Chapter 121 Happy Cooperation
Delia walked out of the office of the regular meeting and walked towards the independent reception room exclusive to partners. Through the bright glass, Kane saw Delia walking towards the reception room, stood up first, and faced Tommy who was sitting next to him. With Sophia said:
"Ms. Keith is here."
The two also stood up modestly and waited for the other to walk in. Sophia couldn't hide the excitement on her face, and even squeezed Tommy's little finger with her hand to express her feeling that she was about to meet her idol, and Tommy -Hawk, the bastard, finally had a time when he believed in himself.
Although there are many practicing female lawyers in the United States, most of them work in firms established after World War II. Those old white-shoe firms may absorb some female lawyers, but often those female lawyers have no chance of promotion.
It is not gender discrimination or inequality. On the contrary, the profession of lawyers is very equal in the United States. It is because of equality that it is more difficult for female lawyers to stand out.
Male lawyers can spend vacations with those clients and politicians, spend time together, and even go to high-end clubs to prostitute, so as to get closer to each other, but what should female lawyers do? Even if she doesn't mind, the other party will.
Therefore, in addition to cooperating with the work, regardless of clients, politicians, and bosses, they are basically in a state of complete separation from female lawyers. He widened the distance from those male lawyers, and in the end he had no choice but to rely on his experience working in a white shoe firm, so he switched to an ordinary firm with a high salary, and finally had nothing to do with the word elite forever.
This is also the reason why the birth of a female partner in a white shoe elite law firm is regarded as major news in the industry. After all, the last time a female partner was born among the top 20 law firms with the title of white shoe in the United States, it has to be traced back. More than 20 years ago, in 1959, a woman named Elizabeth Meag was able to do it at the second-ranked Skadden Law Firm in the United States.
The second is Delia Case, who is walking towards the reception room at this time, with neat silver hair and wearing a small black lady's suit. She joined Davis Polk Law Firm in 1971 and spent eleven years. Became the second female partner of an elite white shoe firm.
These two women are the idols of all law school girls in the United States, and Sophia is no exception. Not all girls have the opportunity to meet these two. For a girl like Sophia who is studying at Stanford Law School, if there is no recommendation from an important client I don't even have the qualifications to enter a firm like Davis Polk for an internship.
For law students, if you are not from Harvard Law School, Yale Law School or University of Chicago Law School, there is basically a 95% possibility that you will not have any intersection with this white shoe firm in your career, unless you become their client.
"Tommy? Sophia?" Delia walked in and said their names generously: "Good morning, I'm sorry I'm late, today's regular meeting took a long time."
Tommy offered his hand: "Nice to meet you, Ms. Keith."
"Ms. Keith, can I take a picture with you when we finish talking about business? I even bought a Polaroid camera just to meet you." Sophia waited for Tommy to shake hands with him, her face full He stepped forward in reverence and stretched out his hand to Delia.
Delia nodded with a smile: "Of course it's no problem. Seeing you is like seeing myself twenty years ago. That's what I said when I first met Ms. Elizabeth Meag."
After she let go of Sophia's hand, Delia sat on her seat, flicked her hands on the table, and said very fast:
"OK, there's always a few minutes of delay, so we'd better make up for the delay, the pleasantries are over, let's talk about business, Kane, get us some coffee, Actor Company, right? Mr. Tommy Hawke The software company I founded, I have read the information I have so far. According to the situation of the same or similar cases before the United States Law of the Sea, what Actor did is undoubtedly a violation of copyright law. You copied the interface of Lotus. , functions, and even the other party has a special edition, you thoughtfully inserted the code written by the boss of the other party's company in it, paying tribute to the other party, and by the way left tangible evidence for the other party, right?"
Tommy nodded and did not retort: "But if we are just plagiarizing, I don't think you are interested, Ms. Keith."
