The SCO Group is an American company developing system and application software. Previously known as Caldera Systems , it was involved in the development and implementation of its GNU / Linux distribution .
In 2000, the company bought the rights to UnixWare and OpenServer operating systems from Santa Cruz Operation . The company received a new name in 2002 and at the moment, despite the matching abbreviations, has nothing to do with Santa Cruz Operation.
The company became known for several lawsuits against corporations that support the free GNU / Linux operating system for illegally using UNIX system code. The loudest of these was the trial against IBM in 2003 . SCO accused IBM of illegally injecting part of the SCO code into the Linux kernel. 2007-08-11, it became known that, by a court order, Novell has copyright in UNIX and UnixWare, and claims from SCO are unfounded [1] .
The Groklaw website is a unique center of opposition to SCO. Although the resource has existed for a long time, it was only in February 2007 that SCO tried to call its creator to court [2] [3] .
On September 1, 2007, it was announced that Sberbank of Russia had chosen the products of this company as an update for its servers [4] .
Content
Linux lawsuits
A series of legal and public disputes between the software company SCO Group (SCO) and users and corporations that support the free GNU / Linux operating system . SCO Group claims that the license agreement with IBM means that the source code that was written by IBM and incorporated into Linux violates the SCO right established by this agreement. Linux community members disagree with SCO's claims, and IBM , Novell, and Red Hat filed counterclaims.
In 2003, SCO made lucrative deals with Microsoft, the main competitor to GNU / Linux developers. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
On August 10, 2007, a federal district judge, in a SCO vs. Novell confrontation, ruled that Novell, and not the SCO Group, is the full copyright holder of the Unix operating system. The court also ruled that "SCO, at the request of Novell, is required to waive claims against IBM and Sequent." After the verdict, Novell announced that it was not interested in litigation over Unix, and emphasized: “We don’t believe that there is Unix inside Linux” (We don’t believe there is Unix in Linux) [12] [13] [ 14] [15] .
Background
In early 2003, SCO announced that there had been "an erroneous inclusion of the code for its UNIX System V system on Linux." However, the company refused to indicate specific sections of the code, saying that evidence would be presented only to the court. It has been said that such code can be found in SMP , RCU, and some other parts of the Linux kernel .
The company later announced it would file a lawsuit against IBM for $ 1 billion, claiming that IBM included elements of SCO's trade secret in Linux. Then the amount of claims increased to $ 3 billion, and then to $ 5 billion.
Experts notice that the USL v. BSDi has shown that copyright on Unix is vague and cannot warrant a lawsuit. As of July 2007, the UNIX trademark was not owned by SCO. Thus, the claims were limited only to the violation of trade secrets, and after some confrontation, such a case was difficult to develop beyond establishing the fact of violation of the contract by IBM, and therefore, only IBM remained in the defendants. SCO was looking for a stronger case for claims against the Linux community, and explicitly excluded all claims for trade secrets from the lawsuit.
Bankruptcy by Chapter 11
September 15, 2007 SCO declared themselves temporary bankrupt in order to protect against creditors [16] .
On February 14, 2008, SCO filed an application for funding of $ 100 million from Stephen Norris Capital Partners to get out of bankruptcy and become a private company [17] . SNCP has developed a new business plan for SCO, involving the release of new products, and affecting its litigation [18] . Upon the entry into force of the reorganization plan, CEO Darl McBride was to quit. [19]
- On March 9, 2009, SCO Group filed an appeal [20] against a court ruling rejecting all SCO claims made against Novell related to intellectual property rights on Unix. The first appeal hearing was scheduled for May 6, 2009.
- On August 24, 2009, the Court of Appeal overturned the decision that Novell owned Unix and UnixWare. As the judges noted, the decision was erroneous, and therefore it is necessary to conduct an additional investigation in order to establish the true owner of the rights to the disputed program code [21] .
- On March 30, 2010, the Utah District Court issued a verdict: Novell owns Unix copyright [22] .
SCO assets were put up for auction on October 25, 2010 [23] .
Notes
- ↑ Groklaw - Court Rules: Novell owns the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights! Novell has right to waive! (eng.)
- ↑ SCO started hunting for the creator of Groklaw - Software and Security - Operating Systems - Linux - Compulent (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment March 15, 2007. Archived April 3, 2007.
- ↑ SCO Vs. Blogger - Forbes.com
- ↑ Sberbank chooses SCO OpenServer 6 for servers - GNU / Linux and Open Source news (NIXP.RU)
- ↑ Halloween Document 10
- ↑ Microsoft Covers Back With SCO Unix License
- ↑ BayStar Confirms Microsoft Connection to SCO Investment
- ↑ Is Microsoft Behind SCOs $ 50 Million Cash Infusion?
- ↑ SCO's Suit: A Match Made in Redmond? - Businessweek
- ↑ SCO strikes gold, Verizon just strikes | Platforms - InfoWorld
- ↑ Microsoft to license Unix code - CNET News
- ↑ MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER Civil Case No. 2: 04CV139DAK
- ↑ Montalbano, Elizabeth . Novell Won't Pursue Unix Copyrights , PC World ( 2007-08-15 ). Date of treatment September 4, 2007.
- ↑ Judge Says Unix Copyrights Rightfully Belong to Novell New York Times (August 11, 2007). Date of treatment August 15, 2007. Archived February 2, 2012.
- ↑ Court Rules: Novell owns the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights! Novell has right to waive! . Groklaw (August 10, 2007). Date of treatment August 15, 2007.
- ↑ SCO Group files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy | Reuters
- ↑ Sean Michael Kerner. SCO Plans Rebound Thanks to $ 100M Lifeline internetnews.com . Jupitermedia Corporation (February 14, 2008). Date of treatment February 15, 2008. Archived on August 21, 2011.
- ↑ The SCO Group, Inc. The SCO Group Announces Reorganization Plan to Include $ 100 Million Financing by Stephen Norris Capital Partners (inaccessible link) . Yahoo! Inc. (February 14, 2008). Date of treatment February 15, 2008. Archived on February 20, 2008.
- ↑ Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. SCO CEO Darl McBride is on his way out . Linux Watch . Ziff Davis Enterprise Holdings Inc. (February 14, 2008). Date of treatment February 18, 2008. Archived on August 21, 2011.
- ↑ http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/SCONovellAppeal-9640044.pdf
- ↑ Novell stripped of copyright on Unix . Archived August 21, 2011.
- ↑ Decision in the SCO Group vs. Novell Jury trial . Archived August 21, 2011.
- ↑ Truvo, Tronox, Bear Island, Lehman, SCO, Spheris, Fairpoint: Bankruptcy - Bloomberg
Links
- Pamela Jones. Novell's Motion to Lift Stay Granted! - Updated: Novell files notice in Utah . Groklaw (November 27, 2007). Date of treatment November 28, 2007.
- Pamela Jones. Transcript of the March 7 Hearing in SCO v IBM . Groklaw (March 15, 2007).
- Michael Ramendik. Secrets of the Linux scandal: courts, thefts and suicides . CitCity (October 23, 2007). Archived August 21, 2011.