Novell Claims Ownership of UNIX System V 1179
Bruce Perens writes:
"We knew that SCO's attack on Linux was a lie. But we never dreamed of the big lie behind it.
"This morning, Novell announced some of the terms of the company's 1995 agreement to sell its Unix business to SCO. The shocking news is that Novell did not sell the Unix intellectual property to SCO. Instead, they sold SCO a license to develop, sell, and sub-license Unix. The title to Unix copyrights and patents remains with Novell. To back up this assertion, Novell refers to public records at the Library of Congress Copyright Office and the U.S. Patent Office.
"In their announcement, Novell refers to recent letters from SCO asking Novell to assign the Unix copyrights to SCO. So, apparently SCO's management team knew that they did not own Unix while pursuing their sham campaign against Linux.
"Along with this revelation, Novell is reiterating its support of the Linux and Open Source developer community, and its status as a partner in that community. Novell rejects SCO's accusations of plagiarism. Novell management says they do not intend to stand in the way of the development of the Linux kernel, its companion GNU system, and other Free Software.
"It would be an understatement to say that this leaves SCO in a bad position. The company 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 1500 companies that they threatened, the press, and the public. Their untruthful campaign caused the loss of sales and jobs, and damaged Linux companies and developers in a myriad of ways. And now, SCO will be the lawsuit target. SCO's quarterly earnings conference call is this morning, at 9 AM MST (11 AM EST, 8 AM PST). Call 800-406-5356, toll-free, to participate. You might even get to ask a question. It should be fun to watch them try to weasel out of this one.
"Microsoft executives also have egg on their faces. The company self-servingly rushed to buy an SCO license one business day after the threat letter, bringing a senior attorney to the office on a Sunday to tell the press how much Microsoft values intellectual property. Microsoft's management could have taken the time to analyze SCO's claims, if the company had wanted this license for practical and technical reasons. Their decision to buy when they did must have been motivated by a desire to add to SCO's fear campaign. Of course they'll grab any opportunity to spread fear about Linux, but this time Microsoft bought a pig in a poke.
"SCO management, if they insist on standing in the way of a train, could still claim that software they developed in the years since 1995 is being infringed by the Open Source developers. That claim, always a dubious one, will be difficult to take seriously now that their prevarication throughout this campaign has come to light. SCO would be well advised to drop their suit against IBM in exchange for IBM's agreement not to counter-sue. But IBM might not feel that charitable toward SCO.
"In contrast to SCO, Novell's made a friend among the Free Software developers. We're always happy to see people using our software. But a real partnership between an IT vendor and our community is an equal partnership, with the company donating services and new software in exchange for the value it receives. Novell has already placed important software under Open Source licenses. Today, the company has done us a tremendous service, by stomping upon an obnoxious parasite."
Conference Call (Score:5, Funny)
Oh my god, you /.'ed the conference call.... You bastards! ;-)
real Unix owner (Score:4, Funny)
And.... (Score:2, Funny)
*duh duh duh!!!!* (ASCII MP3)
AT&T (Score:4, Funny)
TV (Score:5, Funny)
SCO (Score:2, Funny)
This is golden... (Score:4, Funny)
what's next in this saga?
W00t!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Proud Novell Admin, pimpin' to keep Bill in business.
Unix (Score:5, Funny)
At this point, I'm not sure if I want it to be owned by everybody or by nobody, but at least being "owned" by two is better than by (a bad) one.
Re:SCO (Score:4, Funny)
Does this mean? (Score:1, Funny)
In Microsoft-ese (Score:2, Funny)
Re:real Unix owner (Score:5, Funny)
Will the real Unix owner, please stand up, please stand up...
or, "Who owns the code code to the Unix source? SCO does.
who me?
yes you.
Couldn't be
Then who?
Novell owns the code to the Unix source
who me?
Yes you.
continue...
Ah, shit, why don't we just call it all open source and be happy.
wow (Score:1, Funny)
Anyone else suprised?
next up: (Score:0, Funny)
-Bill Gates claims to have the IP rights to the concept of desktop computing
etc. etc.
is there no end to the madness!!!??!
Re:Finally (Score:1, Funny)
They where one of the 1500 companies to get the nastygram from SCO, and they probably had partners/customers asking them about that letter as well. And the letter probably had to go thru the legal department a couple of times. And there was probably a cooling off period as well...
Today is not a good day to be Darl McBride...
I would have gotten away with it... (Score:1, Funny)
Scooby Dooby Doo!!!