"Of course, when the lady from Actor called Holly Keener contacted me, she mentioned some public opinion points, such as women's employment and equal rights, and then said that all your income seems to be used for charity, and it was not included. My own pocket, that’s the main reason why I’m interested in listening to it.” Delia stared at Tommy Hawke who was seated again with a calm face and said:
"I want to hear what kind of contributions Actor has made to women's employment, equal rights and other activities, so that they can gain a foothold from the moral level. If the other party does not want their image to be damaged, they may be able to Before the trial, complete the settlement."
Tommy clenched his hand into a fist and put it on his lips, biting it lightly. After about five or six seconds, he put his hand down and said to Delia: "I probably thought about you according to what you said just now, Ms. Keith. You think that Actor Company is infringing, so you want to understand the influence of Actor Company in those public welfare activities, and make sure that the profits earned by Actor Company did not fall into my pocket, but continue to support public welfare undertakings. In this way, even if During the court session, when it is learned that everything the actor does is for public welfare activities and not purely for profit, you can also make a fuss from this point, convince the jurors, and finally get the most favorable verdict, or in other words, it is better than worrying about reputation damage. The damaged counterparty reached a settlement.”
"Based on the current understanding, this is the best result." Delia nodded and said.
Tommy looked at Delia and asked a question: "I guess you are referring to the previous case, which is the 1981 Stern Game Company sued Almighty Video Game for infringement?"
"That's right, this case has become a precedent for American courts to rule that computer programs infringe copyright, and it is determined that the copyright of computer programs includes images, sounds, and codes." Delia flipped through the notebook at hand and said affirmatively.
Tommy pursed his lips: "Very well, first of all, I am sure that OSS does not infringe on the sound and code. There is only one unresolved question, and that is, should the operation interface of a computer program be counted as an audiovisual work picture? Happened In the case in 1981, two games had almost the same sound, picture, and code. It is very normal to be convicted of infringement, but the computer program is different. It is not like a game as an audio-visual work that provides changeable pictures. It only has An operation interface, it is not even a screen, there is no painting, it is just the layout of menus and commands, this point is not defined at present, I think if you ask your colleagues who are proficient in copyright law and literary works law to discuss, you will find this point is very important. Fun, the interface, is it an operating habit or a patent protected by copyright.”
"Second point, if the answer to the first point is operating habits, then the second question is, is software reverse engineering illegal? That is to say, I made a similar software based on Lotus software, but the specific code to achieve recovery is different from It is completely different, is this behavior illegal? The computer software industry also does not have clear regulations, friendly reminder, reverse engineering in other industries is not illegal, refer to the 1972 Yacht War.”
"The third point is the compatibility issue. OSS can open files generated by Lotus software, but please note that it is only in read-only form. My software will remind customers with obvious signs that WKE files are only opened in read-only form. This function is only to help The customer is doing a favor, lest he run two softwares in a hurry, so it is compatible with read-only to open that software. Any modification of the Lotus software file by OSS is the customer's own behavior, which has nothing to do with the company. We set a read-only limit, just a limit It may be easier to crack, and if the other party insists on this infringement, we can delete this function that was originally intended to improve customer work efficiency."
Delia listened to Tommy say his thoughts, thought for more than ten seconds, and finally shook her head: "Tommy, you have obviously done a lot of understanding of related cases with Sophia, according to what you said, your code, voice It is not plagiarized from Lotus, it is just an operation interface. You need to let the court give an answer. Should this be counted as a user-friendly operation habit or a software patent protected by copyright? This is the key point. You want to make it a software karma, right?"
Tommy nodded: "Yes, this is very important."
