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Novell Files New Summary Judgement Motion
rm69990 writes "In yet another piece of SCO news this week, Novell has filed a new motion for partial summary judgment, asking the court to declare that Novell is entitled to direct SCO to waive its claims against IBM, that Novell has the right to take these actions on SCO's behalf if SCO refuses to comply and that SCO is obligated to recognize Novell's waiver. Since SCO's case against IBM is primarily a contract case, this issue affects the IBM case far more than the ongoing copyright issue between Novell and SCO. This bad week for SCO just got even worse."
gg SCO... noobs
But is this something that IBM even wants?
You'd think that Novell could have filed this lawsuit a year or three ago instead of waiting till right before SCO vs IBM goes to trial (in a few months).
Why try to kill the lawsuit at this point?
It's already imploding under the weight of SCO's garbage.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=SCOX
And just throw out the case. Court cases have been dismissed because of much smaller irregularities. SCO kept changing its claims, making unreasonable evidence requests and then failing to produce their own part of evidence. They are trying to profit by presenting an undecided court case as fact and selling their "indemnity licenses". Let them appeal if they want - either they'll get their shit together and be clear on what they are claiming that didn't get heard, or the appeal will be thrown out as well.
Ever wonder if this was MS's plan all along? Not to win?
.... so why not toss some serious FUD into the market as long as possible until they could get their new platform to market? Vista comes out, SCO goes down the tubes. It's win-win for MS.
By funding this charade via SCO, they bought themselves time.
Linux had been gaining server market share, and they knew their new product was going to be severely delayed
I'm not usually in the tinfoil fedora (pun somewhat intended)camp but this thought came to mind this morning.
- Roach
Can't you see the logic? Novell *waives* IBM's transgression rather than letting the court prove there wasn't one in the first place. Now, coming as it does after the MS deal and the spectre of patent issues, does something not smell a little like a rotten herring?
There's enough conspiracy theory to go around, by the way. Just grab a chunk and go make your own post. This one's mine...
Resistance is futile. Reactance buggers it up.
Judge K said he wouldn't accept dispositive motions before the end of discovery so Novell couldn't have filed this before now.
Judge K can decide this one without going to a jury because it can be settled as a matter of law. All he has to do is read and interpret the contract. The contract is pretty unambiguous so my guess is that Judge K will grant it.
What effect will this have? Novell told SCO that it couldn't cancel IBM's license. Judge K's decision may be limited to just that matter. This probably won't end the whole IBM case and certainly it won't end IBM's counterclaims.
You're confusing SCO v IBM with SCO v Novell. Discovery is ongoing in the Novell case. In fact there's a motion by Novell to compel discovery from SCO coming up for hearing soon. Agree with everything else you say though, and yes this is just one more motion in an ongoing case. It's not like Novell have been sitting on their hands until now as some people seem to think.
To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. ~ h2g2
Consider this.
M$ is now getting Vista out to businesses and to the public in a couple of months.
M$ now has a deal with Novell, and with Novell now showing strength in this ongoing matter with SCO, it is only helping M$.
Novell now will fight with SCO in court while M$ works on its next OS which will work with Linux.
My thought is maybe M$ wants to find a way to get Linux software to run natively in the windows environment allowing M$ to say, 'Look, we can run Window and Linux software at the same time with just one OS. Why get a Linux OS that can only run Linux software when you can get Windows OS and run both Windows and Linux software?'.
This is the specific thing that came to mind when I read about the MS-Novell deal. Think about it for a minute. Should MS decide to sue anyone for IP infringement ala Linux later, they need to pre-empt Novell now, forget about SCO or IBM.
By removing the uncertainty of the outcome of the Novell-SCO angle through their no-sue agreement, they strengthen their hand. Whether or not MS actually sues doesn't matter. It's all perception for them. Perception on what they tell the federal/state/local/regional governments during contract negotiations, perception on what they tell CEOs and CIOs during their renewal negotiations, etc.
By removing Novell from the issue, MS still retains the uncertainty hammer that they can drop at any time with any customer or any Linux distributor. And in many industries (banking, financial, legal, many others), any uncertainty is unacceptable, so they stay with MS.
