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SCO never owned UNIX copyrights, owes Novell 95 percent of UNIX royalties

arstechnica.com — A federal district judge has issued a ruling declaring that Novell is the owner of the UNIX copyrights. This will effectively put an end to SCO's litigation campaign. The judge has also determined that Novell is entitled to 95 percent of the UNIX licensing royalties SCO collected from Microsoft and Sun.

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  • Excessive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+121SCO has really lost everything they have. May the bastards rest in pieces.
    • thcobbs, on 10/10/2007, -1/+16Good thing I never bought that SCO stock.
    • Coded1, on 10/10/2007, -6/+2Isn't it funny, Microsoft with all their lawyers paid just to get their money back? Sounds like a good investment to me.
      • neoform, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7They took a UNIX manufacturer out in the process.. maybe that was the goal the whole time?
      • Sdiggmatism, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0The folks at SCO need to buy some motivational posters while they still can. I recommend this one for starters.

        http://despair.com/doubt.html
    • zodieman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Shh, don't tell Novell, they might get some bright idea and take up the task. It's not like they're gaining any marketshare...
      • SniperSlap, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5No kidding, huh?
        What interest does Microsoft EVER have with Unix other than to try and "overtake" it? They don't. Their product is windows. To think you can "deal" with another competing product in some productive way with a goal other than completely annihilating the other side is foolish.

        We can clearly see Microsoft in these kinds of tangles with Novell and Apple right now. Where the companies are trying to take gentle sips of poison from each other. Whoever is bigger gets to move on.

        It's like highlander...for operating systems.
      • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Maybe for their Services For Unix stuff?
    • jtb4, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11woo hoo! ***** SCO
  • benanzo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+35That 95% is more than they have in cash and assets...but just in case it isn't IBM's counter-claims are going to clean up the rest of the mess.
  • LaggedRabbit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+92SCO is DYING now !
    its just lost 75% of its value in 50 minutes of trading on the NASDAQ
    http://ir.sco.com/stockquote.cfm?benchmark1=&Period=45&Event1=&DisplayType=Area&CustomFromDate=6%2F20%2F2004&CustomToDate=10%2F30%2F2004
    • stephdau, on 10/10/2007, -0/+33*whistles the sound of a bomb dropping from the sky*

      Now that's getting it straight from the horse's mouth! Priceless... Well, $0.38 actually.
      • Cyber_Akuma, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Watching SCO stock plummet into the ground = priceless.

        There are some things money can't buy, for your pocket change, theres SCO.
    • Akaji, on 10/10/2007, -0/+29Fatality...
    • cactus476, on 10/10/2007, -0/+23It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, A beautiful day...
    • nightsweat, on 10/10/2007, -3/+7I'm not believing that statement until NetCraft confirms SCO is dying...
    • Protonz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10In order for people to sell for that low, doesn't it require someone to buy it? Who the heck is buying the stock?
      • Cyber_Akuma, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Microsoft?
      • TypeEE, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8may be someone is looking for a dead bounce opportunity.
      • nebion, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1Those who were selling it short.
      • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The short sellers covering their positions and screaming "HELL YEAH! I made a buck and a quarter a share!"
    • geminitojanus, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12Finally, shorting all of that SCO stock pays off.
    • ngmcs8203, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Think about all of the suckers that bought it in Mar of 04 at $90 and were holding it long. Wow, what a bummer. It's been down ever since it opened.
      • ryannerd, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11Investing in a company that bullies and litigates it's way to revenue? This would be likeinvesting in the RIAA. These investors got what they deserved. No sympathy from me.
      • nebion, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3It was at around $20 at the highest point.

        Still a huge loss for those few who kept it that long (I'd expect most investors to have cut their losses much earlier).
      • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Good. ***** 'em.
    • Tracon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6The legal equal to a baseball bat to the nuts.
    • psykiv, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I'll say it'll go down to .335/share (which would be roughly equal to the amount of net assets they have). Any other bets?
    • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Boom! Headshot!
  • diggstown, on 10/10/2007, -0/+49Now that SCO is a penny stock, it's cheap enough - wouldn't it be painfully ironic if a company like Red Hat were to aquire them?
    • LetsGoHawks, on 10/10/2007, -0/+24It would be funny, but it won't happen.
      If you buy the company, you buy the problem.
      • msgyrd, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Not always. They could pull an AOL or Microsoft stunt and buy the company just so they can close the doors for good.
      • Egoist, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7...and the massive debt owed to their pack of rabid lawyers.
    • dorkino, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10There's no company left. No assets, no product. Only employees pulling more money out of the company via salary and other expenses. Those will be cut shortly as well.

