Re: Linux's legal world after SCO

["Oliver Wong" <owong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message 
news:2613492.TqhSxVDyQL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> __/ [ John Bailo ] on Wednesday 23 August 2006 04:39 \__
>
> > Oliver Wong wrote:
> > > "John Bailo" <jabailo@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> > > news:GJ6dnRvhz_uMtHbZnZ2dnUVZ_oednZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > > What kind of monsters are these people?
> > > >
> > > > "During one of those last long nights working to deliver DOS 2.0 in
> > > > early 1983, I am told that Paul Allen heard Gates and Ballmer
> > > > discussing his health and talking about how to get his Microsoft
> > > > shares back if Allen were to die.
> > > >
> > > > Maybe that?s just the sort of fiduciary discussion board members have
> > > > to have, but it didn?t go over well with Paul Allen, who never
> > > > returned to Microsoft, and over the next eight years, made huge
> > > > efforts to secure his wealth from the fate of Microsoft. "
> > >
> > >    I thought this was pretty standard.
> >
> > Standard?
> >
> > To oust the person who taught you how to use computers in High School?
> >
> > This is human?
>
> I concur. Oliver's analogy is not suitable. It's not a like-with-like
> comparison when the hypothesis is almost fictional. Here you talk about an
> already-ill man. And he's not just a business partner. Although Ballmer
> seems like a more cannibalistic person than Gates, Gates' behaviours, as
> people describe is 'offline' (i.e. not on stage) personality, makes this
> highly probable.

   I guess (both of) you are reading more deeply between the lines than I 
am. I don't see any attempts to "oust" someone, nor to accelerate their 
death or anything like that. The way I imagined it, they started Microsoft 
when they were younger and more naive. They didn't include a "forced selling 
of preferred shares upon death" clause in the contract because they hadn't 
thought of it at the time. Now that they're older, they see the value of 
such a clause. Seeing as how this wasn't in the original contract, what 
legal options they had, if any, of retrieving those shares.

   I also imaged that Allen and Gates had a difference of opinions, based 
on Allens reaction. Presumably Gates had asked for a voluntary sales of the 
share first and Allen had refused.

   - Oliver