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G2's Motion to Intervene and Motion to Unseal Denied
Friday, April 29 2005 @ 06:57 PM EDT

Fresh from the courthouse, the news is that G2-Forbes-CNET's Motions to Intervene/Unseal have been denied by Judge Kimball.

Maureen O'Gara will just have to pack a bag and attend the court hearings, if she wishes to get her story straight, just like the rest of us. Judge Kimball has detailed some steps to take to make sure nobody seals anything inappropriately and/or is punished if they do.

The best news is that from now on, even if there is a sealed dispositive motion filed, the parties have to file a redacted version for us, the public, to read. As IBM reportedly pointed out at the hearing, they already have done that. I checked the IBM Timeline page and I counted 5 redacted documents filed by IBM (231, 232, 244, 256, 276). SCO has done it twice that I counted (291, 308), so this seems to affect SCO more than IBM. Nobody will be affected by that part of the Order until discovery is over, though, since no one is allowed to file any new dispositive motions until then.

End of that bizarre chapter in this story.

One ironic footnote: the free Pacer docket sheet reads as follows:

THIS CASE WILL NOT BE UPDATED AFTER APRIL 29
ACCESS TO THIS CASE IS AVAILABLE THROUGH PACER

Odd timing, don't you agree?

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

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF UTAH

CENTRAL DIVISION

___________________

THE SCO GROUP, INC.,

Plaintiff/Counterclaim-Defendant,

vs.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
MACHINES CORPORATION,

Defendant/Counterclaim-Plaintiff.

___________________

ORDER

Case No. 2:03CV294 DAK

___________________

This matter is before the court on G2 Computer Intelligence, Inc.'s ("G2's) Motion to Intervene and Motion to Unseal Court's File. CNET Networks, Inc. ("CNET") and Forbes Inc. ("Forbes") have also joined in the motion. A hearing on the motion was held on April 26, 2005. At the hearing, G2, CNET, and Forbes were represented by Andrew H. Stone. International Business Machines Corp. was represented by Amy Sorenson, and The SCO Group was represented by Brent O. Hatch. Before the hearing, the court considered carefully the memoranda and other materials submitted by the parties. Since taking the motions under advisement, the court has further considered the law and facts relating to the motion. Now being fully advised, the court renders the following Order.

The court declines to allow G2, CNET, and/or Forbes to intervene in this case. The court, however, sets forth the following requirements and admonitions to minimize the risk of overdesignating confidential documents, thereby maximizing the public's accessability to the documents filed in this case:

(1) Counsel for both IBM and SCO shall review the documents filed thus far in this action to determine whether any such documents may be unsealed. Counsel shall notify the court on or before May 27, 2005 as to which documents may be unsealed.

(2) All future dispositive motions and memoranda that are filed under seal shall be publicly filed with all confidential information redacted. Additionally, all non-confidential supporting exhibits shall be publicly filed;

(3) After May 27, 2005, the court will award reasonable attorneys' fees to any party that successfully challenges the opposing party's designation of a document as confidential after such document has been filed with the court and after having provided the party seeking confidentiality at least ten days to remove the confidential designation;

(4) Although the court does not have the resources to monitor whether each sealed document is appropriately sealed, the court hereby notifies the parties that if the court, in its regular consideration of future motions, becomes aware that material documents are improperly filed under seal, the court may issue an order to show cause why a particular document was filed under seal and may impose monetary sanctions for improper sealing of a document.

CONCLUSION

Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that G2, CNET, and Forbes' Motion to Intervene and Unseal Court's Files is DENIED. The court has set forth several requirements and admonitions to minimize the risk of the parties improperly filing documents under seal.

DATED this 28th day of April, 2005.

BY THE COURT:

___[signature]___
DALE A. KIMBALL
United States District Judge


United States District Court

for the

District of Utah

April 29, 2005


* * CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE OF CLERK * *

Re: 2:03-cv-00294

True and correct copies of the attached were either mailed, faxed or e-mailed by the clerk to the following:

Brent O. Hatch, Esq.
HATCH JAMES & DODGE
[address]
EMAIL

Scott E. Gant, Esq.
BOIES SCHILLER & FLEXNER (DC)
[address]
EMAIL

Frederick S. Frei, Esq.
ANDREWS KURTH
[address]

Evan R. Chesler, Esq.
CRAVATH SWAINE & MOORE
[address]
EMAIL

Mr. Alan L Sullivan, Esq.
SNELL & WILMER LLP
[address]
EMAIL

Todd M. Shaughnessy, Esq.
SNELL & WILMER LLP
[address]
EMAIL

Mark J. Heise, Esq.
BOIES SCHILLER & FLEXNER
[address]
EMAIL

Mr. Kevin P McBride, Esq.
[address]
EMAIL

Robert Silver, Esq.
BOIES SCHILLER & FLEXNER (NY)
[address]

