When the U.S. First Circuit ruled in favor of Lotus again, Robert Morley became more and more anxious, and Lotus seemed to be sliding into the abyss step by step without realizing it.

This lawsuit is getting more and more attention because all users who use OSS are invisibly bundled, and they are more concerned about the end result of this lawsuit than the average person.

Although Jim Manz left Lotus, his lawyer was not completely replaced by the new Byron Kennedy, of course, he is no longer the lead lawyer, Byron Kennedy hired the white-shoe lawyer of Skadden Law Firm, a figure who was enough to be Robert's teacher to take over the case, and Robert is now only a member of the team, responsible for some auxiliary work.

The personable Byron Kennedy appeared outside Robert's office door with brisk steps, gently buckled the door panel, and asked him affectionately, "Robert, do you have time?" ”

"Of course." Robert was curious that the other party would actually come to see him, since Jim's resignation, Lotus had always called him to make contact, and it was the first time that the new vice president had come to the door in person.

He got up and poured a glass of water for the other party, and then looked at the man with the Kennedy family's iconic nose with doubts in his eyes: "So, Mr. Kennedy, how do you have time to come here, if there is a work arrangement, you can let someone else call me and let me know." ”

"The other party has appealed to the Supreme Court, and the other party's counterclaim has also been transferred to the Supreme Court, what do you think about this issue?" Byron Kennedy sat down on the couch opposite Robert, gently moved his cervical spine, and asked Robert as if chatting.

Robert's face was a little puzzled, and now it is useless to ask his own opinion, the whole world knows that Lotus has been bitten to death, but the two founders of the company and the Kennedy family guy in front of him can't see clearly, Byron Kennedy is still stepping up his efforts, lobbying politicians to help Lotus intervene in the lawsuit as an amicus curiae.

"Well, the Supreme Court is now asking the parties and amicus curiae who are concerned about this litigation to file paperwork and answer a few questions before the final pre-trial conference, and it seems that Congress is also considering scheduling a hearing, which is very unfavorable to Lotus."

This is not an alarmist statement, and the judges of the Supreme Court directly threw out four questions for the parties and the amicus curiae to answer before the pre-trial conference, and reached some consensus agreement on the same views during the pre-trial conference.

The first question is how to treat non-profit infringement and Section 506 of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the second question is whether the software interface is a protected patent or a user custom, the third question is whether the hundreds of thousands of users who succumb to the free temptation of Actor to use and learn OSS software are suspected of participating in the infringement, which leads to the expansion of the impact of the infringement and causes more losses to Lotus, and the fourth question is the standard definition of computer software patents and copyrights.

The amicus curiae on the Lotus side are all politicians or public officials, and they know their answers with their butts, which is not a professional reference for the courts.

But with the defeat of Actor, in addition to the 176 non-profit organizations, there is now an organization called EFF that intervenes as amicus curias, and at the same time, IBM, Compaq, Microsoft, MicroPort, Bolland and other software companies have all intervened as amicus curias, all of whom are practitioners in the software industry, and from a professional point of view, the judge will of course refer to the answers of these software practitioners.

These amicus curiae have taken the Supreme Court very seriously, and even Congress has set up a committee for the case, and is preparing to invite some software companies to attend the hearing as witnesses to listen to some of their doubts about the case and give their professional opinions, and now everyone involved realizes that they have come to an important moment, which is the opening of the trial.

Except for Lotus, the two nerds who are still happy to win two cases.

What does this mean, it shows that the other party has prepared everything, several major software companies in this industry have discussed, and together they opened their mouths and shredded Lotus, which has become the No. 1 in the spreadsheet software industry, and after biting it to death, everyone is sitting down to discuss industry standards.

"That's what I'm going to talk to you about, I'll ask the company to spend another five million on lobbying and public relations, and you or Hale & Dole have no strong people in this area to do public relations, and I can allocate a part of this money to pay the lobbying firm you recommend." Byron Kennedy said to Robert.

"Mr. Kennedy, do you really think we still have a chance to win? I don't know what your Chief Attorney promised you, but it seems to me that we don't have a chance of winning at all, and the former Vice President, Jim Manz, was aware of the problem and chose to resign. Seeing that this guy still didn't give up and continued to take out the money to prepare for public relations, Robert couldn't help but lower his voice and asked the other party:

"Can Lotus pay all those big software companies to support Lotus, let Lotus participate in their games, and choose to abandon Actor? No way. ”

"Jim Manz is a good-natured bastard, Robert, I think you and he are somewhat similar, but you obviously don't realize how the game is going to play, let me tell you, I already knew that Lotus didn't have a chance, but that didn't prevent me from being the vice president of this company, and during this time, I made my friends make a fortune, and you think I'm ready to turn the tide? No, I'm just using Lotus money to maintain my own connections, and my friends have long known it, so the first two lawsuits contributed to Lotus. Seeing Robert remind himself that he had no chance of winning, Byron Kennedy laughed:

"Losing the lawsuit doesn't conflict with us making money from this lawsuit, right, it's like losing the lawsuit in the end, Lotus will also pay you, my friends are not grateful to Lotus, but they all thank me, and even after losing the lawsuit, we should continue to let Lotus take the money out to lobby for legislation, the reason why I keep you in the team is that I think I will become friends with you, lawyers will become politicians sooner or later, and I believe that in another ten years, you will also consider becoming a parliamentarian who asks for the people's lives."

Seeing each other's smiles, Robert couldn't help but think of what Jim Manz said when he said goodbye to himself after resigning: "Sooner or later, those two nerds will be emptied of their wallets and end up on the streets." ”

Comparing Jim with this Mr. Kennedy, Robert feels that Lotus has survived until now because they hired Jim, and as soon as Jim left, the whole company immediately changed from a software giant to a fat in the industry, and everyone knew that Actor was wrong, but they would stand on that side, and only after biting Lotus to death with Actor did they declare this behavior wrong, and we must legislate to improve it to prevent this from happening again, and even their own vice president is just trying to bite a piece of self-fat.

"Then what else can I say, I thank you for your trust on behalf of my powerful friends, they will definitely do their best." Robert sighed, dispelling the occasional discovery of conscience, and said with a smile to Byron Kennedy.

After the last update was uploaded, I sat in front of the computer until now, and only coded out 2,000 words, and I was stuck until I was dead and alive~ I felt that there was a problem with every word written, but I couldn't find the problem~ Go to sleep first, so as not to die suddenly~ Wake up and continue to code......

(End of chapter)