Virtual Linux Open source News

Stewart Rules: Novell Wins! CASE CLOSED!

Here you go, munchkins. Judge Ted Stewart has ruled for Novell and against SCO. Novell's claim for declaratory judgment is granted; SCO's claims for specific performance and breach of the implied covenant of good fair and fair dealings are denied. Also SCO's motion for judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial: denied. SCO is entitled to waive, at its sole discretion, claims against IBM, Sequent and other SVRX licensees.

CASE CLOSED!

Jury Decides for Red Hat, Novell in Software Patent Lawsuit

IP Innovation originally filed litigation against Novell and Red Hat in 2007. The Acacia Research subsidiary accuses the two companies of infringing on three patents that described technologies for sharing workloads among remotely located computers.
One by one, intellectual property lawsuits against companies that use open-source software in their products are falling by the wayside.

A jury in East Texas May 3 declared that user-interface patent infringement claims filed against Red Hat and Novell by IP Innovation, a subsidiary of Acacia Research and Technology Licensing, were "invalid and worthless."

IP Innovation originally filed the litigation against Novell and Red Hat in 2007, claiming that the companies had infringed on three patents that described technologies for sharing workloads among remotely located computers.

SCO says judge should order Novell to transfer Unix copyrights

The SCO Group is asking a federal judge to order Novell Inc. to turn copyrights to the Unix computer operating system over to SCO despite a jury verdict that said a 1995 sales agreement did not include those assets.

Lindon-based SCO told U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart that the jury did not address the issue that he is to decide when it reached its verdict March 30 in the long-running legal battle over the ownership of software that is used by many businesses

On SCO, Linux and What Will Happen When the exFAT Lady Sings

Is it possible that the bitter SCO saga is finally coming to an end? "It is not over until the fat lady sings," said blogger Robert Pogson. "The fat lady has not only sung, but left the building and is at the Denny's down the street," quipped Slashdot blogger hairyfeet. "All that is left is to carve up the corpse and call it a day."

A further note about SCO v. Novell

I see that the jury’s decision produced the expected vacuous cheering from the groklaw hordes - but the groklaw people have it backwards: this decision was bad news for Linux and open source advocates.

The reason for this is that SCO’s case against IBM is based on the contracts, not the copyrights - the whole copyright thing came up because SCO’s lawyers tried to establish a a market value for their claims by having SCO demand licensing fees for the intellectual property they claim IBM let loose.

SCO Still Manages to Get Back at Novell

Ah, sweet irony. On the day that Novell won against SCO on the basis of an agreement that most people (the die-hard Linux contingent excepted) think transferred IP, it lost to Microsoft on the basis of an agreement that most people (except the judge) think didn't transfer IP, and as a topper SCO is involved in that decision too.

Jury Sides With Novell in Long-running SCO Battle

A jury rules in favor of Novell in the long-running dispute with SCO over Unix.The jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada ruled that Novell owns Unix copyrights that SCO has tried to assert as its own.

Jury says Novell owns Unix copyrights

A federal jury Tuesday found that Novell Inc., and not The SCO Group, owns the copyrights to the Unix computer operating systems used by many businesses.

The decision ends a long-running legal battle between the two companies and between Lindon-based SCO and IBM. It also likely means the end of SCO, which already is teetering in bankruptcy court.

Lawyers for SCO had contended Novell owed it millions of dollars for lost sales revenue and that it was due punitive damages on top of that. SCO claimed it lost as much as $215 million as a result of Novell's actions, which stretch back to 2003.

SCO Novell Jury Decision Pending

A Utah federal jury is deliberating over the copyright ownership case between the SCO Group and Novell.

The fate of the long-running battle between the SCO Group and Novell over the copyright ownership of Unix is in the hands of a Utah federal jury, which has been deliberating over the issues in the case.

A verdict in favor of Novell could seal the fate of the SCO Group, which sued Novell in 2004. Since then, the case has had several twists and turns. Today there is little left of SCO beyond its hope that a victory in the case will produce a large monetary judgment. A loss could threaten its existence.

Novell to present case in trial against SCO Group

Now it's Novell Inc.'s turn.

After listening to witness after witness for The SCO Group, a federal court jury may begin hearing testimony as early as today from witnesses for Novell. They will address which company owns the copyrights to the Unix operating system.

Because the jury may side with SCO on that question, Novell's task also is to try to limit the damages it could potentially pay for interfering with SCO's ownership rights. Lindon-based SCO is trying to convince the jury that interference cost it tens of millions of dollars.

The case is being followed intensely in some financial circles because of the recent offer by Elliott Associates to buy Novell in a $2 billion deal. But potentially a jury verdict in favor of SCO also could restart its program to offer licenses to commercial users of the rival Linux computer operating system that the SCO says makes use of Unix's copyrighted code.

SCO vs. Linux: The jury has been informed

The second week in the Salt Lake City jury trial between the SCO Group and Novell about the copyright to Unix has uncovered further surprising details of this never-ending story. First, SCO's former CEO Darl McBride, who was called as a witness, confirmed that SCO didn't need the debated copyrights for the development of its family of operating systems, and that the copyrights were only required for the licensing business of the vendor's SCOSource division. Then the previously unaware jury members were informed that a judge had already delivered a ruling in this matter, but that his decision had been overturned. The trial will go into its third week while, at the same time, Novell's Brainshare[1] conference will be held in Salt Lake City.

