Prelude76 Posted May 28, 2003 Share Posted May 28, 2003 Novell, the second of in the chain of four companies to own rights to the Unix operating system, is expected to challenge rights infringement claims that the current owner of those rights, SCO Group, is making against Linux.Novell is expected to assert that it retains Unix patents and copyrights and doesn't plan to assert those claims against Linux, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Tuesday night.Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry on Tuesday declined to comment on the report, though he said Novell plans to issue a statement on the issue before the market opens Wednesday. But SCO Group said the issue is beside the point because it bought full rights to the Unix intellectual property, including its copyrights, patents and the right to enforce those patents, according to Chris Sontag, head of the SCOsource effort to derive more money from the Unix intellectual property."We have enforcement rights to any appropriate patents that are still viable and related to Unix," Sontag said in a Tuesday interview. He did say Novell and AT&T, the original creator of Unix, still had some Unix patents, but that SCO has "all the rights and control of all copyrights and contracts." SCO's claims are the basis of a $1 billion lawsuit against IBM alleging that Big Blue misappropriated SCO's Unix trade secrets by building Unix intellectual property into Linux and violated its Unix contract with SCO. More recently, SCO has claimed that Unix code has been copied line-by-line into Linux, sometimes obscured to disguise its origin, an accusation that cuts to the core of the open-source philosophy that underlies Linux.Geez. the 2nd so-called 'owner' of UNIX, Novell, is supporting Linux and basically says SCO is on crack. But SCO (the 4th so-called 'owner' of UNIX) says they own the rights and want money. this SCO company must be so infested with Redmon Rats that no amount of RAID can help. I still dont see how semeone who 'acquires' copyrights can sue their intellectual property was stolen. give me a break. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riff Posted May 28, 2003 Share Posted May 28, 2003 this whole thing sounds like nothing more than a struggling company grasping at straws. or a major microsoft inside job to put some doubt about linux in the minds of corporations thinking of migrating to linux. i use microsoft products but i do not trust that company in any way. they missed the boat when it comes to ethics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 28, 2003 Author Share Posted May 28, 2003 this whole thing sounds like nothing more than a struggling company grasping at straws. or a major microsoft inside job to put some doubt about linux in the minds of corporations thinking of migrating to linux.the answer is B, thats my final answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted May 28, 2003 Share Posted May 28, 2003 I choose both a and b.SCO is nothing but crap. They don't own any programmar.. they only own pattens.. It is similar AOL owning IM pattent, except AOL doesn't go to court and start suing Microsoft, Yahoo or even Trillian for that matter.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jong357 Posted May 28, 2003 Share Posted May 28, 2003 Yea, I agree..... M$ either pushed them into doing it or they decided to create smoke on their own..... SCO is all but dead and they know it. They are a marketing disaster. Allways have been. Their software has been on the expensive side and fairly sucky as well..... Here's a statement from Novell concerning SCO's allegations.....Novell News Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 29, 2003 Author Share Posted May 29, 2003 i find it interesting that the DAY AFTER SCO sent 1,500 letters to scare big companies using Linux with copyright infringments, Microsoft signs a deal with SCO. the recent (may 28th or 29th) press conference from SCO mentioned that 1/3 of revenue from next quarter is from Licensing (i.e. Microsoft), and that Microsoft plans on releasing Unix code for Windows. My guess they want all the big companies using Linux servers to be so scared they'd run to convert their Linux boxes into Unix for Windows or back to SCO's Unix. and they also claim they have lots of money for a LONG court battle. Microsoft is so entranched in this battle it gives me yet another reason to despise them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragnar Paulson Posted May 29, 2003 Share Posted May 29, 2003 SCO is grasping at straws indeed, but a marketing disaster? Sucky software? This is revisionist history. SCO has been unable to adapt to the Linux threat, few have. Even the Linux successes like Suse, RedHat are barely in the black and only recently. It remains to be seen if a non-profitable OS can survive in what is still a capitalistic marketplace. Does anyone recall the new paradigm that lead to the Internet boom and crash of the 90s? But as history goes, I'd propose that SCO is almost singlehandedly responsible for Unix on Intel and where would Linux be today if SCO hadn't proved that you could run a real OS on a Intel platform. They didn't invent it, but others that tried to market it failed (AT&T, Interactive, Microport, Novell), even Sun Solaris x86 was not a great portion of the market. Remember this was the 80s. The PC was a toy, the only OS (DOS followed by Windows 3.1) a joke. Serious companies, wanting to do serious server worked bought HP (and HPUX) or Sun (and Solaris) or mainframes. Then along came SCO with Xenix and later Unix and showed serious server work could be done for a fraction of the cost on a x86 platform. And it could be made reliable, despite the foibles of the