SCO Update

["Jerry Feldman-2" <user=4@nabble.blu.org>]

 Yesterday, federal bankruptcy judge Kevin Gross issued an order lifting 
the stay on the SCO vs. Novell case effectively shifting the focus back 
to Utah: 
 http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071127151556531

The reason this case is important to the Linux community is that it 
establishes the ownership of the Unix IP. Judge Kimball ruled in a 
summary judgement that Novell, not SCO owns the Unix patents and 
copyrights, and that they never were transferred to the Santa Cruz 
Operation when Novell sold the licensing rights. The danger to Linux is 
really in the IBM case where SCO claims that IBM contributed code into 
the Linux kernel in violation of their Unix license. Both the Novell 
and IBM cases are somewhat complex and convoluted, but the bottom line 
to Linux and the Linux community is that if Judge Kimball's summary 
judgement on Unix holds up, it automatically undermines SCO's claim 
against IBM, and therefore lifts any clouds of copyright violation from 
the Linux kernel, meaning that SCO can't sue you for using Linux. 


-- 
Jerry Feldman <[hidden email]> 
Boston Linux and Unix user group 
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 
PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 
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