SCO vs. Linux: The story so far

Six years ago the open source movement faced the possibility that the long term future of Linux might be seriously threatened when the SCO Group decided to sue IBM over alleged Linux kernel copyright infringement

Note: Skip to the end of this article for a list of stories[1] The H has published about the SCO Group court cases

Back in 2003, on March the 6th, the SCO Group filed a $1 billion US suit (later increased to $5 billion) against IBM for allegedly “devaluing” the SCO Group version of the Unix operating system. SCO alleged that IBM had without authorisation incorporated copyright code from SCO Unix into Linux kernel code.

Those in the free and open source movement of course saw this as an attack on open source and a potential body blow for Linux. IBM joined by Red Hat, filed a counter suit against the SCO Group, while the SCO Group sent letters to various companies warning them of copyright violations and attempted to extract license fees from Linux users. By these actions and through various connected statements the SCO Group implied that it owned the copyrights to the original AT & T UNIX code and its derivatives, having acquired these rights through a 1995 Asset Purchase Agreement from Novell. (The original agreement was between Novell and the Santa Cruz Operation. In 2000 Caldera acquired UnixWare from the Santa Cruz Operation, later Caldera changed its name to the SCO Group.)

Ownership of Unix Copyrights in Hands of Utah Jury

A Salt Lake City jury has started deliberations in a case pitting two software companies that each claim ownership of the Unix computer operating systems used by large corporations.

The SCO Group, of Lindon, Utah, filed a lawsuit in 2004 asserting Waltham, Mass.-based Novell Inc. sold it copyrights when it allowed SCO to take over the business of servicing Unix technology in 1995. Novell says it sold the servicing rights, not the copyrights.

SCO is seeking damages of up to $215 million in U.S. District Court.

SCO looks to make a comeback

Embattled Unix vendor SCO Group has landed a new round of funding which the company says will help it emerge from bankruptcy.

The company said that un-named investors have agreed to provide it with $2m ($2.18m) in funding to help continue its legal and commercial efforts.

SCO vs. Linux: SCO trustee fires SCO boss Darl McBride

Edward Cahn, the SCO Group's Chapter 11 trustee[1] appointed by the bankruptcy court, on Friday dismissed former SCO boss Darl McBride. This is according to an SCO press release[2], currently available as an SEC document only, and which is not listed on the company's own Press Releases[3] page.

According to the press release, McBride had his employment terminated on 16th October, although a compulsory statement[4] to the US Securities and Exchange Commission gives the date of McBride's dismissal as 14th October. Both sources cite the elimination of the positions of President and CEO as the reason for McBride's dismissal. The reports note that the remaining management team will continue to work closely with the Chapter 11 trustee, who is to present a new restructuring plan. According to the compulsory SEC statement, the company is continuing to look for investors and is looking to sell non-core parts of the business.

Endgame might be afoot for SCO Group

The SCO Group and its battle against IBM and Novell over ownership of computer code may have taken a decisive turn Tuesday when a U.S. Bankruptcy Court official sought permission to dissolve the company and sell off its assets.

The filing in bankruptcy court in Delaware came just as attorneys for the Utah company were preparing for arguments today in an appeals court in Denver. A favorable decision there would reverse a ruling that caused SCO to seek bankruptcy court protection in the first place.

The trustee appointed by the federal bankruptcy court in Delaware asked the presiding judge for permission to liquidate The SCO Group instead of allow it to reorganize and emerge from court protection.

Trustee Roberta A. DeAngelis told the court the company has “continued to rapidly lose money” since filing for bankruptcy two years ago. In addition, the company has had three failed attempts to sell itself or propose a plan to reorganize and continue in business.

Fedora 10 available in Linux Identity Pack!

Linux Identity Pack edition is devoted to the latest version of Fedora. The magazine comes with two bootable installation discs and contains a lot of
useful articles helping you to install, configure and use Fedora Linux operating system.

Find more information here:

http://www.linuxidentity.com
http://www.linuxidentity.com/us/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5031

SCO�s Appeal Hits the Fast Track

It's beginning to look as though we may get to hear this year if the federal appeals court buys the idea that Novell owns Unix.

SCO's appeal of the Utah district court's 2007 summary judgment finding in Novell's favor has been put on an expedited schedule by the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver.

That means that a decision could be handed down sometime in the fall.

The Denver court has told SCO that it can file its opening brief as soon as it's ready; it doesn't have to wait for the March 6 deadline SCO was seeking.

SCO Hikes Prices

Ahead of any auction of its assets, SCO has doubled the price of older versions of its OpenServer and UnixWare operating systems so it can "continue to focus on upgrading and maintaining the latest versions of SCO Unix."

The current versions of OpenServer 6 and UnixWare 7.1.4 will maintain their current pricing.

The tags on OpenServer 5.0.6 and earlier versions and UnixWare 7.1.3 and earlier will increase two-fold.

And starting March 6, SCO will implement a 20% price increase for trade-ins and upgrades to OpenServer 5.0.7.

It says upgrades to UnixWare 7.1.4 from version 7.1.1 will change to match upgrade pricing from UnixWare 7.1.2 and UnixWare 7.1.3. Upgrades from OpenServer 5.0.6 to OpenServer 6 will also be changed to match upgrade pricing from OpenServer 5.0.7.

It said it was committed to extending "the lifecycle of older releases as long as we can in order to protect the investment our partners and customers have made in older versions of our operating platforms."

SCO seeks to auction off assets

SCO has asked a bankruptcy court to allow it to auction off its core assets in order to raise enough operating capital to finish its legal battles. The plan is to sell off its OpenServer product line and Mobility Assets mobile business division using a public auction. The company claimed that investment groups have already expressed interest in buying the assets. "We believe that this approach will maximise customer and shareholder value, and expedite the investor process," said Jeff Hunsaker, president and chief operating officer of SCO operations, in a statement.