Groklaw's head cries unimportant

Christmas day gave us Santa, Stockings and a gripe from IBM's Pamela Jones.

 If you note the dates in our Archives, March is when we were staying up 'til 4 in the morning covering the second SCO v. Novell trial in Utah, which started on March 8, and that same month Novell entered into this humiliating deal with Microsoft, agreeing to get paid in part for showing up for a contractually set number of OpenXML standards meetings and events. It was signed on March 29, the day before the jury ruled that Novell did not transfer the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights to Santa Cruz in 1995. Reading the excuses from a couple of Novell employees after the news of the work agreement broke justifying the deal makes me even more furious, because there is nothing they should say except, "I'm sorry we made the community look like we sell out for money." And they are not sorry. 

I don't wish to help people like that. 

All I have to say is, Sorry Pam.  You painted someone as a total hero and, shock of shocks, they're only just a normal company.  The company took the opportunity provided by the minute examination of the written agreement and, despite everyone in the room agreeing that a sale was a sale, found they could reverse the terms of the deal and un-sell the rights they may've admitted to believing they sold earlier.

Now the company sees another opportunity.  What, you think they're not going to capitalize on that?  It's an asset they can sell off, and a problem they can give to someone else.  Wheeee!  Were I them, I'd sell it in a heartbeat.

Sorry to hear the heroes you promoted aren't, well, heroes.  Companies are like that, and while I resent you for painting my favourite people in the worst light possible for so long, I don't resent you for not knowing that companies are companies.  It's a growth opportunity.

I'll be waiting for your re-examination of the past decade in this fresh, new light.