"Let me tell you the brutal truth, you sent a letter of plea, that is, without objection, accepting the case in Massachusetts court against a firm of Hale & Dole, not much different from ours in the industry The old white shoe firm, the most important thing, the headquarter of that firm is in Boston, this kind of case you want the court to make a biased judgment, the main problem is to get the jury, believe me, those judges, clerks, jurors No one is really proficient in copyright law, and you don't have to be proficient in all laws to be a judge in the United States, but you need to settle them, get it? You want a twelve-member jury in a Massachusetts court to support you, and at least four key jurors must be settled in advance The jurors are the four people who can influence the final vote of the other jurors. I guess Lotus has already taken care of all this. People pay attention, but I tell you, money can solve everything, you and Actor will fail, and continue to be unknown.” Delia took a sip of the coffee that Kane helped to deliver, and continued:
"Unless you tell me now that you have plenty of funds, you can take out 50 million or 100 million for me to mobilize all my forces and help you manage everything in Massachusetts, from investigation and evidence collection to lobbying jurors, at all costs, even help You try to move the court to California, otherwise no one cares about whether your user interface is a point of debate whether it is a custom or a patent. Do you think that the reason why those precedents become precedents is because it is worth it? The answer is, No, in all commercial laws in the United States In China, only when the two sides are evenly matched and the camp continues to expand, will there be a chance to become a precedent by virtue of its influence."
Seeing that Tommy didn't speak, Delia shrugged and put down the coffee:
"So, I suggest you talk to me about those public welfare activities, increase reconciliation or win sympathy points from the jury, and finally fight for no compensation, just stop the infringement and hand over relevant data."
"That is to say, if the opponent hits us, we will fall completely, right? There is no way to fight back." Tommy lowered his head and rubbed his hands, as if talking to himself or asking a question.
"I don't want to fall on the first blow, and I don't want to settle with the other party. If I remember correctly, Ms. Keith, there is an amicus curiae system in the United States, right. A friend of the court can provide relevant information or legal opinions voluntarily. Send the legal documents to the court to assist the proceedings and let the judge and jury know what the dispute is." Tommy raised his head and said to Delia.
Delia frowned slightly: "You mean, you found a few classmates from Stanford Law School to help you stand in court, listen to me, Tommy, in Massachusetts, if you use this method to try to influence the judgment, you will only To irritate the court and the jury, as I said just now, is their territory, and you have to exert a strong enough influence."
"No, one hundred and seventy-six registered non-profit legal advocacy organizations with a total number of more than 30,000 members are willing to submit documents to the court on this lawsuit as friends of the court, and give legal assistance to the court for the infringement in this case. A comprehensive elaboration of 176 arguments, intervening in the judgment of the case, because it is a non-profit organization and a legal advocacy organization at the same time, the documents of these organizations will be more valued by the court. In other words, if the court makes the same decision as all courts These non-profit legal advocacy organizations can directly challenge the higher-level courts, challenging the judges and jurors to make unclear and unclear rulings." Tommy Hawke looked at Delia:
"Do you think 176 non-profit organizations and the special attention of more than 30,000 people are enough to block the attack from the state court and the circuit court? If not, you can fly to the Massachusetts court at any time to hold a press conference More than a hundred prostitutes, followed by unmobilized forces include the 20,000 surviving members of the SSD Fraternity and Florida's reserve force."
"One hundred and seventy-six? Non-profit legal advocacy organization?" A look of surprise flashed across Delia's face. She couldn't help but flip through the file folder, and then glanced at Actor's information: "And they also prepared detailed information. Explanation document?"
An ordinary small company, founded by Stanford students, passionate about public welfare, nothing more.
It is not surprising that there are friends of the court in a lawsuit, and it is not surprising that a company with a lot of money directly finds hundreds of friends of the court to help them stand, but at this time, the 176 court friends mentioned by Tommy Hawk Friends of the Court are non-profit legal advocacy organizations. In other words, there are 176 organizations registered for the purpose of calling for various legislation or advocating legal reform. The second is this non-profit legal advocacy organization.
The most important thing is that these organizations must have their own lawyers, that is to say, the organization must have a fixed donation to hire lawyers to be in charge of the organization's legal firm, and this document submitted to the court must also be a professional hired by the organization. Lawyer drafting.
It is absolutely impossible to be the kind of grassroots team established by three or two promoters.
