August 11, 2004 (IDG News Service) -- Two months after a Utah judge refused to dismiss a slander lawsuit filed against Novell Inc. by The SCO Group Inc., the Linux vendor has again moved for dismissal of the case, according to documents filed late last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.
SCO can't prove its slander case because there is a legitimate dispute over who owns the Unix copyright, and the case should, therefore, be dismissed, Novell's Aug. 6 filing argues. "SCO cannot show that Novell acted with malice," the documents said.
Both Novell and SCO have claimed ownership of copyright to the Unix System V source code, and last January SCO brought the lawsuit against Novell, arguing that the Waltham, Mass.-based company engaged in a bad-faith effort to block SCO's ability to enforce its copyrights.
Novell sold its Unix business, which was eventually acquired by SCO, in the mid-1990s. But it argues that the Unix copyrights weren't transferred as part of the deal, a claim disputed by SCO.
In a June ruling on a separate motion, the judge in the case indicated that a 1996 contract amendment made it unclear whether SCO or Novell now owns the Unix copyright.
Novell's filings cite this ruling as proof that there is a legitimate copyright dispute.
SCO spokesman Blake Stowell declined to comment on Novell's latest filings, except to say, "I'm sure that we'll respond to this latest filing by Novell with some kind of a response filing of our own."
Novell officials couldn't be reached for comment.
Reprinted with permission from For more news from IDG visit IDG.net Story copyright 2006 International Data Group. All rights reserved.
"I told you so. I told you back in late June VMware was about to get its block knocked-off by..."
Read more...
"I want; I mean I really want, an Apple MacBook Air. Mind you, I wouldn't kick a Lenovo ThinkPad X300..."
Read more... Read more Linux posts or See all Blogs
Is Microsoft's Golden Age over? What are Gates' most memorable quotes? Find out in Computerworld's complete coverage of the end of the Bill Gates era at Microsoft.
Computerworld Technology Briefing: An open-source path to optimal virtualization
Download this Technology Briefing now! (Source: Novell/IBM/Intel) Virtualization is about a lot more than just lowering total cost of ownership. In fact users that have taken an open source path to virtualization have realized the additional, mission-critical benefit of markedly reduced IT complexity, as well as a more flexible infrastructure that is easier to change to meet shifting, often unpredictable business requirements.
Download this executive briefing
Long Tail Supplier Collaboration - What's In It For You?
Long Tail Supplier Collaboration - What's In It For You?
Download this webcast, free, compliments of Sterling Commerce
Go to the webcast
Virtualization Everywhere
Download this white paper, free, compliments of Citrix. (Source: Citrix) Adoption of virtualization is concentrated among large enterprises, while adoption by mid-sized companies has been much slower. For these companies, the cost and complexity of server virtualization solutions has been a barrier.
In this paper, we'll discuss how Citrix XenServer" provides simple, economical server virtualization for any size company. Download now!
HP StorageWorks EVA4400
Before now, midsize customers settled for either an expensive and complex array or low cost solution that lacked functionality. Now experience virtual storage with enterprise class functionality at an affordable price. View this product demo now
Are time constraints pressuring your development, QA, and support resources to cut corners on software quality? If so, your company's not alone. According to a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of BMC Software, "...problem resolution is a major time-sink for developers and a drain on the efficiency of application development and support."