comment.

>It'll definitely make a difference in how much heckling we do and I don't
>want to have to wait until the speaker makes it obvious before I can get
>started!

I've never "experienced" such things first-hand, but I have had a front-
row seat a couple times in the past. I don't know about the speaker's
particular problems, but as SCO has proved it is worth our while to 
listen closely when this topic is discussed.

It is fun to heckle SCO, for example, but the truth of the matter is that
the threat is real. Such litigation, even if it is COMPLETELY STUPID, can
chew up millions of dollars in legal fees.  This sort of thing is best
avoided if at all possible. It is in our best interest to listen carefully.

I'm on the public record as using VRRP. I'm also a CISCO customer.
I thought about that a lot as I read this rather humorous page on
"Intellectual Property Quagmires":  http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html

-Eric