"One hundred and seventy-six university women's rights organizations, if the Stanford University Women's Equality Promotion Association is excluded on the grounds that they are closely related to the litigants, that is one hundred and seventy-five." Tommy stared calmly. Looking at Delia: "Do you think these are enough to block..."
Delia interrupted Tommy's words affirmatively: "It's enough to catch the other party by surprise. If you show these hole cards, Lotus can only try to delay the time and spend a lot of time trying to counteract the influence of these friends of the court on the court. , but I am curious about another question. From this incident, I realized that if you can piece together such a force to help your small company besiege Lotus, an upstart in the software industry, it is not likely that you can make mistakes like copyright infringement people."
"This is another issue I want to talk about. Remember the special edition in the hands of the other party? When the other party is caught off guard, trying to reconcile or delay this time, and Actor wants to counter-suit Lotus for plagiarism, they must maintain normal software updates, no matter what they launch. Is the new function plagiarized? Believe me, there must be a function similar to OSS in the update plan, and I am sure that the programmers of Lotus must have seen my version of the software. As long as they have seen it, it is an opportunity to splash dirty water, of course , this requires you, lawyer Case, to show your ability and find a way to get the programmer's testimony from Lotus during the evidence collection stage or the other party is willing to be a witness." Tommy said to Delia:
"My company does not make profits, and I personally do not make profits. Naturally, I will not make mistakes. Even if I lose the infringement, I can use non-profits to minimize troubles. It is nothing more than closing the company and handing over the data. My own morality Good performance, I will never go to jail, but I am not an ordinary bug, I am a firefly, I am not making a profit, infringement can make the jury forgive me morally, but I want to light up The Lotus company, it is a commercial company, commercial companies plagiarism, or even suspected plagiarism, in the case of enemies and opponents everywhere, it is fatal."
Delia tried hard to digest for more than ten seconds before she slowed down her speech, and her eyes changed from the indifference before to more appreciative, but she still expressed her opinion truthfully:
"If the other party realizes your intentions and announces the cancellation of the update, your long-planned full-strength attack will be in vain, and you will get nothing if you counter-claim. You might as well wait for the other party to officially update and launch the counter-suit before you can claim compensation."
Tommy made a gesture of spreading his hands towards her: "No, I don't want to take anything, no compensation, Actor is a small company that focuses on public welfare, not for compensation, not for settlement fees, Lotus company wants to settle our dispute The counterclaim is very simple, to disclose its development progress and code to prove its innocence. Actor’s disclosure of OSS software has no effect on me, but if Lotus is disclosed, it means that its clothes will be taken off, and the company’s main business will be seen by everyone. Light, and if it refuses to make it public, at this time, large software companies that are salivating over the Lotus market and looking for opportunities to make trouble, as long as they are not idiots, they will naturally join in the second wave of amicus, based on the fact that Lotus has exposed We will give them a more violent attack, and beat Lotus to the point of being severely injured without using Actor's hands, and we will never stop."
"You have done so much, but you have never really thought about earning benefits for yourself? Even at this point, you and the Actor Company are just a convenient tool for those big companies, and it is free." Delia's voice carried Feeling a little excited, he subconsciously licked his lips.
Tommy laughed: "No, at that time, those big companies will take advantage of the war between the little bug Actor and the elephant Lotus to solve the second problem that may be included in the computer software industry jurisprudence. Should software standards be unified? , or split, if Lotus refuses to make it public, it means that it has chosen to split, big companies naturally know better than me how to attack Lotus, eating meat does not need to be taught by others, eating is a biological instinct."
"In 1979, IBM almost became the same elephant as Lotus. In the end, it would rather lose part of its interests than become an elephant besieged by a crowd. It sued Oracle and quickly withdrew the lawsuit, not because it wanted to settle with Oracle. Rather, it is waiting for the legal provisions to be perfected, to help it apply a protective color, and then to attack Oracle in a safe manner, and try to avoid the situation of Lotus today. It is clear that it has done nothing wrong, but these companies in the industry just want to take the opportunity to eat It." Sophia suddenly remembered that Tommy told her about the case in 1979 that had just happened and disappeared quickly. At this time, she looked at Tommy with a blank expression beside her in shock, and said:
“From the day Actor was established, it was basically...to help those companies that build an ecological environment in your mouth to find prey and replace it.”
