[FYI] Matthew Skala: "I have made my point and don't need the headaches"

["Axel H Horns" <horns@t-online.de>]

[Wer laesst sich schon gerne von einer finanziellen Uebermacht vor 
Gericht in die Pfanne hauen? Die Reaktion von Matthew Skala auf das 
Vergleichsangebot duerfte ueberaus verstaendlich sein. Aber doch 
bleibt es schade, dass die FUD-Strategie von CP hier offenbar voll 
durchgeschlagen hat. Dabei waere es hoechst interessant gewesen, mal 
juristisch bis zum Ende zu gehen. Auch in Sachen DeCSS mehren sich 
die Vergleichsnachrichten. Ein guter Resonanzboden fuer weitere FUD-
Attacks von pekuniaer gutgestellten Unternehmen, laestige Dateien aus 
dem Netz zu kippen.                                        ---AHH]

http://cryptome.org/skala.htm

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27 March 2000. Matthew Skala confirms this statement is his. Thanks 
also to anonymous. 

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/03/27/1736221&cid=101 

Yes, I settled (Score:5, Informative) 

by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27, @06:03PM CST (#101) 

I have no Slashdot account, cope. 

Yes, late Friday I made an agreement with the plaintiffs settling the 
cases in Boston and Vancouver out of court. I was planning to wait 
until I heard the results of today's hearing before making any 
announcement, but it sounds like that is now. I don't know Eddy's 
current status; last I heard from him he had not officially settled 
but was close to doing so.  

I settled because I have made my point and don't need the headaches. 
I don't think it's appropriate to characterise this as Microsystems 
et al "winning". The document is out there, I know the mirror sites 
aren't going to take it down without a fight (even with my copyright 
assignment), and judging by the level of conspiracy theory here on 
Slashdot, the companies' public relations nightmares have only just 
begun.  

Whatever public face they may put on their press releases, I don't 
think the plaintiffs are very happy right now. Whether they end up 
happy or having the last laugh will really depend upon how you, the 
public, reacts to this situation, and that's out of my hands.  

There are serious jurisdiction issues for the Boston lawsuit, but the 
Vancouver lawsuit against me was certainly for real, and many of the 
relevant legal questions have not yet been decided in Canada. So I'd 
be faced with being a test case, and all the "fun" that involves. My 
right to do what I did may appear cut-and-dried to Slashdotters, but 
we'd have to educate the judge about that, and face all the 
litigation tricks that a well-funded multinational corporation can 
come up with. Litigation always involves a risk no matter how good 
one's case may appear at the outset. I'm a mathematician, not a 
gambler. I've got better ways to spend my time, thank you all so very 
much.  

Yes, it would be more satisfying to walk away with a court decision 
saying, "Matthew, you didn't do anything bad, you're a good boy", but 
enough other people have told me that that it's not worth the hassle 
to try to get it from a court as well. I reached the point of 
diminishing returns. If you think that makes me a coward or a sell-
out, feel free to prove yourself a better hacker than me by doing 
yourself whatever you think I ought to have done.  

I'm sorry for the people who may find their situations worsened by my 
having made the copyright assignment. I still think that the overall 
effect of my actions has been positive. You might well want to 
explore the fact that the original documents gave permission to 
redistribute.  

- Matthew Skala 

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PGP Key & x.509 certificate:
http://137.216.191.250/keys.html 

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