/. 's reactions: (Score:2, Funny)
2) Fight! Fight! Fight!
3) Microsoft's Lic. 6.0 vs Unix Sys V lic 0.6
4) Are Tux and the BSD Daemon safe from the pillage of The Mouse who buys Congress???
5) Iago from Aladdin: "WHY am I NOT Suprised!!"
.
Re:real Unix owner (Score:2, Funny)
Now I'll go back to my FreeBSD box (which is arguably more UNIX than Linux) and hasn't come under fire at all for this...
Re:Best Kirk Douglas gladiator type voice (Score:4, Funny)
does this remind anyone of wrestling? (Score:5, Funny)
Next week they'll be a tag match to determine the UNIX championship...in the cage!
Idiot at SCO (Score:2, Funny)
So who was the idiot at SCO that sent the "you're a bad Linux user" letter to Novell?
hehe.... (Score:5, Funny)
IBM and SCO start out, with IBM teasing a test of strength, SCO begins, but gets scared and immediately tags in Microsoft.
Microsoft and IBM go at it, with Microsoft gaining the upperhand. IBM is almost down and out, when a diving tag in to Novell.
HOT TAG!
Novell clears house, and the crowd is going wild, SCO gets back up, and they start double teaming both until
CHAIRSHOT!
Bruce Pearns jumps out from the side, and knocks Novell out!
JIM ROSS: "OH MUH GOD! THEY'VE BEEN DOUBLE CROSSED!"
Dialed in right now (Score:2, Funny)
I actualy have a crowd around my desk
Re:and in the latest news (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Finally (Score:2, Funny)
(Rockets blazing... single tear out of the eye...)
(Cheers!)
It almost feels like we matter in the world... almost.
Re:real Unix owner (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Unix (Score:1, Funny)
Just add the 'nobody' user to the 'everybody' group, then you can be owned by both!
Re:real Unix owner (Score:5, Funny)
May I have your attention please?
Will the real UNIX Owner please stand up?
I repeat, will the real UNIX Owner please stand up?
We're gonna have a problem here..
Y'all act like you never seen linux source code before
Jaws all on the floor like Bruce, like Linus just burst in the door
and started whoopin that SCO's ass worse than before
they were first with the source, throwin it over IBM (Ahh!)
It's the return of the... "Ah, wait, no way, you're kidding,
he didn't just say what I think he did, did he?"
And Novell Man said... nothing you idiots!
Novell Man's dead, he's locked in my basement! (Ha-ha!)
Kernel lovin men love Novell too
SCO UNIX, I'm sick of it
Look at them, walkin around suing users' you-know-what
Flippin the you-know-who, "Yeah, but he's so cute though!"
Yeah, SCO probably got a couple of screws up in the head loose
But no worse, than what's goin on in their corporate boardrooms
Sometimes, I wanna get on Slashdot and just let loose, but can't
but it's cool for Cowboy Neal to spread his lie caboose
"My source is on your lips, my source is on your lips"
And if I'm lucky, you might just give it a little kiss
And that's the message that we deliver to little kids
And expect them not to know what an OS's source code is
Of course they gonna know what linux sourse is
By the time they hit fourth grade
They got the Discovery Channel don't they?
"We ain't nothing but hackers.." Well, some of us are slackers
who cut other people open like smashed crackers But if we can hack a dead OS and take our source
then there's no reason that a man and his penguin can't recourse
But if you feel like I feel, I got the antidote
Men here wave anti-SCO flags, sing the chorus and it goes
I'm UNIX Owner, yes I'm the real Owner
All you other UNIX Owners are just lying loaners
So won't the real UNIX Owner please stand up,
please stand up, please stand up?
Re:does this remind anyone of wrestling? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:real Unix owner (Score:5, Funny)
Re:New Number and Code! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Conference Call - Don't do it (Score:1, Funny)
ownership (Score:2, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No, _I_ own Unix! (Score:4, Funny)
Novell reveals that after the SCO license deal, they actually sold the UNIX patents to MS to rais capital.
Tomorrows news:
MS admits that it thought any UNIX IP was worthless, and sold it to a .com startup, which has since gone bust. The UNX IP in question was then awarded to a now out-of-work janitor somewhere in the silicon valley at liquidation, in compensation for a lack of salary. A hunt for this individual is now in progress...
Re:media (Score:2, Funny)
What happens when they figure out that CDR isn't a news agency?
