[Am-info] Novell challenges SCO's Linux claims

[Fred A. Miller]

Somehow, it must be proven that MickySoft is behind SCO and it's actions!

Fred

Novell challenges SCO's Linux claims

By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 28, 2003, 10:11 AM PT

update Novell, the second in the chain of four companies to own rights 
to the Unix operating system, is challenging the copyright infringement 
claims that the current owner of those rights, SCO Group, is making 
against Linux.

In a letter to SCO released Wednesday, Novell asserted that it retains 
Unix patents and copyrights, demanded that SCO reveal where Unix source 
code has been copied into Linux, and raised its own threat of legal 
action to compensate for damage that it says has been done to customers, 
programmers and companies using Linux.

"To Novell's knowledge, the 1995 agreement governing SCO's purchase of 
Unix from Novell does not convey to SCO the associated copyrights," 
Novell Chief Executive Jack Messman said in the letter to SCO Chief 
Executive Darl McBride. He said that SCO evidently realizes this, 
because "over the last few months you have repeatedly asked Novell to 
transfer the copyrights to SCO, requests that Novell has rejected."

But SCO Group said that that issue is beside the point, because the 
company bought full rights to the Unix intellectual property, including 
its copyrights, patents and the right to enforce those patents, 
according to Chris Sontag, head of the SCOsource effort to derive more 
money from the Unix intellectual property.

"We have enforcement rights to any appropriate patents that are still 
viable and related to Unix," Sontag said in a Tuesday interview. He said 
that Novell and AT&T, the original creators of Unix, still had some Unix 
patents, but that SCO has "all the rights and control of all copyrights 
and contracts."

SCO's claims are the basis of a $1 billion lawsuit against IBM that 
alleges that Big Blue misappropriated SCO's Unix trade secrets by 
building Unix intellectual property into Linux and violated its Unix 
contract with SCO. More recently, SCO has claimed that Unix code has 
been copied line-by-line into Linux, sometimes obscured to disguise its 
origin, an accusation that cuts to the core of the open-source 
philosophy that underlies Linux.

SCO recently sent threatening letters to 1,500 of the world's largest 
companies, saying use of Linux could make them the target of legal 
action based on copyrighted Unix source code allegedly copied into Linux.

Novell's move came as SCO reported results for its second quarter of 
fiscal 2003. SCO reported a net income of $4.5 million for the quarter, 
the company's first profit, on revenue of $21.4 million. About a third 
of that revenue came from SCO's licensing programs, the company said.

Patents aren't a part of SCO's suit against IBM, but Sontag said SCO 
doesn't rule out the possibility of adding patent-based claims to its 
suit in the future. In any case, the company believes that it has a 
stronger position with its claim that IBM's actions breached its 
contract with SCO.

"Copyrights and patents are protection against strangers. Contracts are 
what you use against parties you have relationships with," Sontag said. 
"They end up being far stronger than anything you do could do with a 
patent."

Sontag said SCO, based in Lindon, Utah, plans in June to show specific 
code copied from Unix into Linux to analysts and others who sign 
nondisclosure agreements.

But Novell attacked SCO's refusal thus far to disclose what code was 
allegedly copied. "It is time to substantiate that claim or recant the 
sweeping and unsupported allegation made in your letter. Absent such 
action, it will be apparent to all that SCO's true intent is to sow 
fear, uncertainty and doubt about Linux in order to extort payments from 
Linux distributors and users," Messman said in the letter.

In addition, Novell raised its own legal threats against SCO.

"SCO's actions are disrupting business relations that might otherwise 
form at a critical time among partners around Linux technologies and are 
depriving these partners of important economic opportunities," Messman 
stated. "We hope you understand the potential significant legal 
liability SCO faces for the possible harm it is causing to countless 
customers, developers and other Linux community members. SCO's actions, 
if carried forward, will lead to the loss of sales and jobs, delayed 
projects, canceled financing and a balkanized Linux community."

Novell's challenge is the strongest so far to SCO's actions. Provo, 
Utah-based Novell has a strong interest in Linux's future: It is 
building a new version of its NetWare operating system around a Linux core.

Open-source advocate Bruce Perens lauded Novell's move. "Today, the 
company has done us a tremendous service by stomping upon an obnoxious 
parasite," Perens said in a statement. SCO "has loudly and repeatedly 
asserted that they were the owner of the Unix intellectual property, all 
of the way back to AT&T's original development of the system 30 years 
ago. They've lied to their stockholders, their customers and partners, 
the 1,500 companies that they threatened, the press and the public."

http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-1010569.html

-- 
Fred A. Miller
Systems Administrator
Cornell Univ. Press Services
fm@cupserv.org, www.cupserv.org