p2pnet - rss feed: Novell enters SCO-v-IBM battle
Novell has waded into the seemingly irresolveable SCO-v-IBM dispute claiming that it owns the contentious copyright to the Unix System V source code on which the conflict centres.
SCO Group claims IBM wrongly contributed components of the Unix-based AIX code to the open source movement [read Linux] and that consequently, Linux is in effect the unauthorised offspring of SCO’s UNIX intellectual property.
But Novell says it’s been quietly registering copyright for some of the same Unix System V code that SCO registered copyright for earlier in the year.
"Now both the SCO Group and Novell have registered for UNIX System V copyrights for the same code, although it appears that Novell has a few that SCO does not," says Groklaw here.
In its turn, SCO apparently says Novell’s claim is fraudulent - that it registered the copyright to help Big Blue.
Novell purchased rights to the Unix System V code for $150 million from AT&T Corp. in 1992, but later sold the Unix rights, which were eventually acquired by SCO, says an IDG News Service report here. "In May, Novell said that it had retained copyright over the Unix source code, but seemed to back off this claim after SCO produced a 1996 contract amendment that appeared to grant it the Unix copyright. The amendment ‘appears to support SCO’s claim that ownership of certain copyrights for Unix did transfer to SCO in 1996,’ Novell said at the time."
Novell also has copies of correspondence between Joseph A. LaSala Jr, Novell’s vice president, general counsel and secretary, and The SCO Group, which argued that the amendment provided for a copyright transfer only under certain conditions, and that SCO had failed to meet those conditions, states the report, going on:
"The fact that both Novell and SCO have now registered as owners of the Unix copyright does not necessarily say anything about the validity of either company’s claims," the IDG story quotes David Byer, a partner with a patent and intellectual property group not involved in the dispute, as saying.
"Unlike the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Copyright Office does not examine the validity of copyright claims, he said. ‘When you fill out a copyright registration, you’re essentially declaring under penalty of perjury that you are the owner,’ he said. ‘If you tell them that you wrote it, they believe you.’
"SCO was quick to dismiss Novell’s claims, and said it was considering legal action. "We see this as a fraudulent filing of copyright notices … and we’ll take the appropriate measures as necessary; with our legal team," said Darl McBride, SCO’s chief executive officer, during SCO’s quarterly financial earnings conference call on Monday.
