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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."
Unfounded conspiracy theory: SCO v IBM goes to trial, SCO loses terribly, and the court rules that IBM and Linux do not in any way infringe upon SCO's property by copyright, contract, or any other method. Microsoft, seeing that the FUD engine that is SCO is losing steam fast and when fully dead will actually make IBM and Linux stronger, gets Novel to call back the attack dog, making it look like a friendly gesture but actually preventing the stronger precedent from being set.
More likely case, though similarly unfounded: Novel has their own case with SCO regarding their UNIX contracts, and much like IBM had to go through a lengthy process before they felt their case was strong enough to order summary dismissal of many of SCO's claims, so too Novel had to build a case so that when they present this motion before the judge, they feel it is likely to be accepted. If they do in fact have the contractual right to order SCO to stop litigating IBM, then they probably want to assert their authority and use it, rather than appear as though they are allowing SCO to continue.
But you're right, it isn't obvious to me (IASNAFL*) that this is what IBM wants. If they wanted a quick end to the case, they could have settled (with an obviously bad precedent). They seem very intent to crush SCO in their steely grasp and let the sand-like remains run between their fingers to be blown away by the wind.
* S = So, F = Fornicating
The enemies of Democracy are
Novell isn't filing a lawsuit; they are simply filing a motion for summary judgment. It would be a fairly irrational thing to let a case drag out in open court as legal fees continue to pile up during a trial. According to Wikipedia:
Summary judgment is the best thing to do when a case has no merits. I'm sure the stockholders of every company involved (besides SCO) are glad to see this routine step of a civil trial being carried out with diligence.
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
Novell's waiver was over 3 years ago and has been public knowledge for most of that time. All that's happening now is that Novell are asking for a judgment declaring that their waiver is valid. IBM's motions for partial summary judgment on the copyright issue are all ready on the table. Chance are the judge will find that the 300 odd non-contiguous lines of allegedly infringing code don't amount to infringement of a protectable element anyway even IF they turn out to have been copied verbatim from SysV (very unlikely) and even if SCO is eventually ruled to own SysV (very unlikely). This is at most a back up motion in case the judge isn't convinced by everything else.
To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. ~ h2g2
About time! I've been holding off for this stock to fall in the $1-1.50 USD before I ordered my paper certificates and they will have a small window before they get delisted. Looks like I place my order Monday. As far as white elephant gifts go, this is one of the best things you can give a *nix person - a shiny SCOX stock certificate all framed up. Keep in mind you will pay much more for the chunk of physical paper, but people loved the pets.com and other dot bombs. This one is special, or at least has a special place in hell. (grin)
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Consider this.
M$ 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?'.
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.