![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Meanwhile, over at Groklaw...
2005-08-01 08:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mdlbear... Novell has, finally, fired off (hence the icon) a response to SCOX's "slander of title" lawsuit. Get yourself over to Groklaw and read these three articles.
SCO, sometime after filing its lawsuit against IBM alleging Unix code illegally inserted into Linux, filed a "slander of title" suit against Novell (the company that bought the rights to Unix from AT&T, and later sold some of those rights to the Santa Cruz Operation (now called Tarrantella), which then sold its Unix licensing business to a failing Linux distributor called Caldera, which changed its name to The SCO Group and, after discovering that Unix was still losing out to Linux, reinvented itself as a litigation and extortion company. The aim of the slander of title suit was to get Novell to transfer the Unix copyrights thatCalderaSCO claimed were rightfully theirs.
As we can see in Novell's counterclaims, they never transferred the copyrights to Santa Cruz in the first place -- that would have been too expensive to the struggling company. Instead, what they sold were, among other things, the right to use Unix code in their own UnixWare product, and the right to administer new and existing Unix System V licenses in exchange for a 5% commission. Late in 2002 SCO sent several letters to Novell asking for the copyrights to be transferred; Novell refused. (In early 2003 SCO went ahead and sued IBM anyway, apparently hoping for either a quick settlement or a buyout. IBM, however, refused to play along and fought back. Oops.)
Meanwhile, SCO started sending letters to its Unix customers demanding that they buy expensive licenses for SCO "Intellectual Property" allegedly in Linux. They actually sold at least three licenses: one to Sun, one to Microsoft, and one to a hosting company called EV1. This netted some $40M, most of which has gone to fund their ongoing litigation. Of course, the SCO "IP" involved is, presumably, the same Unix System V for which they're presumably getting 5%, with the other 95% going to Novell. Oops.
Novell is now asking for copies of the Sun and Microsoft licenses, which SCO has refused to provide (for reasons that should be obvious), as part of their contractually-permitted audit of SCO. Here's the good part: they're asking for their unpaid license fees! And furthermore, "110. Novell also seeks an order from the Court attaching SCO's assets pending adjudication of this claim because SCO is quickly dissipating its assets" [i.e., on fradulent lawsuits]. If Novell gets that, SCO is suddenly out of cash, out of the game, and out of luck; presumably they go back to being a Caldera.
SCO, sometime after filing its lawsuit against IBM alleging Unix code illegally inserted into Linux, filed a "slander of title" suit against Novell (the company that bought the rights to Unix from AT&T, and later sold some of those rights to the Santa Cruz Operation (now called Tarrantella), which then sold its Unix licensing business to a failing Linux distributor called Caldera, which changed its name to The SCO Group and, after discovering that Unix was still losing out to Linux, reinvented itself as a litigation and extortion company. The aim of the slander of title suit was to get Novell to transfer the Unix copyrights that
As we can see in Novell's counterclaims, they never transferred the copyrights to Santa Cruz in the first place -- that would have been too expensive to the struggling company. Instead, what they sold were, among other things, the right to use Unix code in their own UnixWare product, and the right to administer new and existing Unix System V licenses in exchange for a 5% commission. Late in 2002 SCO sent several letters to Novell asking for the copyrights to be transferred; Novell refused. (In early 2003 SCO went ahead and sued IBM anyway, apparently hoping for either a quick settlement or a buyout. IBM, however, refused to play along and fought back. Oops.)
Meanwhile, SCO started sending letters to its Unix customers demanding that they buy expensive licenses for SCO "Intellectual Property" allegedly in Linux. They actually sold at least three licenses: one to Sun, one to Microsoft, and one to a hosting company called EV1. This netted some $40M, most of which has gone to fund their ongoing litigation. Of course, the SCO "IP" involved is, presumably, the same Unix System V for which they're presumably getting 5%, with the other 95% going to Novell. Oops.
Novell is now asking for copies of the Sun and Microsoft licenses, which SCO has refused to provide (for reasons that should be obvious), as part of their contractually-permitted audit of SCO. Here's the good part: they're asking for their unpaid license fees! And furthermore, "110. Novell also seeks an order from the Court attaching SCO's assets pending adjudication of this claim because SCO is quickly dissipating its assets" [i.e., on fradulent lawsuits]. If Novell gets that, SCO is suddenly out of cash, out of the game, and out of luck; presumably they go back to being a Caldera.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-01 12:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-01 12:53 pm (UTC)