Stuart H. Singer, Esq.
BOIES SCHILLER & FLEXNER (FL)
[address]
EMAIL

Mr. David W Scofield, Esq.
PETERS SCOFIELD PRICE
[address]
EMAIL

Mr. Michael P O'Brien, Esq.
JONES WALDO HOLBROOK & MCDONOUGH
[address]


  


G2's Motion to Intervene and Motion to Unseal Denied | 88 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
OT Here
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 07:20 PM EDT
For links, you may use this model (posted in HTML-Formatted Post Mode):

<a href="http://www.example.com">Your link text</a>

Remember to Preview it before submitting.

---
--Bill P, not a lawyer. Question the answers, especially if I give some.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Corrections here
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 07:21 PM EDT
If there are any.

---
--Bill P, not a lawyer. Question the answers, especially if I give some.

[ Reply to This | # ]

  • accessability - Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 08:22 PM EDT
If tCSOg was behind the push for this, it looks like it backfired
Authored by: jdg on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 07:21 PM EDT
Nice for us about the redacted versions (is this retroactive?). It seems that
this does not help tSCOg, although I am guessing that they are relieved in a
way.

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

[ Reply to This | # ]

G2's Motion to Intervene and Motion to Unseal Denied
Authored by: major_figjam on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 07:27 PM EDT
Gosh darn, how do these sneaky people on Groklaw and Yahoo find things out
before the
parties themselves?

Surely it can't be the nasty Court system in Utah leaking again?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Not quite the end
Authored by: overshoot on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 07:28 PM EDT
End of that bizarre chapter in this story.

Please note that the parties have until 27 May to redact the material that they have already filed.

We're gonna have a paaaarrrrty!

[ Reply to This | # ]

Any ideas ... ?
Authored by: AntiFUD on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 07:35 PM EDT

Why Andrew H. Stone Esq. doesn't appear in the Certificate of Service of Clerk?

How much bringing a Motion to Intervene & Unseal will have cost?

How likely is the possibility that IBM will bother to excercise their rights
under clause (3) of this order?

If this is #438 are we missing a couple of recent filings, or is it that I have
missed acouple in the last couple of days?

Thanks


---
IANAL - But IAAAMotFSF - Free to Fight FUD

[ Reply to This | # ]

G2's Motion to Intervene and Motion to Unseal Denied
Authored by: Steve Martin on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 07:47 PM EDT

End of that bizarre chapter in this story.

Can G2 / CNET / Forbes appeal this decision? What's the likelihood of an appeal being heard or granted?

---
"When I say something, I put my name next to it." -- Isaac Jaffee, "Sports Night"

[ Reply to This | # ]

G2's Motion to Intervene and Motion to Unseal Denied
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 08:21 PM EDT
I'm _very_, _very_ unclear about "sealed" vs."privileged".
MoG/G2 said "sealed" when she/it referred to "privileged"
documents; how do I understand this correctly? Where does the hare split?

[ Reply to This | # ]

One Reading
Authored by: maco on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 08:56 PM EDT
  1. it's obvious to all, including Kimbell, G2 in league with SCO
  2. Kimbell says, OK SCO, if you think something should be open to the public, here's a means to do so
  3. but, he continues, I will give IBM exactly the same opportunity
  4. and for the record, we're going to have these documents public as possible - I don't want to mess with this kind of thing again and don't you be the one to make me do it

[ Reply to This | # ]

  • One Reading - Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 30 2005 @ 01:16 AM EDT
G2's Motion to Intervene and Motion to Unseal Denied
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 09:12 PM EDT
More nonesense (sorry about the "missing link", too late, too
tired...):

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nf/20050429/bs_nf/33761

[ Reply to This | # ]

Kimball may be stuck
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 29 2005 @ 10:36 PM EDT
"(4) Although the court does not have the resources to monitor ... may
impose monetary sanctions for improper sealing of a document."

Unless Kimball can impose penalties on individuals rather than companies, his
threat of penalties is futile.

SCO will be bankrupt. They know it. They don't care. Therefore, they don't
care about monetary penalties. (The trick is for those involved to enrich
themselves and stay out of jail.)

The situation reminds me of the very bad boy who is told that he will be
suspended from school if he punches another child. "Let's see now; if I
punch Mary and make her nose bleed, I get a week off school. It's a win-win
situation. Where's Mary?"