hardware. And it could be supported, maintained, and modular. Far from being a marketing disaster they were a marketing success story. Far from being expensive, they were the cheapest kid on the block. However when you compete on price you always risk someone will do it cheaper and you can't get much cheaper than free. For that marketing tidbit Linux owes kudos to none other than Bill Gates ... he knocked a whole lot of more capable and better products right out of the PC space by practically giving away DOS. And early Linux compared to commercial Unix on Intel (circa 1990?) compared about as favorable as DOS did to an Apple-OS. Still the market evolves, and I'm all for survival of the fittest. SCO didn't adapt and SCO will likely die. Lets just not rewrite the contribution in the past in the process of observing their passing.Ragnar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jong357 Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Well, tuche'...... I'll agree with you on most of your points Ragnar... They have started a good road to follow. They did pave the way as it were..... But I still think SCO Xenix and Unix are truely substandard and overpriced to put it mildly.... Software publishers have refused to support any other Unix so I have exstensive background when it comes to those, unfortunately..... Now Caldera/SCO Linux is a diffirent story on the other hand, well, kinda, well, not really.... Basically, the only reason why SCO is doing this, is because they completely bombed the marketing for Linux... All of their income comes from their Unix Products.... They didn't hardly even push Linux and instead focused soley on Open Server 4.2 and 5..... Bad move..... It doesn't matter that Caldera is a decent Platform. I will not use it hence forth and neither will thousands upon thousands of other people out there after this little tirade (oh, wait. We won't be able to anyway unless you already have it...)... Look at Unix SVr4.0 for example..... It was really r3.2.4.0.... They dropped the first two numbers, solved their problems with AT&T and called it soup..... Can you say FRAUD? Lets look at Unix v3.2.5.x...... Let's just have a completely wacked file system layout, bury the original files 8 tiers down in /opt or something with symlinks pointing back to the original location and call it a new version..... Huh? Linux was a big nasty sore to SCO and they had no idea what to do about it.... So they sold the entire Unix part of their business to Linux/Caldera. Then CEO Ransom Love steps up to the plate and completely pisses off the entire Linux community with his big mouth..... He screwed things up so bad that the only income coming in was from SCO Unix products......... Goodbye Caldera, hello SCO Group.... Now, they REALLY don't know what to do about Linux.... O.k.. Let's just sue IBM and try to scare as many people away from Linux as we possibly can.... Oh!!! Hello Microshaft... You would like a licence for Unix? Why, but ofcourse... Here you go..... Um.....I think I'll still have to say that they are a complete and dismal faliure when it comes to marketing..... That's the only reason why they will be a dried whithered husk of a company in 3 years time..... Just plain bad marketing and no common sense.... I guess the only reason why I'm steamed over this is because M$ is an intergral part of this crap..... Prelude has the right of it.... I can guarantee that SCO is sleeping with it's old enemy....Sue M$ over Xenix code and then jump in bed with them....It's too bad SCO didn't stick with the vision that they seemed to have had in the first place......... Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 30, 2003 Author Share Posted May 30, 2003 Here's a ComputerWorld article where the writer gives his thoughts on possible SCO/Microsoft conspiracy. very interesting analysis of possible strategy/motives.http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?...64&fp=16&fpid=0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 30, 2003 Author Share Posted May 30, 2003 Â The SCO Group was dealt a legal blow Friday in its attempts to enforce what it sees as violations of its Unix intellectual property rights when a German court granted a preliminary injunction against the company.Joe Eckert, spokesman for SuSE Linux A.G., said the court has ordered SCO to stop claiming that the Linux operating system is an illegal derivative of Unix. "If SCO ignores the court's order, it faces a fine of up to 250,000 euro," he said.here is linkahhh, the plot thickens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest genaldar Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 Cringly's article over on pbs is very interesting. It explains how no matter what happened ms would benefit, or at the very least not lose anything.btw am I the only one who thinks making it m$ is immature, it just shows that 1. you're a follower 2. you really want to be "cool" and 3. you're envious of successful entities be they companies or individuals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbredmound Posted June 1, 2003 Share Posted June 1, 2003 btw am I the only one who thinks making it m$ is immature, it just shows that 1. you're a follower 2. you really want to be "cool" and 3. you're envious of successful entities be they companies or individuals.btw (oh, how cool...lol), I was using "M$" long before any of the other adolescents, and I resent being grouped with the rest of them. I am my own immature person, without the need to follow the masses, even though they are all watching me.IOLF, POMF, SOMF...Peace, love and brotherhood. Power to the people.M$ is your friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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