On Tue, 2004-03-09 at 02:37, Guy Harris wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 09, 2004 at 01:56:48AM +0100, Joerg Mayer wrote:
> > > - He is willing to assist us in the case. However, he can't do pro
> > > bono work in California (CA), which is where it makes the most sense
> > > to file a case.
> >
> > Being not familiar with the american legal system: What does "pro bono"
> > mean?
>
> Well, according to this glossary of legal terms:
>
> http://www.co.shelby.tn.us/county_gov/court_clerks/criminal_court/glossary.html#p
>
> "pro bono" refers to legal services provided without attorney fees, i.e.
> legal work done for free - the term comes, I think, from the Latin
> phrase "pro bono publico", i.e. "for the public good".
>
> I don't know whether Eben means that there's some legal reason why he
> can't do pro bono work in California - I'm not *that* familiar with the
> US legal system (although I don't think it's a concept unique to the US
> legal system:
>
> http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/new/home.asp
>
> although it *might* be unique to Anglo-Saxon legal systems.)
IANAL, but I have lived most of my life in the US.
In the US, in order to practice law in a state, the Lawyer must pass a
bar exam in that state. In the US besides having laws and a
constitution at the federal level, each state has a constitution, and
its own set of laws. So Eben knows US law, and law for the state where
he practices. Many of the state laws are similar between states, but he
may not know the specifics in California.
In the states there are 3 ways Lawyers take cases:
1. On commission. Ie. they will take 50% of award.
2. For fee, usually time and materials.
3. Pro Bono. The lawyer does the work for free.
I was surprised that Clearsight included my Copyrighted code in their
product - a the code I donated is for parsing the output from VMS TCPIP
dumps. But, I verified that it seems to be included in a DLL that they
distribute.
My preferred options would be (in order of preference):
1. Stop linking against Ethereal
2. Opensource their product immediately
Additionally, if they lose, they should cover Ethereal's legal expenses
for this case. Any monetary profits should be donated appropriately.
ie. if EFF supports this case, that would be a good recipient. Does
ethereal have regular expenses?
I would be willing to donate $100 to the Ethereal legal defense fund for
this case. I might be willing to invest more cash in this case, but
would expect to receive that additional cash repaid with proceeds from
the case (Assuming ethereal wins the case).
-Marc Milgram
>
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