SCO v. Novell Goes to Trial Today In Utah

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The day many have been waiting for has finally arrived, the day SCO gets torn apart in court by Novell. Each side gets 10 hours, and Novell managed to get them to agree to a stipulation (PDF) that should make things go a lot faster. With any luck, we will soon have an official ruling that SCO does not own much of anything and then we just have to wait for SCO to exhaust its appeals. This would've been over a long time ago, but SCO filed for bankruptcy on the eve of trial, stopping the clock. One can only wonder what trick they will try to pull this time."

Re:Great Day

[Iphtashu Fitz]

SCO ain't dead yet. They've proven time and again that no tactic is too outrageous to let this thing drag on as long as they possibly can. If anybody can find a way to postpone the inevitable even further it's the SCOundrels.

SCO is the Defendent?

[qazwart]

Interesting is in this trial SCO is the defendant and Novell is the claimant. I thought it was SCO who is suing everyone.

It looks like via the stipulation and the way the trial is organized that SCO expects to lose. It appears that Novell simply wants to assert its claim to UnixWare and SCO is ready to close up shop. That's why the stipulation and the short trial and the fact that SCO isn't going to call up witnesses.

The Judge already ruled

[IronClad]

The summary is a little misleading. The judge *already* ruled that SCO Group does not own much of anything, including the UNIX SYSV copyrights, in a summary judgment motion last year.

The biggest issue remaining to be resolved by this trial is how much of the "license" monies given to SCO Group by Microsoft and SUN were for that which SCO Group had no right to license (SYSV), and how much was for SCO Group's product. Given the non-dizzying speed at which SCO's products have been improved and maintained, Novell argues that the vast majority of those millions was due to Novell.

In the mean time it has been entertaining to read the SCO Group's arguments for why they should keep the money to which they have no right, or at least how they should not be required to turn the swag over to Novell. As if our opinion of them could have previously been lower.

Re:Move over Chewbacca... her comes the OS X defen

[bhtooefr]

Actually, OS X 10.5/x86 is UNIX, according to the Open Group, who owns the UNIX trademark. ;)

Kimball Already Ruled That SCO Doesn't Own SysV

[John Hasler]

> With any luck, we will soon have an official ruling that SCO does not own much of
> anything...

Kimball ruled that SCO does not own the SysV copyrights last year. This trial is about how much of Novell's money SCO pocketed when they sold SysV licenses to Sun and Microsoft without Novell's permission. The case will then go back to the bankruptcy court where Judge Gross will decide what to do about it. Note that this trial is about how much of Novell's money SCO took, not whether or not they did so. The latter has already been decided.

If Kimball awards more than a small fraction of the $37M maximum (likely) it is hard to see how SCO can avoid Ch. 7 liquidation.

Re:Move over Chewbacca... her comes the OS X defen

[bhtooefr]

http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/brand3555.htm [opengroup.org]

I would say no, there's no corresponding UNIX 03 certification for 10.5 on PPC.