A pint of wine to a vintner is as a pippin to a costermonger
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Nigerian court stops OLPC
THE BODS at the One Laptop Per Child charity might be forgiven for thinking that the Nigerian legal system has shown itself to be an enforcement arm of the 419 fraudsters.
In August a United States-based Nigerian company LANCOR made a claim that the OLPC charity was using a laptop it invented. It did not provide any evidence, it just demanded $20 million to go away.
When OLPC told the outfit to go forth and multiply, LANCOR sued the charity for $20 million in damages in a Nigerian court. It asked the court for an injunction preventing the charity from distributing its laptops to Nigeria's kiddies, unless OLPC paid up.
According to Groklaw, to make sure that the injunction went through, LANCOR made sure that the judges did not hear any evidence from an opposition to its case. It did this by not telling anyone that the hearing was going ahead.
With neither the OLPC or its codependents being present, LANCOR managed to get its injunction.
Others listed as co-defendants, like the Growing Business Foundation, have been served by LANCOR and since had their offices searched for "evidence".
As Groklaw points out, OLPC can ignore the court order if it likes. The charity says it will fight against any injunction or court action.
There are some other strange aspects to the case. LANCOR claims that the OLPC PC infringes on its patents and the move cost it $20 million. However the OLPC had not been released when LANCOR made its demands for cash and therefore could not have made $20 million.
The founder of LANCOR, Ade Oyegbola, was convicted of bank fraud in Boston in 1990 and served a year in prison. He has claimed he will file a similar case in the US, but has failed to do so. Clearly he is not as confident about swaying US judges with his arguments.
More here. µ
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Ade Oyegbola just go and die ok, thanks.

Charity hmm wow they must be making a pile of profite there eh, ID10T.
I think I, like most other people out there, was carried away by this whole "good-deed" image of OLPC. Now, don't get me wrong, I think OLPC is great in many ways. But can someone please tell me why we even thought of shipping them to... ahem, Nigeria? Thousands, if not millions, were scammed by them, and what do we do? "Oh, let's send them cheaper equipment, so they can learn how to f*** us as early as possible and as cheaply as possible."
I say - tell the whole Nigerian government to go screw themselves and ship this product to someone who really deserves it.
OLPC should offer to pay LANCOR -- as long as LANCOR fronts the small but reasonable bank wire xfer fees, inspection fees, paperwork fees, foreign payment fees, export tax fees, special assessment fees, paper recycling fees, custom official bribes, etc.