SCO Group wins Unix copyright appeal

SCO Group, whose 6-year-old legal case arguing Linux infringes its Unix copyright hasn't been enough to keep it from bankruptcy court, nevertheless won an important victory in its case Monday.

A skeptical federal judge earlier had ruled that Novell had retained Unix copyrights when it sold its Unix business to the Santa Cruz Operation, a company whose Unix assets SCO Group later acquired. But the appeals court overturned that decision, based in part on a close reading of the Unix asset purchase agreement, sending the matter to trial for a decision. The appeals court did uphold a ruling that SCO owed Novell royalty payments, though, according to a 55-page filing.

SCO Group Chief Executive Darl McBride, who's been demonized by the Linux faithful, was happy with the decision. "Today is not the end of the war but it certainly is a key battle that we've won," he said in a statement in the Salt Lake Tribune. "Now it's time to move on to the next series of battles with our victory in hand."

[ann_outsider]

SCO didn't win the appeal. SCO did win the opportunity to have yet another trial. It's not the same.

[gerrrg]

Isn't having a summary judgement overturned, considered winning an appeal?

[odubtaig]

From the Salt Lake Tribune, as linked in the story:
"a three-judge panel of the appeals court said that Kimball was premature in dismissing SCO's claims before they could go to trial. The decision written by Judge Michael McConnell sends the case back to Utah for a trial."

So, SCO have won an appeal against the summary dismissal of their claim that they own the UNIX copyrights and can now take that claim to trial. They just haven't won that trial yet. With any luck, they never will. They're like the Michael Myers of companies out to take all others down for their own nefarious purposes and no matter how many times you think someone's landed the killing bow they just... won't... die.

[ghmitch]

In reality, the summary judgement won't really be overturned until a jury officially overturns it. Until then the whole issue remains as clouded as it has ever been. And they still have to pay the money to Novell. What kind of win is this? And who is going to pursue the appeal they now have the right to? Darl McBride is chomping at the bit to move forward with this appeal, but SCO is bankrupt, finished, out of business forever. And Darl McBride is no longer running SCO. The company is in the hands of a trustee whose duty is to gracefully dismantle the company, not to pursue further litigation. The only likely litigation ahead would be stockholder litigation against the people that brought this company to ashes and possible litigation against those same people from the many who have suffered injury from their ill conceived legal crusade against everybody and anybody who dared to cross them.

[Get_Bent]

Now let's see SCO come up with the cash for their royalty payments to Novell.

[Random_Walk]

Considering that McBride is starting to sound too much like the old Iraqi Information Minister, I doubt they can, or will.

[Random_Walk]

Dude - seriously misleading story. They won the right for it to go back to trial, where they will promptly get slapped for the royalty payments, backdated naturally. They'll be cash-flow negative in less than a week.

[gerrrg]

The royalty issue was upheld by the appeals court, whereby SCO owes Novell around $3M. I don't know what you're talking about. The portion that was remanded back to lower court was ownership issue of the copyrights.

[Random_Walk]

Which is what I (not too clearly, granted) said.

As soon as SCO shows up in court, the first thing out of Novell's mouth will be "where's my money, b!tch!?", and SCO will promptly lose any hope of paying their lawyers from that point onwards.

[gerrrg]

I don't think it'll even make it back to court. Having won the issue of royalty payments, Novell has a stronger bargaining position with SCO in bankruptcy, and not enough cash to make payments, let alone another trial.

[jonshf]

"cash-flow negative in less than a week", unless MS shows interest. They've done so before.

[Random_Walk]

"...unless MS shows interest. They've done so before."

Before, they were able to hide it under some pretense (e.g. "licensing payments"), or get some money sent indirectly from behind a front (e.g. Baystar).

Nowadays, any money going into SCO will be scrutinized forwards, backwards, and sideways... and it will have to pass muster in front of the Bankruptcy Trustee.

I don't see Microsoft wanting to take that kind of risk this time... especially anything with a risk that might detract from their impending Windows 7 hype machine.

[ralfthedog]

anyone see the similarity in names? Baystar and Paystar?

[krosafcheg]

UGH Just die SCO, DIE ALREADY!

[WDS2]

Good lord, someone call Ash and let him have a go at this zombie thing.

[TX-Sunset]

Dude, where did you learn english at and can you get your money back? Not only was that horribly written, it was horribly written. I hope no one is paying you for this drivel.

[pentest]

Grammar Nazi's always screw up their self-righteous rants. It is a truth as constant as time.

[odubtaig]

That's Numberwang!

[t8]

You deserve to be judged with the same measure you judge.
Looks like you failed your own standard by the look of it.
Quite funny.

[notsatch]

by pentest August 25, 2009 3:14 PM PDT
Grammar Nazi's always screw up their self-righteous rants.

Yup, silly Grammer Nazi's! LOL

Lighten up, Francis...

[thelemurking]

why won't SCO just die already?

[Dalkorian]

See "Return of the Living Dead" and ask yourself, how do you kill what's already dead?
;-)

[jbcahill]

What attorney or group of attorneys wants to represent SCO and take this on in a re-trial. They will never get paid.

[Randy549]

No doubt Darl will be in the courtroom arguing the case himself...

[JoeF2]

Their agreement with their current law firm covers that. They got paid already. Although I doubt that they are enthusiastic, since any more work lowers their per-hour rate.
In any case, the SCO management is no longer in control They are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and a trustee has been appointed today.
One of the tasks of the trustee is to see if there is any value in continuing these lawsuits, given that there is no evidence at all.
And with the payments to Novell, which were confirmed by the appeals court, SCO could well be out of money to continue the business, which would mean Chapter 7.

[InklingBooks]

This is so typical of how the courts routinely issue rulings that maximize the income of lawyers. Nobody will win with this continuation but the lawyers. There's a legal principle that when a copyright is sold, the wording stating so much be clear. Ambiguity and uncertainty resolve in favor of Novell.

And in the end, who was the stupid lawyer who wrote a contract so muddled, we need all this costly contention to settle the issue. He should get the bill for all this litigation.

[xilonic]

For the years this has been dragging on, the lawyers already won, handsomely so. They are looking forward to more winning...

[JoeF2]

The Chapter 11 trustee is now appointed, so it is rather irrelevant what Mr. McBride says. He doesn't speak for the company anymore.
I expect the trustee to shut down this ill-fated lawsuit lottery soon.

[pentest]

SCO hired an auditor, the auditor concluded the same thing Judge Kimball did. SCO filed the suit even though it knew it was without merit.

The bankruptcy judge appears on the brink of throwing them to the wolves anyway. They lost and lost badly. I wonder where all those "millions of infringing lines of code" went?

[odubtaig]

The dog ate them.

[t8]

The lines of code were abducted by aliens.

[t8]

Yay. More entertainment for the masses.
Can't wait to see them lose again.

[ghmitch]

The most misleading part of this brief article is that it implies that Darl McBride is still in charge of SCO which he is not. So all the talk of continuing this litigation on his part is just further evidence of his underlying insanity since he would not even have standing, let alone money, to move this case forward on his own. He and his management clique have been responsible for spending millions of dollars on this ill fated venture and it remains to be seen as to whether his stockholders will hold him responsible for the huge losses he has inflicted on them.