It's Final: SCO Loses, Novell Wins
After five years of litigation between SCO and Novell, the final judgment from the U.S. District Court in Utah is that the rights to Unix belong to Novell. SCO, which is already financially stressed, owes Novell around 2.5 million dollars.
On November 20, the Utah court dismissed a long list of SCO's claims that included breach of contract, copyright infringement and unfair competition. SCO, originally Santa Cruz Operation but also known as Caldera, began litigation in the spring of 2003 with a billion dollar lawsuit against IBM and other worldwide entities. Its claims on UNIX and part of Linux were already made as far back as 1996, when Novell was selling UNIX licenses to SCO. Novell reacted with a countersuit in the summer of 2005 to resolve the ownership rights. The Utah court already decided against SCO in August 2007 as to code ownership, a clear round one loss. Shortly thereafter, SCO filed for bankruptcy and was dropped from the NASDAQ stock exchange. In July 2008, the court ordered them to pay Novell 2.5 million dollars in licensing fees. The two parties then settled on $625,486 to come out of an SCO trust.
As if the court case and bankruptcy proceedings weren't enough, SCO faces still further challenges. To possible license infractions against additional entities the Court added, "Novell is entitled to direct SCO to waive claims against IBM, Sequent, and other SVRX licensees; Novell is entitled to waive such claims on SCO’s behalf; and SCO is obligated to recognize such a waiver." Shortly before the court ruling, SCO tried to extract certain parts of the testimony to use in an appeal, but the ruling went against them: "The remaining portions of SCO’s claims for Breach of Contract (Count II), Copyright Infringement (Count IV), and Unfair Competition (Count V) are voluntarily dismissed with prejudice, without the possibility of renewal following appeal."
SCO can appeal and Novell is certainly prepared for it. But the current ruling is a definite triumph for Novell in all its details. Unlike SCO, Novell can even act on claims in a retrial that Novell voluntarily dropped. Certainly some of the trial observers on Groklaw would wish it: "Novell might want to appeal the judgment from July that SCO had the right to enter into the Microsoft and SCOsource end user licenses. I know I would like them to." As to further comments about Novell: "...who'd blame them for wanting to forget they ever met anybody called SCO?"
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Thousands of Linux Servers Infected with Stealth Malware Since 2021
Perfctl is capable of remaining undetected, which makes it dangerous and hard to mitigate.
-
Halcyon Creates Anti-Ransomware Protection for Linux
As more Linux systems are targeted by ransomware, Halcyon is stepping up its protection.
-
Valve and Arch Linux Announce Collaboration
Valve and Arch have come together for two projects that will have a serious impact on the Linux distribution.
-
Hacker Successfully Runs Linux on a CPU from the Early ‘70s
From the office of "Look what I can do," Dmitry Grinberg was able to get Linux running on a processor that was created in 1971.
-
OSI and LPI Form Strategic Alliance
With a goal of strengthening Linux and open source communities, this new alliance aims to nurture the growth of more highly skilled professionals.
-
Fedora 41 Beta Available with Some Interesting Additions
If you're a Fedora fan, you'll be excited to hear the beta version of the latest release is now available for testing and includes plenty of updates.
-
AlmaLinux Unveils New Hardware Certification Process
The AlmaLinux Hardware Certification Program run by the Certification Special Interest Group (SIG) aims to ensure seamless compatibility between AlmaLinux and a wide range of hardware configurations.
-
Wind River Introduces eLxr Pro Linux Solution
eLxr Pro offers an end-to-end Linux solution backed by expert commercial support.
-
Juno Tab 3 Launches with Ubuntu 24.04
Anyone looking for a full-blown Linux tablet need look no further. Juno has released the Tab 3.
-
New KDE Slimbook Plasma Available for Preorder
Powered by an AMD Ryzen CPU, the latest KDE Slimbook laptop is powerful enough for local AI tasks.