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Mitzi Bond Declaration - as text
Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 11:22 AM EST

Here's the Mitzi Bond Declaration as text, thanks to juliac, who did the transcription for us. SCO submitted this to buttress its claim that AT&T licenses meant to control not only the code but also methods and concepts in derivatives and modifications by licensees. Ms. Bond takes it one extreme step further, to espouse a "mental contamination" theory, whereby, if I have understood the theory, any programmer who was exposed to Unix System V could never write anything again for anybody, including himself, without AT&Tpotentially being able to claim control, due to his "mental contamination".

Ms. Bond would like us to believe that IBM, with some of the finest attorneys in the world and intending to do modifications and derivative works, being at the time in the software business, signed a contract like that. If you were the most lowly and financially desperate of programmers, would you? Not unless you wished to be unemployable by anyone else from that day onward. You couldn't even safely work for yourself, with the broad brush Ms. Bond uses to paint with.

Do compare what Ms. Bond has to say here with the historical material Dr Stupid unearthed on what Ms. Bond said in the 80s that directly contradicts this current testimony.

She also makes an extraordinary claim in paragraph 9:

"9. In my experience, AT&T refused to compromise its core intellectual property protections -- even in response to specific licensee requests and even at the expense of losing prospective licensees. I am not aware of any instance in which AT&T agreed (in any licensee agreement or any supplement, modification, or side letter thereto) to reduce AT&T's protection under a UNIX license so as to protect against the unauthorized use or disclosure of just source code."

IBM's license is here. And here is the Side Letter, their Sublicensing Agreement , the Supplement 170 Agreement, the Letter Agreement Amendment to 170and Amendment X, which do all the things Ms. Bond claims she never knew AT&T to do.

These are all from Groklaw's Contracts page.

Obviously, IBM has precisely such side letters and supplemental agreements, and in fact, in SCO's March 6, 2003 termination letter to IBM over AIX, SCO references the Side Letter and it chose the longer notice time of a side letter instead of the shorter notice time in the original license, so while Ms. Bond may be unaware of any such instance of AT&T altering terms by means of a side letter, SCO is obviously acknowledging that Side Letter. Their letter even tells IBM that it is bound by the Side Letter. And in the Side Letter you will find this paragraph:

"2.   Regarding Section 2.01, we agree that modifications and derivative works prepared by or for you are owned by you.  However, ownership of any portion or portions of SOFTWARE PRODUCTS included in any such modification or derivative work remains with us."

SCO's letter doesn't reference that paragraph, and instead it quotes the original language found in the License Agreement. Dirty pool. Anyway, Ms. Bond may be having some trouble remembering things that happened so long ago. Or maybe she wasn't at a high enough level to know the whole story.

In any case, BSDI, in the 1992 case she references, submitted an Opposition brief, which you can read on the page of materials Dr Stupid found, which said this:

"In the negotiations leading up to the execution of the E-SOFT-00089 Agreement, USL initially proposed language providing that any derivative work 'based on' the licensed materials was to be treated as licensed software. The University objected to that language, however, and insisted that it be changed to cover only derivative works 'that contain' licensed software. USL accepted this modification, providing a new version of the E-SOFT-00089 Agreement in which the language 'based on' licensed materials had been changed to 'that contains' licensed software. (Wilson Dep. T., Exh. D-67 and D-68 (attached as Exhibits Y and Z to the Forte Aff.).

"This same clarification i.e., that only derivative works containing AT&T code had to be treated as licensed software had also been made in discussions surrounding a prior license agreement, the 'UNIX System V Agreement'. This agreement initially included within the definition of 'LICENSED SOFTWARE' any derivative works prepared by the licensee 'based on' the licensed materials. The University objected to that provision, which had not appeared in any of its prior agreements with AT&T, and was contrary to its understanding of its obligations. (See Karels Aff., ~ 23-26). Following discussions regarding the provision, USL wrote a letter agreement to the University 'clarifying' the definition of 'Licensed Software' by deleting from the definition 'derivative works prepared by the licensees'. The letter further stated that AT&T never had intended to claim any interest in such works. (See Exhibit B to Karels Aff.; Exhibit D-34 to Wilson Dep. T. (Bates P000243) (Exhibit aa to the Forte Aff.)). In place of the prior language, a sentence was added stating 'LICENSEE agrees that any modification or derivative work prepared by it *that contains any LICENSED SOFTWARE* shall be treated as LICENSED SOFTWARE hereunder.' (Emphasis added)."

So IBM was not the only licensee to obtain alterations in the wording to make sure modifications and derivatives were *not* under AT&T's control.

Ms. Bond also claims educational and commercial licenses were essentially the same, but you can read them for yourself, and I believe you will come to a different conclusion. Here is an educational license and here's a commercial one.

I can't understand why SCO thought this declaration would help them. A little fact checking, and it sort of goes up in smoke. For example, she tells us what her testimony in the BSDi case was, but not completely. She doesn't inform us, although Dr Stupid does, that she changed her testimony after a lunch break conference with AT&T's then-attorney.

*********************************

Brent O. Hatch (5715)
Mark F. James (5295)
HATCH, JAMES & DODGE
[address, phone, fax]

Robert Silver (admitted pro hac vice)
Edward Normand (admitted pro hac vice)
Sean Eskovitz (admitted pro hac vice)
BOIES, SCHILLER & FLEXNER LLP
[address, phone, fax]

Stephen N. Zack (admitted pro hac vice)
Mark J. Heise (admitted pro hac vice)
BOIES, SCHILLER & FLEXNER LLP
[address, phone, fax]

Attorneys for Plaintiff

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF UTAH, CENTRAL DIVISION

THE SCO GROUP

Plaintiff,

v.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
MACHINES CORPORATION,

Defendant

Case No. 2:03CV0294DAK

Hon. Dale A. Kimball
Magistrate Judge Brooke C. Wells


DECLARATION OF
MITZI BOND

1

I, Mitzi D. Bond, declare as follows:

1. I submit this Declaration in connection with The SCO Group v. International Business Machines Corporation, No. 2:03CV0294DAK (D. Utah 2003).

2. From 1983 to 1994, I was employed by AT&T (or one of its subsidiary or successor entities) in licensing the UNIX operating system. During that time, I worked in Greensboro, North Carolina, for various entities -- including, from approximately 1983 to 1993, AT&T and then UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. ("USL"); and, from approximately 1993 to 1994, Novell.

3. During my tenure at AT&T and USL, I held several positions in the UNIX software sales and licensing group -- including Contract Manager, Account Executive, Public Relations Associate, and Public Relations Specialist.

4. Shortly after I began working at AT&T, I was involved in the inception of the $ echo newsletter. I served as the editor of that newsletter for the duration of its existence. AT&T used the newsletter to disseminate information to subscribing licensees, including about the requirements of the UNIX software agreements. The newsletter was never intended or designed

2

to have any legal effect, on our licensees or on their license agreements with AT&T. To the contrary, if, for example, the $ echo newsletter announced language that AT&T intended to include in its standard agreement, such language would become part of a licensee's agreement with AT&T only if that licensee executed an agreement containing that language. As the license agreements themselves stated, each individual licensee's rights and obligations were governed by that particular licensee's signed license agreement.

5. In each of my capacities at AT&T and USL, and during my entire tenure with those companies, I was trained to understand the intent and meaning of the standard software agreements under which AT&T and USL licensed the UNIX software product, and I was called upon to communicate that understanding to UNIX licensees and prospective licensees.

6. I came to my understanding of the intent and meaning of the UNIX software license agreements through, among other things, formal training involving, among others, attorneys Marty Pfeffer and Burt Levine (who were our principal legal contacts) and supervisors Otis Wilson, Keith Tester, and David Frasure; as well as informal discussions with my fellow contract managers/account executives, including, among others, Steve Vuksanovich, Evelyn

3

Davis and Chuck Greene. The UNIX licensing group regularly attended staff meetings, where we would discuss issues relating to the UNIX agreements.

