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SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

According to InfoWorld, SCO is now threatening to sue Novell. "The non-compete agreement was only one of several legal avenues that SCO is considering, should the SuSE acquisition be competed. according to McBride. SCO also believes that Novell does not have the right to distribute Linux, which SCO alleges to contain intellectual property that has been derived and copied directly from its Unix System V code, he said. Novell greatly enhanced its legal risks 'by getting into this Linux game,' McBride said.
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SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 15:10 UTC (Tue) by dusty (guest, #14668) [Link]

I am really starting to wonder how many suits SCO can have going at once. Is there any end to the madness? Next they will sue themselves. I really believe that they are a bunch of litigious losers. Does anyone else smell Microsoft here?

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 15:22 UTC (Tue) by dkite (guest, #4577) [Link]

How many? They only have filed one.

And they are trying to get Redhat's thrown out so they don't have to reveal anything.

They don't want to say what IBM has done wrong either.

They have threatened. IBM called their bluff. They are scrambling to find cash to keep the cases
alive.

Let them sue. Call their bluff. They don't have any cards.

Derek

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 17:50 UTC (Tue) by djabsolut (guest, #12799) [Link]

I wonder if Novell is tempted to do a Red Hat and pre-emptively attack SCOugh. After all, Novell is now in the Linux game in a big way - it can be argued that SCOugh is interfering with its products. This may be part of a Bleed-SCO-Dry-Attack (idea previously mentioned by somebody else), where SCOugh's funds are rapidly depleted due to the number of lawyers it has to employ and/or number of hours billed by its lawyers.


SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 15:10 UTC (Tue) by freethinker (guest, #4397) [Link]

SCO reminds me of one of those yappy little dogs that won't let anyone walk past the house without issuing an ultimatum.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 19, 2003 0:43 UTC (Wed) by wolfrider (guest, #3105) [Link]

--I agree 100%. My first thought on seeing this headline was: "Somebody really should tell them to shut the hell up."

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 15:17 UTC (Tue) by fandom (subscriber, #4028) [Link]

For a change, they might have a point about the 'non-compete' agreement,
it would surprise me though that Novell wouldn't know about it.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 15:21 UTC (Tue) by vblum (guest, #1151) [Link]

Novell's management changed often, didn't it? Wasn't McBride with Novell around when the Novell-SCO Unix deal was done?

OTOH, SCO has issued so many contradictory statements in the past which, in the end, were only intended to be inflammatory, keeping the heat around their lawsuit (which, at this point, is their primary asset) going - who knows what intention to sue they really have ...

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 15:45 UTC (Tue) by hppnq (guest, #14462) [Link]

You don't think that McBride -- who was working for Novell at the time the System V rights were sold -- has been planning this far ahead, don't you?! ;-)

(DR-DOS was sold around that time by Novell to Caldera, as well. Mmmh.)

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 18:10 UTC (Tue) by TwoTimeGrime (guest, #11688) [Link]

> You don't think that McBride -- who was working for Novell at
> the time the System V rights were sold -- has been planning
> this far ahead, don't you?! ;-)

That depends on whether he was a Microsoft pawn then as he is now. Microsoft can't even think that far ahead so I doubt it.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 15:22 UTC (Tue) by rahvin (subscriber, #16953) [Link]

What are the chances that SCO already breached the agreement by revoking IBM's license on AIX?

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 15:25 UTC (Tue) by dkite (guest, #4577) [Link]

Non compete? In operating systems? Novell has had an OS for a long time. Desktops? Novell
owned desktop software a long time ago.

Derek

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 15:32 UTC (Tue) by vblum (guest, #1151) [Link]

I guess SCO are implying Unix space, not OS in general. If so, one might say that Novell operated in DOS/ Windows related space. Linux, however, clearly belongs to Unix space; whether developed independently or not doesn't even matter ...

I am very curious to see the exact agreement between Novell and SCO, though. SCO already misquoted their IBM contracts in an outrageous fashion.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 18:44 UTC (Tue) by ttrafford (subscriber, #15383) [Link]

I think they saying this applies because "Linux is a SysV derivative."

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 18:54 UTC (Tue) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link]

Hey,... but havent SCO stop the Linux vending ?... so NOVEL SUSE dosent compete with SCO anymore, does it ?

McBride may have a point here

Posted Nov 18, 2003 15:21 UTC (Tue) by chel (guest, #11544) [Link]

This has nothing to do with copyrights. If there is a contract that says Novell will not compete with SCO, McBride may have a point here. The exact text of the contract is interesting, as it allowed Novell to compete SCO with their Novell system.

