Bonum Certa Men Certa

Latest Twists in the SCO Case: AutoZone Settlement and More

SCO



Summary: A SCO Trustee, Edward Cahn, wishes to end the case against AutoZone, but the Linux lawsuit stays for now, with or without McBride

THE firing of SCO CEO Darl McBride is an important development that we wrote about in [1, 2, 3]. But there is more stuff going on at the moment, starting with this from Groklaw:

SCO's Chapter 11 Trustee Moves to Settle AutoZone



Edward Cahn, the Chapter 11 Trustee now running SCO Group, wants to settle and be done with SCO v. AutoZone. He sees no value in further litigation. So he has filed a motion asking the court to approve the settlement he has worked out with AutoZone.

Can you believe it took this long? It's been in the Top Ten Stupidest Cases of All Time Hall of Fame since 2004. Evidently Mr. Cahn does not share Darl's gambling ways, nor his zeal to punish SCO customers who switched from Unix to Linux. SCO put AutoZone through an experience it never deserved, but it looks like all the horses are heading home to the barn. At last.


More on the subject from a Microsoft-friendly source:

At any rate, Schwartman says the firing of McBride, and the company’s announcement Thursday that it will settle claims against Autozone (AZO), indi ate the company may look to settle with Novell as well, which would ease legal costs for Novell and perhaps lead to “a redirection of legacy royalties” to Novell. Schwartzman maintains a “Buy” rating on Novell and a $6 price target.


There is a lot more coming from Groklaw, including Darl's fate. The title Carla chose is slightly different, saying that "Darl tries threats to get a job."

The same three appeals court judges who decided to send the copyright ownership issue in SCO v. Novell back to Utah for a jury trial, including the now-retired Judge McConnell, have denied the Novell petition for rehearing. Judge McConnell wrote the original ruling, so it's hardly a surprise that he would feel it was just right.


More from Groklaw regarding bankruptcy:

Update: Pachulski, Stang has filed a motion to withdraw as SCO's attorney, or as one of their bankruptcy attorneys:

9. The Chapter 11 Trustee has selected counsel in these cases and an application to approve that retention has been approved (Docket No. 914).

10. PSZ&J seeks leave of this Court to withdraw as counsel to the Debtors in these chapter 11 cases. The Chapter 11 Trustee is serving and is represented by counsel and the Debtors' interests are adequately represented.
So much is changing. Not to be cynical, but when the money runs out, if there is an opening, so do the lawyers ofttimes.


The local press writes about the Novell-SCO case:

Action by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday clears the way for a trial in Utah in a dispute between The SCO Group and Novell Inc. over the ownership of the copyrights to the Unix computer operating system.


This will probably be the last post that mentions McBride's epic departure, so here is a record from Reuters, a sort of ripoff of the article from Ars Technica, and a variety of other reports on the subject, including the statement that lawsuits are still SCO's present direction.

Perhaps the decision to pursue the six-year-old legal battle with IBM and Novell was fueled by a favorable ruling in August by a federal appeals court.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that SCO's argument had merit. The company maintains that IBM and Novell illegally used the Unix operating system to make a crucial improvement that turned the Linux system into a competitor.

Still, Lyman said SCO may have missed a golden opportunity to shed the bad blood it created in the Linux and IT communities.


More on Novell's role:

Which leads us back to Novell. And during this whole time, Novell's version has been that the Santa Cruz Operation -- the folks SCO acquired, not SCO themselves to begin with -- did purchase certain things from Novell, mainly the right to use the UNIX and UnixWare trademarks under controlled circumstances (see page 12, section C), but with Novell holding the leash on all of them. Novell insists they never sold off a controlling stake in UNIX to anyone. Plus, Novell's feelings vis-a-vis Linux are plain: they develop it, support it, and provide legal indemnification for its users.

There's a part of me that can't wait for the Novell trial, which promises to be either very long or very, very short.


Novell and IBM both refuse to speak about McBride's sacking.

Novell and IBM also declined to comment.


Linux Today has a sort of eulogy for McBride (also promoted here), which puts things in perspective.

Darl McBride, to the glee of many, is out of a job. I think this signals the real end of all The SCO Group litigation, because I think Mr. McBride was hired specifically to litigate rather than run a software company. SCO (Caldera back then) had a good management team in place led by Ransom Love, and they were given the boot to make room for Darl and his henchpersons.

Their cunning master plan failed, despite masterful gaming of the system and support from deep-pockets third parties who were happy to write checks, stay behind the scenes, and let Mr. McBride take the hits.


SCO used to contribute to Linux, just like Novell. It's reason to be equally cautious about Novell, which claims ownership of UNIX.

Recent Techrights' Posts

New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
 
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually