08.27.09
Will Edward Cahn Allow SCO to Pursue Litigation Against Linux?
Summary: Edward Cahn is appointed trustee of SCO just after SCO gets another day in court
TWO DAYS ago we wrote about the newer verdict which might grant UNIX to SCO. Some news sites wrongly interpreted this development as SCO winning a case, also forgetting that SCO is in bankruptcy and now has a legal babysitter. Here is the newly-appointed trustee for SCO.
Mr. Cahn is now in charge of the SCO litigation decisions.
Can SCO even afford any more litigation?
There is additional coverage of the court’s decision in:
• The dead shall rise: Appeals victory sends SCO/Linux trial back to square one
• 10th Circ. Strips Novell Of Unix Copyright
• Ownership of Unix copyright headed to trial
• SCO vs. Linux: Unix copyright dispute enters the next round
• SCO Wins Small Victory in UNIX Copyright Case
• SCO vs. Linux: Unix copyright dispute enters the next round
Litigation between the SCO Group and Novell over the copyright to Unix grinds slowly onwards. The Court of Appeals has affirmed that SCO must pay approximately $2.5 million in royalties to Novell, but has remanded the question of whether the copyright to Unix was passed on to SCO when the distribution rights were sold, back to the Utah District Court for retrial.
• Novell, SCO ready for another day in court over Unix fight
Novell, SCO ready for another day in court over Unix fight
[...]
The case traces its root to 1993 when Novell paid more than $300 million to purchase UNIX System Laboratories, which owned the UNIX copyrights and licenses.
• Colorado At 3 A.m. (AP: also here, here, and here)
A federal appeals court on Monday reversed a judge’s decision that granted the copyright of the Unix computer operating system to Novell Inc. A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a judge erred in August 2007 by granting the copyright to Novell. The panel ordered a trial to determine ownership. By P. Solomon Banda.
• SCO Group wins Unix copyright appeal
SCO Group Chief Executive Darl McBride, who’s been demonized by the Linux faithful, was happy with the decision.
That last one is rather funny. “Demonized”? When someone does what SCO did, it doesn’t require deamonisatiom. SCO refused to show any proof of its allegations and was also unable to prove anything for six years. When is it time to say “time’s up”?
As the comment here states, this whole case has been draining Novell’s coffers in vain:
Considering the legal fees and Novell’s decreasing likelihood of getting anything out of SCO in the end, maybe it’s a suicide pact.
In yet another article about UNIX turning 40, Novell’s role gets the the following mention:
AT&T developed numerous enhancements for UNIX System V, such as file locking, streams, interprocess communication, and merged features from Xenix, BSD, SunOS and System V into its UNIX System V Release 4. Shortly after producing it, AT&T sold all its rights on UNIX to Novell, which combined its NetWare operating system with the System V Release 4 code to produce UnixWare. Novell tried to use it as a competitor to Windows NT, but its efforts were unsuccessful.
Novell also tried to use SUSE as a competitor to Windows, but its efforts were cut short when a form of collusion using software patents was chosen over competition based on technical merit. █
