January 26, 2004 (Computerworld) --
You probably thought things couldn't get any weirder with The SCO Group and Linux, didn't you? Of course they could. Last week, the company that claims all Linux users owe it royalties sued Novell for "slander of title." Now that's weird. Impressive, certainly -- "slander" gives it a sort of Hollywood-starlet-vs.-supermarket-tabloid sexiness. But chances are, unless you're a lawyer, you don't have the slightest idea what it means. Now, why would SCO want to confuse you that way? Here's the background: Last summer, SCO claimed that it owns all the copyrights associated with Unix and that Novell sold it those rights in a 1995 contract. That's important to SCO's legal claims, because SCO needs to own the Unix copyrights in order to sue Linux users for infringing them. No Unix copyrights, no Linux copyright-infringement suits. But Novell said SCO was wrong -- first privately in letters to SCO, and later publicly. Novell said that it didn't sign away its Unix copyrights in that 1995 contract and that it still owns all the copyrights to Unix. Sounds like a contract dispute, right? SCO claims the 1995 contract says one thing; Novell claims it says something different. But instead of filing a contract lawsuit, SCO has sued Novell for "slander of title." What is that? Slander of title is usually invoked when someone owns real estate and someone else questions that ownership, making it difficult or impossible for the owner to sell the property. Applying that idea to Unix copyrights, SCO says Novell has publicly claimed that SCO doesn't own those copyrights -- thus discouraging Linux users from paying royalties to SCO. Yes, that's a weird way to approach what's really a contract dispute over software copyrights. And that's telling, because there's only one reason why lawyers choose an oddball way of pursuing a suit. They do that when it looks like the straightforward approach won't work. Judges like straightforward approaches. Juries do, too. And it's a judge and jury that will eventually have to decide what that 1995 contract said and who should own the Unix copyrights. If SCO's lawyers could make a good case with a contract lawsuit, they would. Apparently, they can't. It turns out that SCO's lawyers aren't likely to have much luck with a slander-of-title suit either. It won't pry loose the Unix copyrights from Novell, since that's a contract issue that's not affected by any of Novell's public statements. And a slander-of-title lawsuit is likely to be tossed out by a judge, whose first question will be, "Why didn't you file a contract suit?" Ah, but until then, it sounds impressive, doesn't it? Almost as impressive
"TITLE="IT Blogwatch", where we watch Target pay handsomely for its "failure" to make its Web site work for blind people...."
Read more...
"Gartner Inc. has issued a press release with the headline "Gartner Says Enterprises Must Anticipate How Societal Trends Will Impact..."
Read more... Read more Government & Regulation posts or See all Blogs
Netbooks, ultraportables, mini-notebooks — whatever you call them, they've been grabbing headlines. Are they here for the long term or just a flash in the pan?
Computerworld Executive Briefing: The Compliance Era
Get this briefing free (a $195 value), for a limited time, courtesy of VeriSign. The new Computerworld report, The Compliance Era, explains why regulatory compliance has zoomed to the top of the IT agenda and shows how real-world IT executives are dealing with the storage, security and privacy challenges. Get this briefing free (a $195 value), for a limited time, courtesy of VeriSign. Download this executive briefing
From Laggard to Leader: Transforming the Data Center
From Laggard to Leader: Transforming the Data Center Register for this complimentary live webcast today! Go to the webcast
Qualified Security Assessors are not created equal
Download this whitepaper, free for a limited time, compliments of VeriSign! (Source: VeriSign) Learn how a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) can help you acheive full compliance and security in this white paper, presented by VeriSign and Computerworld. Download this white paper
White Papers
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services.
Eliminate SPAM, Gain Productivity Learn all about the dangers and the costs of spam in all its forms – from stock-touting to spreadsheet. Also, understand the drawbacks of traditional hardware- and software-based defenses – and the unique benefits of MessageLabs multi-layered, managed Anti-Spam solution; as illustrated by a real-world case study where MessageLabs stopped spam cold.
Download this white paper now! See more Whitepapers
The Spy Files For Congress to do anything that helps protect consumers and the critical Internet infrastructure as a whole, it must pass laws that require proactive processes to protect computers, not that tell people how to deal with the resulting mess, says Ira Winkler.
Customer Satisfaction with Email Archiving Systems Osterman Research conducted a primary survey asking organizations about a variety of archiving systems to understand the level of satisfaction that customers of Sunbelt Exchange Archiver (SEA) and other email archiving offerings report on a variety of metrics related to product and vendor performance. Download this white paper now!
See your link here
Subscribe to
Computerworld 
Get this briefing free (a $195 value), for a limited time, courtesy of VeriSign. 
From Laggard to Leader: Transforming the Data Center
Download this whitepaper, free for a limited time, compliments of VeriSign!
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. 
Since You Asked
Learn all about the dangers and the costs of spam in all its forms – from stock-touting to spreadsheet. Also, understand the drawbacks of traditional hardware- and software-based defenses – and the unique benefits of MessageLabs multi-layered, managed Anti-Spam solution; as illustrated by a real-world case study where MessageLabs stopped spam cold.
Download this white paper now! 
The Spy Files
Osterman Research conducted a primary survey asking organizations about a variety of archiving systems to understand the level of satisfaction that customers of Sunbelt Exchange Archiver (SEA) and other email archiving offerings report on a variety of metrics related to product and vendor performance.
Computerworld