"The result I want is that no matter whether software standards are unified or divided in the future, it has nothing to do with Lotus. It will be excluded and replaced by a weaker and harmless Actor company. With this case, it will replace it and participate in the computer industry. Software standards, especially the formulation of subdivision project standards for office software." Tommy ignored Sophia's words, but looked at Delia:
"At that time, I can say to everyone who supports Actor, justice has defeated evil, and we have defeated capital."
Delia let out a heavy breath: "Actor is a small company in the eye of the storm. Are you sure it will still exist after Lotus is eliminated?"
"Okay, it's only weak when I need it. I have asked members of the SSD Brotherhood headquarters to help contact SSD alumnus Henry Perot. His EDS has been serving as a contractor to provide office system support to the US government , although he has no self-research, he will be interested in intervening in software standards. If he is not interested, I have a friend. At that time, Actor has passed the most difficult time for me. Do invest in Actor."
"Very well, stop enjoying the bright future. I am concerned about one thing now. How much are you going to pay me? Tommy." Delia interrupted Tommy and laughed: "I am very interested in this case Interested, but obviously don’t want me to help you if you don’t have money.”
Tommy also laughed: "How happy we are to talk about justice and public welfare, but in the end it is inevitable to be materialized. Ms. Keith, your greedy face makes me a little sad."
"My hourly consulting fee is 260 yuan, calculated according to the time of the previous case process, the evidence collection and disclosure stage, the total work time is about 120 hours, and the cost is about 32,000 yuan, which does not include the lawyer I hired as a lawyer. Other lawyers form a team and hire a professional investigation agency to collect evidence. During the trial stage, the total working hours of my personal work is about 175 hours, and the cost is 46,000 yuan. Your counterclaim or appeal will take about 120 hours. Twelve thousand yuan, each other in the courtroom to fight for the winning rate for the employer, or to set up obstacles for the other party, may need to apply to the court to initiate various motions, this is a variable expense, rough calculation, just want me to accompany you from beginning to end You need about 200,000 yuan to go through the whole case, and the lawyers and evidence collection fees of other teams probably need at least 200,000 yuan, which is a total of 400,000 yuan. It will rise rapidly at any time." Delia smiled at Tommy and said:
"Of course, you don't need to pay the full amount, but if you want to sign a contract with this law firm, you must pay at least 100,000 yuan upfront."
"If you don't mind giving me a detailed quotation and don't worry about being charged by me publicly, I think this price is very reasonable. You know that I am a public-spirited person, and it is unlikely that I will spend so much money myself, so... Tommy rubbed his hands: "I have to go get someone else to take the money out, like sell the software to the supporters in Florida, like to those one hundred and seventy-six organizations? Or some other payment method, but Don't worry, I will never forfeit the money I owe to my lawyer."
"The company was founded with funds from Stanford University's entrepreneurial support funds, and the cost of initiating a lawsuit with Lotus was based on selling infringing Lotus software to raise funds. If you lose the lawsuit, you don't need to bear the guilt personally. If you win, you will gain all the fame and fortune." Delia looked at the coldly dressed young man in front of her, as if she didn't know how to evaluate him, she could only sigh in the end:
"You shouldn't be bullying those poor programmers, you should study political science and be a politician."
"If I were a politician, you must be careful, Ms. Keith, politicians don't pay bills easily." Tommy stood up, walked in front of Delia, and extended his hand to her: "Good cooperation."
Delia ignored Tommy's teasing, got up and shook hands with Tommy: "It's a pleasant cooperation."
Too lazy to divide chapters, the second and third updates are released together, about 7,000 words~
(end of this chapter)