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In a 102-page ruling, U.S. District Court Dale Kimball ruled that Novell Inc., not SCO, owns copyrights covering the Unix operating system, which SCO claims is what makes Linux sturdy and reliable. Kimball said SCO didn't acquire ownership rights to Unix when it bought the licensing and development rights from Novell in 1995.
SCO is a business software developer that earns money licensing Unix software for corporate servers. The Lindon, Utah-based company has blamed competition from Linux for the ongoing slide in its revenues and operating losses.
Last week's ruling could undermine another lawsuit SCO filed claiming IBM Corp. dumped some of its Unix source code into Linux.
"The court's ruling has cut out the core of SCO's case and, as a result, eliminates SCO's threat to the Linux community based upon allegations of copyright infringement of Unix," said Joe LaSala, general counsel of Waltham, Mass.-based Novell.
SCO suffered a setback in November when Kimball upheld a magistrate's earlier decision to throw out 187 of its 294 claims asserting IBM misappropriated its intellectual property by donating Unix code for Linux.
Yet Darl McBride, SCO president and chief executive, told analysts after that setback that he believed the company would ultimately prevail "and the last thing we're going to do is back away from this case."
SCO is pursuing a parallel lawsuit against AutoZone, accusing the auto parts retailer of running versions of Linux that contain SCO code.
Novell bought Unix from AT&T Corp. in 1992, and SCO has said its predecessor, Santa Cruz Operations Inc., paid Novell 6.1 million shares of SCO stock valued over $100 million for Unix rights. Novell and IBM are among companies that have begun developing products for use in Linux.
[Associated Press]
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