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News SCO loses to Novell over Unix copyrights

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Da Dego, 13 Aug 2007.

  1. Da Dego

    Da Dego Brett Thomas

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  2. plagio

    plagio What's a Dremel?

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    I don't get it. Why does Novell have the rights over Unix ?
    Does that mean that Sun Solaris, SGI IRIX, IBM AIX are all licensed by Novell ?
     
  3. zoom314

    zoom314 Minimodder

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    If they aren't already, Maybe they soon will be, Unless Novell is extremely magnanimous.
     
  4. Techno-Dann

    Techno-Dann Disgruntled kumquat

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    No, IBM just made a convenient target, until Novell stood up and said that they were the real owners.

    You must understand, this entire case isn't based on copyright infringement - it's a puppet company (backed by M$) taking a shot at Linux (via Unix, via IBM and Novell). ESR tears the key point of the whole thing apart in great detail - I hope you speak C, because you'll need it to understand the code.

    If I understand the situation correctly, Novell bought the core Unix development group from AT&T. At that time, there were dozens, if not hundreds of Unix-like OSes on the market - a real AT&T Unix license cost a lot of money for not much code, so there were lots of free (or less expensive) versions that worked all but exactly the same.

    One of these versions was bought by the company that became SCO - there were two or three name changes in there. They licensed code from IBM, which IBM later donated to the Open Source movement. The conditions of the licence were ambiguous - it wasn't clear if IBM was letting SCO use the code, or if IBM was giving SCO the code.

    SCO would have faded into obscurity (thanks to the rise of Linux and other free Unixes), but this not-so-little company named Microsoft noticed that they had a potential case against IBM, and by extension, all the Unixes that used the code that IBM donated. SCO sued, Microsoft provided serious financial help (that year, 2003, is the only one in which SCO turned a profit), and the rest is history.

    Interestingly enough, the most published instance of code in Linux that was alleged as being copied was removed in 2.3.something, IIRC, as being "too ugly to live".

    (edit)
    Basically, Novell now owns the original, old-school Unix, and they can charge royalties and all that from people who use original Unix code. Sun, SGI, BSD, Linux, and company don't use original Unix code (because they wanted an alternative to the very expensive Unix), so they don't owe Novell a dime. I think it's a fairly comfortable agreement on all sides, as Novell is the company behind SuSE - I think it's more a case of Novell grabbing the Unix copyrights so somebody else couldn't buy them and try to extort the whole Unix-like crowd, rather than Novell trying to make money.
     
    Last edited: 13 Aug 2007
  5. Woodstock

    Woodstock So Say We All

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    wow, sounds like typical microsoft, lol. always out for number 1. Another thing to love about linux, how much would this court battle have cost Novell now? can SCO go for a retrial
     
  6. Ramble

    Ramble Ginger Nut

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    Excellent, time for SCO to fade away.
     
  7. Breach

    Breach Modding in Exile

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    Good, Im glad these money-whore lawsuit happy companies are losing big time. Maybe if SCO actually had some kind of product or business plan they would do better...
     
  8. DXR_13KE

    DXR_13KE BananaModder

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    yeah right.... and pigs fly with cows attached to them....
     
  9. quack

    quack Minimodder

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    [​IMG]

    Oh to be a fly on the wall in the SCO boardroom.
     
  10. quack

    quack Minimodder

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    Shares are now down to 0.37, dropped 17% on Tuesday.
     
  11. completemadness

    completemadness What's a Dremel?

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    wow talk about shooting yourself in the foot, thats quite a drop
     
  12. Woodstock

    Woodstock So Say We All

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    looks like there screwed
     
  13. Shielder

    Shielder Live long & prosper!

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    They always were. If you look at the court filings (available on Groklaw) you'll see that they were always trying to delay delay and delay. If they'd tried it here, they'd have been hung drawn and quartered early on.

    No we just wait for the Novell and IBM counter claims to be decided. SCO is toast and the executive may be looking at jail time for fraud.
     
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