McBride may have a point here

Posted Nov 18, 2003 16:11 UTC (Tue) by philips (guest, #937) [Link]

Sorry me. But to compete you need to have a product.
The only business left for SCO - is litigations.
Novell sells products & do support - it has IT business. SCO has no business left at all.
And since Novell doesn't fill heaps lawsuits every day - so it doesn't compete with SCO ;-)

Structly speaking - you are right.
But I hope that if this issue will ever come the court, outcome will be that SCO has no product whatsoever competing with Novell's ones ;-) Hopefully there are reasonable judges left in USA.

McBride may have a point here

Posted Nov 19, 2003 3:55 UTC (Wed) by dbhost (guest, #3461) [Link]

"Hopefully there are reasonable judges left in USA."

Sorry, no Unicorns either. I think both are mythical creatures.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 15:52 UTC (Tue) by Zakaelri (guest, #15087) [Link]

OK, say the following happens:
1) It is 2 years from now.
2) IBM and RH have both just whipped the pants off of SCO, as far as the lawsuit
goes. (Safe assumption, given what I hear on Groklaw, and the general opinions of
this audience).
3) Windows is on the decline, GNU/Linux is on the rise. (Questionable assumption, but
should be safe, given that market trends continue as they are now).

What do you bet that SCO, in it's last, still-on-crack breath, says ``Hey! The success
of GNU/Linux is due to all of the press we gave it with our lawsuits! You guys should
thank us.''

It'd be right up their alley ;)

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 16:21 UTC (Tue) by vblum (guest, #1151) [Link]

We will thank them. If all goes well, they helping to lay a solid IP foundation to Linux + some core GNU software, I should say. Unless the game is somehow rigged, there will be not much room to question Linux after their code is out in the open. Plus, the GPL will finally be fireproofed in court. What more can we ask?

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 19:04 UTC (Tue) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link]

Oh we will thank them allright,... i even intend, personally, to light a candle in their memory,... and that is a thing we are all most wishing right now, in devotion ;-)

Edits for consistency

Posted Nov 18, 2003 22:16 UTC (Tue) by Zakaelri (guest, #15087) [Link]

Edits italicised.

3) Windows is on the decline, GNU/Linux is on the rise (percentage wise). (Questionable assumption, but a valid one, given that market trends continue as they are now).

Edits for consistency

Posted Nov 19, 2003 0:24 UTC (Wed) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link]

But you can count on it, that when Linux has "REAL" 30% of the Desktop market, -"the press"-, (at least the big, mind controlled one) will say that Windows still has near 90% of it...
That will leave Mac and rest to have -20%!...

You can never count on ear the truth about market situations from those that control it,... but if anyone do, or account me as a conspiracy theorist, i only say why dont them try to buy SCO stock!?... affraid of losing ?

Its not me,.. but when the proper authoritys leave the wild speculaters loose and not in jail, how can they ask anyone to belive ?

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 19, 2003 4:05 UTC (Wed) by dbhost (guest, #3461) [Link]

You know, if you look at Darl McBride's Executive photo on http://www.caldera.com/company/execs/dmcbride.html you can plainly see that the man's eyes are QUITE red. This guy either has a case of pink-eye, has some other physical issue, or he's bombed out of his skull. And mind you, do you think that Executive photos are going to become publicly available without being retouched in the companie's graphics department's favorite Photo editor program (Photosh*p, or the evil GPL licensed GIMP, or whatnot). Funny thing is, color correction, and redeye are the FIRST things that were tought to me when I went through computer imaging in college. I am fairly certain this isn't unusual... so what's the deal, why does Darl looked stoned?

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 16:02 UTC (Tue) by LogicG8 (guest, #11076) [Link]

What competition?

If Novell is planning to sell SuSE on cash
registers and Point Of Sale devices SCO might
have a case, but I haven't seen any SCO desktops
lately or a lot of SCO servers. Since they've
dropped their Linux business I haven't really
seen anything but lawsuits and threats of
lawsuits.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 16:59 UTC (Tue) by stanmuffin (guest, #16955) [Link]

The agreement doesn't say that Novell can't compete against SCO in the operating systems sphere, or even in the UNIX sphere. It just says that Novell can't use the technology they licensed to SCO to directly compete against SCO.

In other words, their threat against Novell depends on their interpretion that Linux is a derivative work of SCO's UNIX. Which SCO has steadfastly failed to prove over the past several months.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 17:17 UTC (Tue) by stanmuffin (guest, #16955) [Link]

Here's the relevant clause in the Asset Purchase Agreement, section 1.6:

1.6 ... Seller[Novell] agrees that it shall use the Licensed Technology only (i) for internal purposes without restriction or (ii) for resale in bundled or integrated products sold by Seller which are not directly competitive with the core products of Buyer[old SCO] and in which the Licensed Technology does not constitute a primary portion of the value of the total bundled or integrated product ...

