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Feature: Legal
SCO Group at it again, this time targets Novell
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CommentsApparently, the contract signed a while back between the two companies is now being called into question by SCO's law firm, Boies, Schiller and Flexner, LLP. Novell and SCO have had a ongoing argument over fine print in the contract; Novell filed a claim with the U.S. copyright office over the code in dispute, so now SCO has responded with a lawsuit.
"We haven't yet read the actual filing, so there's nothing for us to comment on at this time," Novell Director of Press Relations Bruce Lowry said Tuesday afternoon. "What I will do is refer you to our Dec. 22 statement on our UNIX copyright registrations."
The statement says in part that "contrary to SCO's public statements, as demonstrated by this correspondence, SCO has been well aware that Novell continues to assert ownership of the UNIX copyrights."
Novell also has made public some of that correspondence with SCO on this matter.
A Slashdot reader, voicing the thoughts of many people, commented that "it looks like SCO has finally ditched their failing product line in favor of 24/7 litigation and PR work."
SCO's complaint requests an injunction and "damages against Novell for copyright misrepresentations and alleges a bad faith effort by Novell to interfere with SCO's intellectual property rights to UNIX and UnixWare." Among the allegations in the suit:
- Novell has improperly filed copyright registrations in the United States Copyright Office for UNIX technology covered by SCO's copyrights.
- Novell has made false and misleading public claims that it, and not SCO, owns the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights.
- Novell has made false statements with the intent to cause customers and potential customers to not do business with SCO.
- Novell has attempted, in bad faith, to block SCO's ability to enforce its copyrights.
- Novell's false and misleading representations that it owns the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights has caused SCO irreparable harm to its copyrights, its business, and its reputation.
SCO said an injunction would require Novell to assign to SCO all copyrights that Novell has "wrongfully registered, prevent Novell from representing any ownership interest in those copyrights, and require Novell to retract or withdraw all representations it has made regarding its purported ownership of those copyrights."
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on SCO Group at it again, this time targets NovellNote: Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content.
Or the whole acronym for that matter?
(I think I understand the rest, but you never know.)
or better said
Wot Da Phuck Evah... girlfriend
*snaps*
*moves neck like a chicken*
But either way, the more press the better. Linux needs exposure. People will hear the name, then start thinking about it more and more. And so when they hear the name, they will go "Oh yeah...". Even tho they have no experience with it, the name recognition will give the name of Linux some relevance.
Hopefully, this conflict will also educate. I mean, what's more attractive, closed source with no sense of control, or open source, where you have sense of ownership?
Everything SCO does promotes Linux rather than harms it. The absolute worse they could do is to illegalise Linux western hemisphere, but thats next to impossible. Realisticly however, they could prove there was their IP in Linux and Linux would be forced to purge SCO's property. And that's ok. It will make Linux stronger.
Besides how does one choose a side in a legal case? It's not like you are campaigning for a candidate, or getting "the word" out. A judge and/or jury usually decides cases based on evidence, not popular opinion. This kinda plays out like a crappy made for TV movie, you all need to get girl friends. (that's what all the OSDN personal ads are for!)
Lots of cases get "reviewed" because of popular opinion.
It used to be "popular" to divide the white/black people, need more reminders..?
most recently the stoning of a woman was prevented, because of popular (interntional)opinion
And why not choose sides, the law is nothing more than a written opinion to which the majority complies with or agrees to, and clearly people can disagree thats why laws change.
It would seem to be the next logical step... well, logical isn't really the correct word, but you see what I mean.
Error - The SCO Group is not Santa Cruz Operation
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on January 21, 2004 09:54 AMRe your comment:
"Apparently, the contract signed a while back between the two companies..."
Caldera International renamed themselves The SCO Group intentionally to mislead people and the legal system into believing that they are the original company that purchased the rights to license UNIX and UNIXWARE from Novell.
They are different companies. There are specific terms in the Asset Purchase Agreement between Novell and the Santa Cruz Operation that reverted specific rights back to Novell in the event of a change control (which has occurred).
Don't fall prey to another SCO Group deception!
Now I'm off to ponder about who I should sue and about what<nobr> <wbr></nobr>...
wtfe
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on January 21, 2004 07:38 AM#