Also, this perception thing, pre-empting Novell from any lawsuit, is an excellent investment for MS considering if they really sue, they may face renewed anti-trust litigation which may really break them up. Strengthening their hand by pre-empting Novell with the deal they struck is win-win-win for MS. And the Novell-SCO angle is the perfect example why.
This motion is not dispositive to the Novell case. It is, on the other hand, dispositive to the IBM case!
Where are their opinions on this matter now? Mr. Enderle was a very vocal person on this subject at one time for example. There were others of course but he stood out being one of the most vocal with how malicious OSS community is and how IBM has its days numbered if for no other reason than previous evils it has committed along with Groklaw being devoid of any substance or meaningful insight on this subject. Credibility is inversely proportional to actually being correct it would appear in this light, so why aren't these people talking now?
BSD is designed. Linux is grown. C++ libs
Looks like Novell's trying to polish their broken reputation.
In terms of copyright/IP law, this case might set the scene for 21st-century American litigation. Were it not so significant I doubt Slashdot would pay such close attention to it.
Judges are human beings and subject to all the vices of the rest of us - could it be the kudos of fronting such a trial would outweigh more logical considerations about the wisdom of allowing the case to continue?
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
It's not a lawsuit, it's a "motion for summary judgement". It's a request for the judge to decide the case himself, on the grounds that the case is so one-sided that it would be a waste of a jury's time. But for obvious reasons you have to wait until the other side is done trying to build their case before you can file this. Standard legal practice. Not a conspiracy. Nothing to see here, move along.
I think SCO is gonna get a nice visit from Robot Santa this year. They've been naughty.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Nope. Novell also, in October 2003, directed SCO to waive their right to claim IBM's own code as protected. In Feb 2004, they directed SCO to waive their right to claim Sequent's own code as protected.
"Main Entry: dispositive
Pronunciation: dis-'pä-z&-tiv
Function: adjective
1 : directed toward or effecting a disposition (as of a case)
2 : relating to a disposition of property
3 : providing a final resolution (as of an issue) : having control over an outcome
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc."
An example of a dispositive motion would be one for a 'Partial Summary Judgement' which is what the story is about. It is basically a verdict. In this case, the judge reads the contract and rules that Novell had the right to tell SCO that it couldn't terminate IBM's contract. All the evidence has been provided in discovery and all the witnesses have been deposed.
Anyway, IANAL so if I'm missing something please enlighten me but I think I have the concept roughly correct.
I sent this email to Rob Enderle after rediscovering an editorial of his on Forbes in the last Slashdot story about the SCO case. This was what I sent:
h tml
----
Based on what you said in your original article dated 4/26/04:
From: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/opinion/33529.
and I quote:
"SCO has just over US$60 million in resources to sustain it while it
fights IBM (NYSE: IBM) Latest News about IBM in what clearly is one of
the most volatile wars in the history of technology. What has been
very interesting is that SCO publicly has been given almost no chance
of winning, while privately the company has convinced several folks,
including me, that it has a strong chance."
Just curious where you stand now with the recent revelations in this SCO case.
----
This was his reply:
----
Someone should be looking into where all of that money went... They
mismanaged this to an incredible degree and pissed away any advantages
they may have had. After Darl threatened me for suggesting the SCO
stockholders should take action I kind of stopped following them all
that much. One wonders if they will even be around in 12 months...
Rob Enderle
Principal Analyst
Enderle Group
Unfortunately (for Microsoft), the part of SCO v IBM about declaring Linux "clean" is a counterclaim by IBM, not a claim by SCO. So even if Novell got SCO's claims waived, IBM's counterclaims could still go forward, and they probably would unless IBM decided it was tired of the whole mess.
#include <stddisclaimer/ianal.h>
Put your website and a link to it in a discussion a few days old on an extremely popular bulletin board. It's extremely sad that it works this way, but I would very much like my name, Dylan Brams, to be associated with my website, Dylan Brams.com
Have a nice day.