7. Based on the above-described training and discussions with my former colleagues, as well as my own reading of the UNIX software license agreements, I know that those agreements were designed and intended to safeguard AT&T's valuable tangible and intangible property rights in UNIX with strict contractual protections that went beyond safeguarding just the source code in the original licensed UNIX product. For example:

a. the license agreements covered any works that resulted from our licensee's exercise of their contractual right to prepare modifications or derivatives of the UNIX product;

b. the agreements protected all of the innovations embodied in the licensed UNIX software, including, among other things, the structures, sequences, patterns, ideas, methods, and concepts; and

c. the agreements required each licensee to treat any work prepared with the benefit of having been exposed to our product -- regardless of how the

4

licensee further developed or changed that product -- as if it were part of our original licensed product.

8. During my tenure at AT&T and USL, I regularly communicated these core contractual protections to UNIX licensees and prospective licensees, including, for example, when I dealt directly with such parties in my capacities as an Account Executive and Contract Manager. In communicating the contractual protections to such parties, I often relied on consultation with AT&T's attorneys.

9. In my experience, AT&T refused to compromise its core intellectual property protections -- even in response to specific licensee requests and even at the expense of losing prospective licensees. I am not aware of any instance in which AT&T agreed (in any licensee agreement or any supplement, modification, or side letter thereto) to reduce AT&T's protection under a UNIX license so as to protect against the unauthorized use or disclosure of just source code.

10. Like many AT&T and USL Account Executives and Contract Managers, I handled educational licenses along with commercial and governmental licenses. The terms of all

5

of AT&T's UNIX license agreements -- commercial, educational and governmental -- contained substantially the same core protections for AT&T's technological innovations, and the training I received concerning those protections applied across the board to all of those types of licenses.

11. In November and December of 1992, in the case of Unix System Laboratories v. Berkeley Software Design, et al., I testified about the scope of the UNIX license agreement protections in connection with a lawsuit that USL had filed against one of our educational licensees. For example:

a. With respect to the treatment of modifications and derivative works under Section 2.01 of the UNIX license agreement, I testified to my understanding that the agreement required licensees to "treat the derivative or modified work they had created with the same care they would our own software product, meaning adhering to the same terms and conditions that were here." Transcript, p. 134.

b. I further testified: "I look at the modification as being anything that they have developed as a result of being exposed to our software product and

6

this could be something -- not necessarily another operating system, but it could be, or could simply be another application, but anything that was developed as a result of exposure to our product then should be treated as our product." Transcript, p. 223.

c. Concerning the scope of Section 2.01, I also testified that "if a licensee is exposed to our code and that licensee develops a modification, a derivative work, an application or any type of software product as a result of seeing our code, then that product should be treated the same as our software product." Transcript, p. 224.

d. Similarly, I testified that the UNIX license agreement "doesn't necessary [sic] mean you have to have copied the exact code. You can also copy an idea or method or concept that you have presented in a different form, because there's going to be contamination, because if you have exposure to our software product, using the code or not using the code, but you have seen

7

our code, that makes me think that that still in a way contains part of our software product." Transcript, p. 219.

e. With respect to whether the agreement protected against only the copying of source code, I further testified: "You can prepare derivative work and you don't necessarily have to include code from our software product, but based on the fact it was based on our product you must have had to have some exposure to it and that work would be contaminated by our product." Transcript, pp. 220-21.

f. Concerning the views of my former colleagues in UNIX licensing, I testified that my understanding of the license agreements had been supported by conversations I had with Chuck Greene, Evelyn Davis, and Steve Vuksanovich; that Mr. Greene had specifically advised that "If they see our code and develop something, then they need to treat it like ours"; that Ms. Davis believed that if a licensee "developed a product, an application, after seeing our code," then the licensee "needed to protect the

8

product the same as our software product"; and that Mr. Vuksanovich "was in agreement" with "the fact that the licensee should treat that application the same as our software product." Transcript pp. 228-29, 231-32.

