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SCO... Not Dead Yet... Appeals Court Reverses Novell Ruling; Trial Likely

from the not-dead-yet dept

Tue, Aug 25th 2009 1:29am — Mike Masnick

And you thought the insane nightmare was over. Two years ago it seemed like the long national nightmare that was SCO's claims of copyright infringement in Linux were over. A judge ruled that SCO did not actually own the copyrights it claimed it did, and that they still belonged to Novell. While SCO received a slap on the wrist ($2.5 million) for this, it basically wiped out the key part of SCO's lawsuit against IBM, and led SCO to file for bankruptcy. Some investors supposedly pumped some money into SCO to keep it breathing, but later details on that made the whole deal seem very, very sketchy. However, now SCO might have a very slight chance to turn things around.

A judge has overturned part of the lower court's original ruling on who owns the copyrights to Unix, and ordered a full jury trial take place to determine who actually owns the copyright. Oddly, the court did not overturn the part where SCO has to pay Novell $2.5 million -- which could push the company over the final edge. If, however, SCO can stay alive, and it does go to trial, the company could (and likely will) still lose that trial (and, we're still twiddling our thumbs and waiting for any evidence from SCO that IBM actually infringed on the UNIX copyrights... but that's another story and another lawsuit). SCO's Darl McBride (how he's still running the show is beyond me) is claiming this is a validation for SCO, but that's not even close to true. All the court is saying is that there wasn't enough for the summary judgment on the copyright ownership, and the issue should be taken up in a full jury trial. That's not a "validation" of SCO's position -- it's a small, and likely temporary, lifeline.

Filed Under: copyright, linux, unix
Companies: novell, sco

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Cynix, 25 Aug 2009 @ 4:16am

The Undead
This is unbelievable. The undead keeps rising again and again.

What other company can keep going for years without providing a shred of evidence? I remember the deadline passed years ago and nothing happened. WTF? Their lawsuit should have been thrown out years ago.

I think they can only keep going like this, because Microsoft is behind them, funding them one way or another.
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..., 25 Aug 2009 @ 5:03am

Zombies
Sometimes kill -9 does not work.

They still want $699 ?
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NullOp, 25 Aug 2009 @ 5:07am

Dang
Yet another zombie company. As I recall this company had no good press associated with it. And their business model seemed to have degenerated to the lets see who we can sue model. Let 'em die...
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Elaine Normandy (profile), 25 Aug 2009 @ 5:30am

SCO is awaiting the appointment of a Chapter 11 trustee, so in theory, McBride and the rest of the management team will no longer being calling the shots.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2009 @ 6:11am

Plus... SCO's products are simply .. bad. Ever tried troubleshooting that crap? Way to go for non-standards.
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minijedimaster (profile), 25 Aug 2009 @ 7:48am

Welcome to the zombie apocalypse of the 21st century.
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lordmorgul, 25 Aug 2009 @ 12:37pm

Re: Dang
Oh what a lesson could be learned from this if the RIAA would just pay attention.
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Jason, 25 Aug 2009 @ 1:59pm

Re: Zombies
Monzy for Zombies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fow7iUaKrq4
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