The non-competition clause only applies to the "Licensed Technology" (UNIX SVRx and UnixWare) that Novell licensed to old-SCO. It cannot apply to SuSE Linux, unless SCO can prove that SuSE Linux actually contains SVRx licensed code. In other words, there's nothing new here (other than more lies from Lindon).

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 17:35 UTC (Tue) by vblum (guest, #1151) [Link]

hee hee hee hee hee - that is an excellent joke, if that's really all which is behind!

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 18:36 UTC (Tue) by sandy_pond (guest, #9734) [Link]

Well what technology did they license or "could" they license to SCO other than the copyright to the software?

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 19:42 UTC (Tue) by stanmuffin (guest, #16955) [Link]

Which software?

The point is, Novell sold UNIX SVRx and UnixWare to old-SCO (the Santa Cruz Operation) in 1995, and as a term of the deal, agreed not to use the same technologies sold to old-SCO to compete against old-SCO.

Even if we assume that The SCO Group inherited the non-compete agreement from the Santa Cruz Operation, The SCO Group is lying when they say that the agreement prevents Novell from competing with them in the Unix-on-Intel business. The agreement only refers to the technologies that Novell sold to old-SCO in 1995. And Novell did not sell SuSE Linux to old-SCO in 1995.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 19, 2003 0:39 UTC (Wed) by sandy_pond (guest, #9734) [Link]

The funny thing is that when Novell buys SCO then there'll be another agreement between SCO and Novell called UnitedLinux where they agreed to jointly develop and sell Linux together :)

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 19, 2003 0:48 UTC (Wed) by sandy_pond (guest, #9734) [Link]

Could you post the "Licensed Technology" definition from the contract (since it's in caps the must be a definition)?

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 21:33 UTC (Tue) by chill633 (guest, #16013) [Link]

Almost. They would have to prove no that SuSE contains any licensed code, but that it contains "a primary portion of the value of the total bundled or integrated product ..."

Meaning, SuSE would have to be MOSTLY licensed code -- not just snippets here and there.

Good luck.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 19, 2003 0:55 UTC (Wed) by sandy_pond (guest, #9734) [Link]

you missed the "and" ... both conditions need to be true for Novell to get the exemption.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 17:04 UTC (Tue) by XERC (guest, #14626) [Link]

I'm geting tired of this SCO crap. Every time the SCO says some stupiditys, ther's a lot of hot air flowing. Come on, the firm is a dying wreck that has no product, threatens to sue it's customers, threatens to sue it's business partners, is being indirectly financed by Mi__o$o_t and a group of blood sucers, got rid of it's reputation by sending subpoenas to Stallman and Linus, talks crap that's even contrary to it's own assertions, want's to sue basically everybody on planet Earth but isn't capable of doing it and is being sued by others instead. The list is probably incomplete.

It's just a matter of time, till they collapse and burn and I think that we shouldn't waste our time and nerves on that. OK, we all know, what SCO is by now and let's keep the news regarding to it's nonsenses comming(for informational purposes), but let's not waste our own time making a noise about it. This is defenatlely one of my last SCO-related posts on lwn.net.

I think, that from this point forward the only thing that we should pay close attention to is, that after SCO has collapsed, the same insects, that worked in there, will crawl to other firms. So I suggest, that we start making a list of figures, who are directly or indirectly driving and supporting the SCO crap. This way we can sense the danger later, when we see them in some other companies. May I suggest:

1) darl_ing M_c_donalds___de ---SCO's __O

2) the guy from D__che B__k ----for financing __O

please add your suggestions here

Keyboard problems?

Posted Nov 18, 2003 18:09 UTC (Tue) by stuart (subscriber, #623) [Link]

Is your keyboard broke, some of your letters come out as -'s and _'s ?

Stu.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 18, 2003 19:21 UTC (Tue) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link]

C'mon "we" dont need to start a persecution campaing.

The ENEMY of Linux/FOSS isnt really SCO,... SCO is only the "Hitman", the street "punk"...

Basicly you are right. Linux has a real battle in the world adoption front,... in the desktop front,... and in the "open standards" front...

If we win all this wars, then we can all light candles in memory of all those ENEMY$$$$$ of Linux/FOSS that had made a lot of people keyboards break.

No competition...

Posted Nov 18, 2003 18:04 UTC (Tue) by whitleych (guest, #6866) [Link]

TSG's core business was linux and unix. They exited the linux market of their own free will. Therefore Novelle would not be competing with them in the Linux space. By their own actions, having two product lines they have already proved that the two markets are different.

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 19, 2003 18:13 UTC (Wed) by jsatchell (subscriber, #6236) [Link]

I don't see that Novell need to worry about competing with SCO - they are in different lines of business.

Novell are in software.

SCO are in IP litigation.

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