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed: ______1/4/2004______
Greensboro, North Carolina

__________[signed]__________
Mitzi D. Bond


9


  


Mitzi Bond Declaration - as text | 107 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Educational -> no contamination
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 11:30 AM EST
The simple existance of educational licenses destroys the mental contamination
theory.

If AT&T intended that anyone who ever saw AT&T code would be restricted
from doing anything but code for AT&T why would the code be licensed to
educational institutions for general education?

The mind boggles at what SCO and their witnesses are able claim. If what she
claims is correct entire generations of programmers are now slaves for SCO.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Mitzi Bond Declaration - as text
Authored by: PenguinPride on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 11:36 AM EST
Is SCO trying to lose? Any competent attorney does not put forth a statement
from someone as full of holes as the one Ms.Bond gives. They check and double
check to see if her past statements impeach current ones or vice-versa. This
seems to be the legal work of someone who does not have any knowledge of UNIX
history and did not research the licensing terms, conditions, types and
definitions from the days of AT&T and/or BSD "owning" UNIX. As
many legal mistakes, both tactical and strategic, as SCO's attorneys have made
does SCO have an appeal on the grounds of inadequate legal representation? Is
that a possible strategy? Or is Boise Schiller just trying to get this thing
over with w/o losing too much money and it's become a learning project for
junior staff? There are just too many mistakes being made here by a law firm
that has (used to have?) a great reputation.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Mental Contamination...
Authored by: belzecue on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 11:36 AM EST
Do we have this one here, or need it?

http://alumni.eecs.berkeley.edu/~aoki/.admin/930108.oppose.html

MEMORANDUM OF LAW ON BEHALF OF DEFENDANT BERKELEY SOFTWARE DESIGN, INC. IN
FURTHER OPPOSITIONTO PLAINTIFF'S MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

"Not content to destroy one potential competitor, USL also seeks to keep a
stranglehold on the entire market by claiming that everyone who has had ever had
access to UNIX source code a group that include~ most experienced programmers in
the industry is "mentally contaminated" and may not develop any
functionally similar product, without first purchasing an exorbitantly expensive
license from USL. In accordance with this argument, USL requests this Court to
prohibit BSDI from hiring anyone who has had access to UNIX source code. USL's
request would not only require BSDI to fire all of its current employees, but
would make it difficult to find any qualified replacements. Having chosen to
widely disseminate its source code in order to build a market for its product
and having succeeded in making it an industry standard, USL cannot now claim
that everyone with knowledge of it is restricted from developing competing
products..."

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off Topic
Authored by: feldegast on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 11:38 AM EST
Off topic here
please make links clickable

---
IANAL
The above post is (C)Copyright 2005 and released under the Creative Commons
License Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0
P.J. has permission for commercial use

[ Reply to This | # ]

Corrections here please.
Authored by: red floyd on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 11:45 AM EST
N/T.

---
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a *CITIZEN* of the United
States.

[ Reply to This | # ]

IBM is VERY careful ...
Authored by: dkpatrick on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 12:02 PM EST
From personal experience as an IBM employee who worked with code NOT written by
IBM, we were very very careful to make sure the proper agreements were signed.
If there was any possibility of 'contamination' (the term we used), people
assigned to the project were picked to ensure they had no responsibility for
projects within IBM that might benefit from knowledge of the "foreign"
code. The term (pardon if this appears racist in this day and age) was to build
a "Chinese Wall" around the project.

After leaving IBM I worked for a company that derived their product from prior
IBM efforts. IBM reviewed the "derived" product to assure themselves
there was no IBM code. There wasn't since it had been entirely rewritten for a
different platform than the IBM source project.

The point is, IBM has historically made the right efforts to avoid a)
contamination and b) migration of their proprietary code into other vendors'
products.

