Did (Judge Alsup) think Lindholm was a lawyer? Why would he allow
Lindholm's legal opinion but not Schwartz's?
Since Lindholm's
email was not prompted by corporate legal, and not directed to them -- at least,
not the .save backup copy that Google released to Oracle in discovery -- then it
was not protected by by client-attorney privilege. That it stated what appears
to be a legal opinion by a layperson is irrelevant to its admissibility as
evidence that there were engineers at Google who thought there might be need for
an explicit license from Sun, and that Google management were aware of their
concerns.
It goes to state of mind and wilfulness, if the jury buys it.
During cross Google can certainly ask Mr. Lindholm if he were an attorney, and
probably did.
(/me speaking as element of the set of engineers who are not
attorneys.)
--- Real Programmers mangle their own memory. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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