Re:This is golden... (Score:5, Funny)
Novell discovers that they don't actually own the IP anymore. They sold it to MS a while back when they were short of cash.
Next week we'll find out who MS sold it to.
The week after, we'll find the relevant patents on eBay, and an intense bidding war going on between MS and IBM.
Re:real Unix owner (Score:4, Funny)
1) AT&T
Easy right? No. There is Bell Labs and AT&T switching (whatever its called this week) who both maintain different versions. There is the terminal company that was spun off (TTY maybe?). Many compaines that came out of the bell breakup do have full rights to use and resell Unix [TM] even tough "main" control was sold off.
2) AT&T and Sun sort of did some cross breeding and Sun did get full rights to that as well. So add Sun to the list.
3) Cray computer company has a full license but they no longer exist but SGI and Sun own the remains. So add Sun to the list again.
4) Sun bought the rights from SCO or Novel for like $80 million. Full unquestionalbe rights. Add them in again but there was a reason they wrote the check.
5) SCO (who bought some rights from Novel or was it the other way around and aren't they related at some level anyway?)
6) All early bell licenses have rights and most of them have different rights. Many schools have rights. OU for example has license rights that few other schools had but the rumor is they used their 1st Unix tape to spiff up a Christmas tree.
7) UCB. They ended up in court. Ended up with rights and still pulled the old stuff out. They might have more rights though since Sys V was a blend between their stuff (through Sun again) and AT&T.
8) M$ had some rights that they blew away because of some pesky judge being insightful to their business model. Just how much those rights were released could be left as an exercise for a new judge but the last ruling may have done away with the 1st ruling. Opps.
9) Cowboy Neil might be in there somewhere too. I'm sure of it...
Re:Best Kirk Douglas gladiator type voice (Score:2, Funny)
SCO CEO: what happen
SCO lawyer: somebody set up us the bomb
SCO lawyer: we get press release
SCO CEO: main screen turn on
SCO CEO: it's you!!!
NOVEL: how are you gentlemen!
NOVEL: all your unix IP are belong to us
NOVEL: your lawsuit is on the path to dismissal
SCO CEO: what you say!!!
NOVEL: you have no chance to sue, make your time
NOVEL: ha ha ha
Re:Finally (Score:3, Funny)
Re:New Number and Code! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Stock Performance (Score:2, Funny)
Oh fuck it... (Score:3, Funny)
Free love!
Hell (Score:2, Funny)
Conference call (Score:2, Funny)
I sure hope for the executive teams' sake that they haven't sold any stock since this thing started...
Who am I kidding, I hope they have!
"Here's your new cellmate - his name is Bubba."
"Um... Hi, Bubba..."
"Hello, bitch! Bend over and spread 'em!"
Re:Conference Call (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Novell's press release (Score:2, Funny)
See!
Re:Partial "transcript" (not verbatim) (Score:3, Funny)
Can't use Linux. Can't use proprietary non-SCO Unix. Windows must be the only clean alternative. These ass-holes just shot the OTHER foot.
Re:And.... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Is Larry Ellison/Oracle the "Secret Licensee"?? (Score:2, Funny)
No, it's the aliens, silly! In return for the secret of their anti-gravity super-luminal space-warp drive, the got a UNIX license from SCO.
And in related news . . . (Score:4, Funny)
Re:It's all in the timing Re:Finally (Score:3, Funny)
And they ran through the brambles!!!
And they ran through the bushes
where a rabbit couldn't go!!!
They ran so fast that the hounds
couldn't catch 'em on
down the Provo River
to the home of SCO....
Re:Staying Power (Score:3, Funny)
I pronounce it "SCOX", ryhmes with "cocks".
Re:Stock Performance (Score:3, Funny)
Novell: Up 5%
IBM: Up 0.36%
Knowing SCO has their head so far up their ass they think they see daylight: Priceless.
Comment removed (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Conference call highlights (Score:3, Funny)
I'd say the chance of anybody buying Linux from SCO after this is practically zero out to 6 decimal places...
SCO's "Contact US" (Score:3, Funny)
1-888-GO-LINUX to 1-888-NO-LINUX.
But, that's just me, and I'm dumb.
Re:Still (Score:3, Funny)
GF.
Re:Conference Call - Don't do it (Score:3, Funny)
HOW DOES IT FEEL, DARL? (Score:3, Funny)
1) Misled your shareholders.
2) Misled your customers.
3) Made your company a laughingstock with your stupid assertions and accusations.
Please enlighten us.
GJC