---
"Keep your friends close but your enemies closer!" -- Sun Tzu

[ Reply to This | # ]

I looked--it does say "perjury" ...
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 12:43 PM EST
... where she signs. who gets to enforce that?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Mitzi Bond's roles and powers
Authored by: Tsu Dho Nimh on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 01:24 PM EST
"Contract Manager, Account Executive, Public Relations Associate, and
Public Relations Specialist." also "I served as the editor of that
newsletter (echo) for the duration of its existence."

I'm not seeing anything beyond the basic sales and advertising roles.
"Contract Manager" is not the same as "manager of the Contracts
division" - where I worked, it was like the document manager - someone who
could lay their hands on the right contract quickly. An Account Executive can
be anything from the main terms negotiator to the person who answers the
customer's complaints.

My guess: mid-range marketing staffer, handling the newsletter, chatting up
clients, doing PR. I see nothing indicating she had signature authority to
enter into or negotiate contracts (which Wilson did), nor any training beyond
the basic sales force stuff that everybody gets.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Mitzi Bond - What was her route from Novell to SCOG? NT.
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 01:28 PM EST

Have I missed it?

Brian S.

[ Reply to This | # ]

The media doesn't do 'fact checking'...
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 01:37 PM EST
"I can't understand why SCO thought this declaration would help them. A
little fact checking, and it sort of goes up in smoke." PJ, you of all
people should know that the media doesn't do 'fact checking'.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Mitzi Bond Declaration - as text
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 01:50 PM EST
So, under the SCO stand point, if I read any of their code all of my work after
that point is now a derivative. Does this also mean that others who read my
subsequent work are also producing derivative work? If so, would this not likely
mean that by simple exchange of sample code every modern piece of code is a
derivative? Linux, Windows, MacOS X, Oracle's database, Adobe Photoshop, etc. I
mean some fundamental ideas aren't even specific to the purpose of the code.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Was Ms Bonds testimony affected by mental contamination?
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 01:59 PM EST
It's possible that Ms. Bond remembers AT&T treating Unix in this way because
someone 'refreshed' her memory. Memories are quite malleable. There have been
numerous experiments demonstrating how easily many people acquire new memories
of things that never happened to them. Before this deposition ws made Ms Bond
could have spent a great deal of time with an SCO lawyer reviewing the 'facts'
as SCO sees them. When it came time for the deposition what had been unclear
memories were now crystal clear.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Where's the IBM connection?
Authored by: rand on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 02:10 PM EST
First, IBM is never mentioned in the declaration itself. For a dispute
involving a contract with IBM, it seems a bit off-base.

Second: "Contract Manager, Account Executive, Public Relations Associate,
and Public Relations Specialist" There is nothing there or the entire
declaration that suggests she ever designed, drafted, approved, negotiated or
signed any license contracts, espcially the IBM license documents.

Third, the editor of a company newsletter usually has no say on the content of
any official announcements.


---
The wise man is not embarrassed or angered by lies, only disappointed. (IANAL
and so forth and so on)

[ Reply to This | # ]

Extreme statements consign Declaration to the legal trash heap?
Authored by: jdg on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 02:40 PM EST
IANAL IMHO, some of the extreme statements about what her understanding is that
are directly contradicted by facts that are not really in dispute (e.g., the IBM
contract and echo newsletter are pretty clear) undermine her testimony.
Specifically, she looks like someone that is out of the loop and so why should
her observations on a subset of different contracts that she knows something
about tell us a fact is in dispute concerning the IBM contract. Once the
credibility on that issue is gone, her testimony unwinds and may be viewed as
irrelavent.

---
SCO is trying to appropriate the "commons"; don't let them [IANAL]

[ Reply to This | # ]

More Mitzi
Authored by: rand on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 03:35 PM EST
From an email quoted in alt.suit.att-bsdi ("What happened with AT&T's copyright clearing procedure?")
To: John Gilmore
From: Mitzi Bond

Charlie Thiel at our UNIX software development group in Summit called me back to say that his developers has examined the code that you sent. Their results were basically indecisive. There was nothing in either set of code to determine that it was solely AT&T's. There was a lot of similarity but not enough for AT&T to build a case to say that this was strictly AT&T code and its use in both instances is a violation of the copyright of our software.