This is how the whole case has unfolded. The judges are forced to treat tSCOg
as though it is rational, reasonable and acting in good faith. That's clearly
not the case. Little 'Johnny' has been been a very bad boy and richly deserves
the strap not a week off school.

[ Reply to This | # ]

The stats still favour IBM
Authored by: Night Flyer on Saturday, April 30 2005 @ 12:48 AM EDT
If IBM has submitted 100 times more documents in discovery than SCO and redacted
5, when SCO redacted 2 on a smaller quantity, I would argue that SCO has
redacted a higher portion.

Also, it appears that SCO is trying to embarass IBM as much as possible in
discovery and is seeking business sensitive documents in its discovery requests.


Since IBM sees Linux as an important part of its business strategy, it probably
doesn't want its strategy shown to its competitor (SCO), and IBM would
legitimately redact portions of documents.

I just shrugged my shoulders when I read that IBM has redacted more documents
than SCO, and said 'so what'.

---
-----------------------------
Veritas Vincit - Truth Conquers

[ Reply to This | # ]

Murphy: Why an SCO win is a slam dunk
Authored by: DWitt_nyc on Saturday, April 30 2005 @ 03:04 AM EDT
judge for yourself Mr. Murphy's leanings:

6/2003- Why an SCO win is a slam dunk and why you need not care

Linux vs. Unix

Articles on the IBM/SCO mess

also of interest is this link on his archive page, now removed:

An Email exchange with Ms. Groklaw on Minix, Linux, and Unix

perhaps PJ can provide this missing exchange from her archives...

-DW

[ Reply to This | # ]

say what?
Authored by: Franki on Saturday, April 30 2005 @ 03:51 AM EDT
<blockquote>
Maureen O'Gara will just have to pack a bag and attend the court hearings, if
she wishes to get her story straight
</blockquote>

Umm, when has O'Gara shown any desire at all to get her facts straight?

Seems to me she is quite happy to make it up as she goes along.

rgds

Franki

---
Is M$ behind Linux attacks?
http://htmlfixit.com/index.php?p=86

[ Reply to This | # ]

Not Specific enough.
Authored by: Franki on Saturday, April 30 2005 @ 03:59 AM EDT
This line worries me:

(1) Counsel for both IBM and SCO shall review the documents filed thus far in
this action to determine whether any such documents may be unsealed. Counsel
shall notify the court on or before May 27, 2005 as to which documents may be
unsealed.

It should have read, "Counsel for both IBM and SCO shall review all of
"their own" documents filed thus far.

SCO will probably spend half their time time making judgements on IBM's filings
instead of looking to their own.

These judges have still yet to learn that they need to be really explicit in
their instructions with this lot.

rgds

Franki

---
Is M$ behind Linux attacks?
http://htmlfixit.com/index.php?p=86

[ Reply to This | # ]

Pretty quick
Authored by: tangomike on Saturday, April 30 2005 @ 08:46 AM EDT
For those who lament the slow progress in this case I'd like to point out that
this was turned around pretty smartly by the court.

Before someone points out that the motion was filed months ago, I'll also point
out that the time from motion to hearing is provided so the parties involved can
prepare for it.

Judge K. gets an attaboy in my book.

---
Nothing screams 'poor workmanship' like wrinkles in the
duct tape.

[ Reply to This | # ]

G2's Motion to Intervene and Motion to Unseal Denied
Authored by: tredman on Saturday, April 30 2005 @ 10:53 AM EDT
I'd be suprised to see how MOG and the gang spin and editorialize this one?

a) As a victory because we made the judge reconsider the matter of sealed
documents, or
b) As a travesty, the way our first amendment rights are abused in this manner.

Either way, everybody fasten your seatbelts and get ready for some more
incisive, biting reporting. I've never known O'Gara, Lyons or any of them to be
at a loss for words (okay, maybe intelligible words), so I'm sure they'll have
PLENTY to say about this...



---
Tim
"I drank what?" - Socrates, 399 BCE

[ Reply to This | # ]

The Legal System does work!!
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 30 2005 @ 01:29 PM EDT
The Honorable Judge Kimball has made a very pragmatic decision. Anyone who
cannot live with this is being unreasonable themselves.

[ Reply to This | # ]

i don't understand the pacer comment
Authored by: jig on Saturday, April 30 2005 @ 04:08 PM EDT

i don't get this:
---------------------
One ironic footnote: the free Pacer docket sheet reads as follows:


THIS CASE WILL NOT BE UPDATED AFTER APRIL 29
ACCESS TO THIS CASE IS AVAILABLE THROUGH PACER
Odd timing, don't you agree?
----------------------

does this mean that all further documents are only offered on a paid for basis?

are there any usage restrictions on paid-for docs?

[ Reply to This | # ]

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