[TriLUG] SCO sets lawyers on Novell

[Frye, Matthew]

The comedy continues...

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> Today's focus:  SCO sets lawyers on Novell
> 
> By Dave Kearns
> 
> I was really hoping to keep the "Linux" word out of this 
> newsletter today but events, as they say, have overtaken my 
> resolve. Last week, former Novell bag carrier Darl MacBride (he 
> was formerly vice president and general manager of Novell's 
> Extended Networks Division a.k.a. "NEST" - Novell Embedded 
> Systems Technology), now the devil-in-chief at The SCO Group 
> announced that SCO is ready to sue Novell over the acquisition 
> of SuSE Linux.
> 
> Well, why not - SCO's suing just about everyone else in the 
> operating system business as well as threatening to sue most of 
> its customers.
> 
> According to a story last week by the IDG News Service, MacBride 
> claims that Novell's planned acquisition of SuSE will put it in 
> violation of a non-compete agreement the networking vendor has 
> with SCO. This charge appears to be cut from the same cloth as 
> the previous charge (by SCO) that GNU General Public License 
> "...violates the U.S. Constitution, together with copyright, 
> anti-trust and export control laws."
> 
> When Novell sold Unix System V Release 4 to SCO (along with its 
> UnixWare derivative), there was a non-compete clause in the 
> contract, which according to MacBride prohibits Novell from 
> directly competing with SCO's Unix-on-Intel business.
> 
> Linux isn't Unix, of course. It may be "Unix-like" (as some have 
> called it), but it certainly ain't Unix. If it were, then SCO 
> would be suing even more people simply for distributing any 
> Linux product. But it isn't. SCO is suing IBM for including 
> protected Unix code in a Linux distribution.
> 
> SCO can't re-interpret the non-compete clause to imply that 
> Novell can't sell any Intel-based operating system, or it would 
> be suing to stop NetWare from being distributed. Of course that 
> would imply that Novell was so dumb as to waive all of the 
> rights to its core product when it sold off (for a pittance, I 
> might add) the Unix stuff that it had acquired from Unix Systems 
> Labs.
> 
> On its face, this looks like a desperate attempt to coerce 
> Novell into paying its Linden, Utah neighbors a few bucks 
> because of the nuisance value of the suit. But it could be that 
> a "few bucks" might be needed in Linden. In other news last 
> week, SCO announced it is paying close to $9 million in 
> lawyer-fees to cover the suits and filings already announced. 
> And in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SCO 
> appeared to be saying, in essence, that it isn't selling much of 
> anything these days.
> 
> The official language was: "We are informed that participants in 
> the Linux industry have attempted to influence participants in 
> the markets in which we sell our products to reduce or eliminate 
> the amount of our products and services that they purchase. They 
> have been somewhat successful in those efforts and similar 
> efforts and success will likely continue. There is also a risk 
> that the assertion of our intellectual property rights will be 
> negatively viewed by participants in our marketplace and we may 
> lose support from such participants. Any of the foregoing could 
> adversely affect our position in the marketplace and our results 
> of operations."
> 
> Which is the legal equivalent of saying, "Nobody likes me, 
> everybody hates me, I'm going to go and eat worms."
> 
> Maybe it was something in the water. I'd like to suggest that 
> the Environmental Protection Agency investigates the land
> around MacBride's old office at Novell. One office mate,
> formerNovell Vice President of AppWare, Joe Firmage 
> (see <http://www.nwfusion.com/go2/1124nw1a.html> )
> left hi-tech to pursue his dream of investigating flying saucers. 
> Or maybe BYU graduate (and award-winning science-fiction and
> fantasy author) Orson Scott Card should take a look.
> 
> EDITOR's NOTE: Due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday we will be 
> sending just one newsletter this week. Regular service will 
> resume next week. We wish you and your family a happy 
> Thanksgiving.
> 
> RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS
> 
> SCO to pay lawyers millions for more legal firepower
> IDG News Service, 11/18/03
> http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1118scotopa.html
> 
> SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract
> IDG News Service, 11/18/03
> http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1118cdxposco.html
> 
> SCO: IBM cannot enforce GPL
> IDG News Service, 10/28/03
> http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1028scoibmc.html
> 
> Follow the SCO saga at Network World Fusion
> http://www.nwfusion.com/news/financial/sco.html
> _______________________________________________________________
> To contact: Dave Kearns
> 
> Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's 
> written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print 
> "Complete Guide to Novell Directory Services." His musings can 
> be found at Virtual Quill <http://www.vquill.com/>. Comments on 
> this newsletter should be sent to him at 
> <mailto:netware at vquill.com>.
> 
> Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books, 
> manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing, 
> technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill 
> provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail at 
> <mailto:info at vquill.com> 
>