So, she was at least somewhat involved in clearing software written by AT&T licencees (who were, of course "contaminated" by UNIX), and was apparently fully aware that "similarity" was not a defining factor in AT&T claiming code, but that it required "strictly AT&T code".

---
The wise man is not embarrassed or angered by lies, only disappointed. (IANAL and so forth and so on)

[ Reply to This | # ]

Mitzi Bond Declaration - as text
Authored by: tknarr on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 04:30 PM EST

Keep in mind one thing about affidavits and declarations: everything in them must be true, but not everything true must be in them. IBM's certainly going to respond to all these by pointing out all the inconvenient bits of truth SCO left out.

[ Reply to This | # ]

star-dot-h's School Days - Mental Contamination avoided
Authored by: star-dot-h on Thursday, March 03 2005 @ 05:38 PM EST
One of the reasons I paid such poor attention to my teachers at school was to
avoid such perfidious contamination. Reading this declaration I more fully
appreciate my teenage foresight.

So, remember kids, stay out of school, and try not to read anything other than
Marvel comics. Ah, the American dream.

---

Free software on every PC on every desk

[ Reply to This | # ]

Mitzi Bond looks like a "nobody"
Authored by: HockeyPuck on Friday, March 04 2005 @ 11:51 AM EST
Mitizi's job at A,T&T seems clear to me. Her role is basically a customer
service representative. That also explains some of her role with $echo.
Basically, she has language and customer service skills and A,T&T uses her
to work as a go between.

This is how I see it. Her bosses and attorneys go out and work with major
clients and negotiate contracts with those companies. It would be appropriate
for her to attend meetings to get to meet and know the customers as well as to
hear some things being discussed. I doubt she was at many, if any, high level
negiotations. If she was there; it was probably more as an observer or secretary
(of sorts). After everything is signed and filed; she becomes a low-level
"steward" of those contracts and a liason between those companies and
the upper managers and attorneys. She can answer basic questions and inquires.
She can do research; but she cannot interpret, change or negotiate any contracts
in any way. That's strictly her boss’s and the companies attorneys job.

So SCO basically subpoenaed a glorified "secretary" to clarified
A,T&T contractual terms. Mitzi would obviously be trained to clarify certain
contractual understanding. She would also be trained to repeat A,T&T's
common contract terms. She could not interpret any contractual meanings except
the basic company line and she would not be able to personally address
negotiated differences to individual contracts. She would also be given leeway
to make statements "beyond" what is actually in the contract because
her bosses would come to the accounts rescue if there was a problem. In fact,
this is a common tactic at some places. She tells them one story that is beyond
what are facts and her boss can come to the customer's rescue. They either
simply repeat what is actually in the contract and downplays Mitzi's remarks or
they could go as far as making it sound like A,T&T is doing the customer a
huge favor by reducing the terms to something more agreeable. In other words;
become the "hero" for the customer.

This would also explain her role as an editor for $echo. You wouldn’t want a
high level person in that position because they are either too important to be
doing this or simply don't have the time. A junior employee would and in Mitzi's
case, she would be a good candidate because of her skills.

That brings me to her comments about $echo. She said that $echo was not to be a
legally binding publication. But she also stated $echo is an
"official" A,T&T publication that is used to disseminate
"official" company information to their clients. As such I would think
$echo became a legal entity when they published contract clarifications. Besides
if the clarification was not supposed to be printed or was incorrect; there
would have been a retraction or clarification in later editions. A,T&T had
employees writing and editing $echo so they must have known what was being said.
No changes occurred so A,T&T agreed with the message and I would think this
makes it legal regardless of the publications main intention. But I'm not a
lawyer nor do I play one on TV. But I have slept at a Holiday Inn before.

[ Reply to This | # ]

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