Motion in Red Hat v. SCO [LWN.net]

After a lengthy period of inactivity, there has finally been a bit of movement in Red Hat's lawsuit against SCO. The news is mixed.

SCO's motion to dismiss the case was denied; Judge Robinson reached the reasonable conclusion that Red Hat did, indeed, have reason to fear a lawsuit from the SCO Group. So the case will go forward; SCO will not be able to shake it quite so quickly.

This case will not go forward anytime soon, however. Instead, it has been put on hold until the IBM case is worked out. Both sides have to file every 90 days giving their view of the state of the IBM case. If that case looks like it is not going anywhere, the court may restart the Red Hat case.

For now, however, the Red Hat suit is suspended. Given the speed at which things have moved in this case to date, it may be hard to tell the difference. This ruling does, however, free SCO from the need to fight on this front for now; SCO can concentrate its resources on the IBM, Novell, DaimlerChrysler, and AutoZone suits. Plus any others that SCO might, in its wisdom, decide to file. That should be enough to keep the lawyers busy for a while. (See Groklaw for more information).

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Motion in Red Hat v. SCO

Posted Apr 8, 2004 6:33 UTC (Thu) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link]

This also means that Red Hat doesn't have to pay for litigating this
suit, either, in the meantime. And that may be significant, considering
that Red Hat has things to spend money on other than lawyers. This also
means that SCO can't really sue Red Hat or anyone that could get their
case combined with the Red Hat case.

Motion in Red Hat v. SCO

Posted Apr 9, 2004 10:40 UTC (Fri) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]

> This also means that SCO can't really
> sue Red Hat or anyone that could get their
> case combined with the Red Hat case.

Correct. One other thing noted in the various groklaw postings was that
it pretty much sets a tone for /any/ other case SCO might wish to start,
that might relate to Linux. Should they decide to sue anyone else, this
is one more thing they lawyers of their targets can point to and say the
suit should be delayed until the IBM case is finished.

In fact, IANAL, but I'd guess that the current AZ and D/C lawyers may be
preparing to file motions pointing to this and asking for a similar
suspension, which I believe most courts would be favorable to as one more
way to get a case suspended and off the crowded court schedule, because
events will possibly overtake the case and make it moot anyway, meaning
the court would then not have to deal with anything but loose ends
cleanup.

Duncan

Motion in Red Hat v. SCO

Posted Apr 9, 2004 16:30 UTC (Fri) by The_Flatlander (guest, #19245) [Link]

Well, you know, I had been feeling a little down about this ruling, especially since the stinking SCOundrels have appealed fora delay in the IBM case. Reading your posts however has made me feel a bit better. I suppose while on hte one hand it doesn't hurt the SCOundrels directly, it does sort of box them in, nicely. I'll take that, if that's all I can get.

The Flatlander

The wait is very frustrating, but the outcome is not in any way in doubt.