By James Harris
Novell Inc. challenged Unix licensing company SCO last week to substantiate claims that lines of code were illegally taken and imported into the Linux operating system.
Utah software developers, The SCO Group, formally Caldera International, and Novell are battling over the ownership rights of the Unix operating system and the source code to Linux.
SCO first claimed the Linux contained misappropriated lines of Unix code 3 months ago when they filed a lawsuit against IBM for $1 billion.
Novell announced in May it accepts Linux and the community promoting it, a group of 440 programmers, turning out 50,000 lines of code per month to develop Linux and the programs it runs.
Novell has an interest in Linux because the company is developing products to run on Linux, including an upcoming version of its flagship program NetWare, according to a letter from Novell President and CEO Jack Messman.
Messman also said the company''s support for Linux 'will increase over time.'
Linux is a free operating system that captures approximately a quarter of the $9 billion market for server operating systems, according to a Salt Lake Tribune article.
If SCO can prove Linux has lines of code copied from Unix, then SCO could possibly take legal action against all the major developers and users of Linux.
Last month, SCO mailed a letter to 1,500 companies that use Linux, stating that they could face litigation for unauthorized use of Unix code.
SCO is adamant about defending Unix because its ownership of the licensing rights generated $8.8 million for the company in the first quarter this year, giving SCO its first positive quarter ever, according to a company press release.
Further complicating the issue, Novell alleged last week that SCO did not buy ownership of the copyrights or patents when SCO bought Unix from Novell in 1995 for $145 million.
If Novell can prove it still owns the copyrights, it could mean that the intellectual property rights for Unix do not belong to SCO and that SCO has no grounds for its suit against IBM, according to a Salt Lake Tribune article.
Since Novell made its statement last week, SCO stock fell from a little over $9 to around $6 at the closing of the stock market Tuesday, a drop of more than 30 percent, said CBS Marketwatch.
Novell''s assertion has prompted support from the Linux community and strong counter statements by SCO.
'We strongly disagree with Novell''s position and view it as a desperate measure to curry favor with the Linux community,' said Darl McBride, president and CEO of SCO.
SCO said May 29 in a media teleconference, even though it does not own the copyrights and patents, it does own a contract with Novell, and it believes the contract to be more legally binding than the patents or copyrights.
SCO hinted in the teleconference that to sort out the issue of who owns intellectual property rights to Unix, it would take Novell to court.
Additionally, to promote support for the SCO position, the company has stated in a press release, it will open lines of software code to programmers and other members of the technology community this week under nondisclosure agreements.
According to an article by eWeek, many in the technology community are skeptical that SCO truly has the right to enforce the Unix ownership or even if there has been a misappropriation of Unix code.
On Wednesday, a German court dealt SCO a legal blow when a preliminary injunction was granted against the company, saying it can no longer claim Linux is an illegal derivative of Unix. If SCO does not follow the injunction, it can face a fine of up to 25,000 euro, according to an eWeek article.
One company that formally recognized SCO''s ownership of Unix is Microsoft Corp. licensed the rights to Unix from SCO earlier this month.
Microsoft could have had other reasons behind that move according to a Salt Lake Tribune article, as Linux has become the most adept competitor Microsoft has for its Windows program.
Novell said it feels like the real reason why SCO is pursuing its lawsuit is to hurt Linux, which is considered a competitor to Unix.
'SCO''s true intent is to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt about Linux in order to extort payments from Linux distributors and users,' Messman said.
Even with the assertions by Novell against SCO Gartner analyst George Weiss cautioned recently that companies should not take the assertions of SCO lightly, and they should take precautionary actions.
'Minimize Linux in complex, mission-critical systems until the merits of SCO''s claims or any resulting judgments become clear,' Weiss said.