      Only a fool would invest in them at this point. Goodnight, SCO.
      • geminitojanus, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6They still have UnixWare, which still has its UNIX certification, so that'd be worth it for, say, Novell to acquire as part of the settlement that's oncoming (when they countersue for the pain in the royal ass SCO's been). But yeah, other than that they really don't have much of value.
      • corvairkid, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5No assets? I'm sure their buildings have a fair amount of copper wire in them.
        • acceptab1euname, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Several hundred million dollars' worth?
    • bemenaker, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Let the corpse rot
  • HarryBauzonia, on 10/10/2007, -0/+20Darl's trying to decide if he's gonna sell his Porsche and golf clubs.
    This is all he has to say right now:
    http://sco.com/company/news/statement.html
    • rmxz, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5Why would he sell them. During this whole charade his compensation's been mostly cash bonuses. And I don't doubt that Microsoft (after all, it was they who brought in the $86 million to put SCO up to this) will make sure he lands a nice position at one of their companies - not unlike they did for Belluzzo after he killed HPUX and PA-RISC and Irix and MIPS. (google for "Belluzzo microsoft mole" to see an example of the last guy Microsoft used like they used Darl).
      • Absinthminded64, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1So in short bad management in an otherwise potent company really ran it right into the ground. That's kind of sad when you think about it.
    • manicallday, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9I stopped reading after "Forward Looking Statements"
    • dattaway, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4You should have looked to the right and noticed they have a comment form:

      http://ir.sco.com/contactus.cfm

      Why not leave a note congratulating them on their recent accomplishment?
    • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Guess he should sell that stuff before the shareholders, IBM, Novell, RedHat, Diamler-Chrysler, AutoZone, the SEC, and the FBI come looking for their pieces of it. He won't really need it when he's doing 20+ in Club Fed for securities fraud, conversion, extortion, criminal copyright violations, and god-knows-what-else they can get him on.

      Judge Kimball's summary judgement ruling made the job so easy to get his ass and deliver it to Bubba for a well deserved probing of biblical proportions.
  • dbbblondon, on 10/10/2007, -2/+20As of right now their market value is $ 9,861,020 unless they have masses of cash somewhere to pay Novell they are screwed
    http://quotes.nasdaq.com/asp/summaryquote.asp?symbol=SCOX%60&selected=SCOX%60
    • rotten777, on 10/10/2007, -0/+119.4 million and dropping! karma in full effect!
    • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Down about 72% today. With a volume of 5 million shares -- everybody is dumping this dog big time.
  • GoatMonkey2112, on 10/10/2007, -0/+27karma.
    • mglmouser, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1Can someone explain the relation of that situation in respect to the Open Gropu wich owns the trademark for Unix?

      I'm still confused.
    • SEN5241, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Bitch, meet Karma.
  • rmxz, on 10/10/2007, -1/+30SCO management did just fine, tho - note that they paid themselves mostly in cash and cash bonuses; not in stock.

    The only real winners are (a) Microsoft, who's measly $86 million or so that they helped SCO get put a cloud over Linux in corporations for years until Vista launched; and (b) SCO's management team who played Microsoft's game as well as they could and laughed themselves all the way to the bank, and (c) IBM, Redhat, Novell, and SCO lawyers.
    • insomniac8400, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9It would makes sense to go after the CEOs, their money is the settlement money from microsoft and sun.
      • ffleming, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8That's not how corporations work. At best, they might get in trouble for more or less defrauding shareholders.
        • ldkronos, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Thats not generally how it works, but I thought it's possible to go after executives in certain cases (such as fraud).
      • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0It's a blatent enough case that it may well be possible to pierce the corporate veil and go after the execs personally.
    • paradexes, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6As always the little guy all the way down to the janitor at SCO gets screwed over with a layoff and any stock options being worthless.

      SCO deserves the fate they face. Hopefully the CEOs get nailed with something criminal as well. That would really derail them completely. I am sure it will be easy for a savyy lawyer to find a whistleblower that will blow the lid off this.
    • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2The SEC may have some questions. "Darl, you have some 'splainin' to do..."

      Maybe he'll turn rat and take Ballmer down with him.
      • Prefection, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Sadly, Balmer would be more than willing to pay for him to keep his mouth shut.
  • fthead9, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Talk about overestimating your market position. SCO has made blunder after blunder and is now faced with its viability as a standalone company basically over. From deluding themselves into thinking they were the power player with Microsoft on their side to bankruptcy, a hell of a journey.
  • insomniac8400, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6We call those uh-ohs.
  • darknite1979, on 10/10/2007, -5/+8I feel bad for all the employees they are prolly going to be jobless very soon.....
    • ryannerd, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19I live in Utah. You would have to have to be a complete moron to have stayed with a corrupt company like SCO. The second their ENTIRE business strategy became 'sue everyone' is when I would have updated my resume' and gotten out. Don't feel too bad for those employee's that decided to stay.
      • msgyrd, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9They quit improving their software long before SCO vs. IBM started. The only people left seems to be corp. management and lawyers. No symptathy for anyone who stayed.
    • Egoist, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Most of their development is done in India. In fact, take a look at the job locations in their "Current Openings" page.
      • adolfojp, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I feel bad for all the Indian employees they are prolly going to be jobless very soon.....
    • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1If they're still there.... ***** 'em.
  • Twinked, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11Good riddance.
  • astrotrain, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Now I have to go find something else to wipe my UNIX behind with....

  • smb3d, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12I wonder how long before there stock reaches junk status and they are de-listed?
    • Cyber_Akuma, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11*looks at this watch*

      At this rate, give it several more minutes...
    • foooey, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9I'm not an expert, but from what I understand the process starts today since they dropped under the $1 minimum threshold.

      After you trade under $1 for 30 days, you get 90 days to get get it back over $1 or you're delisted.
      • psykiv, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Reverse split anyone? Although at this rate, it would probably have to be a reverse 100-1 to stay listed.
  • snotrokit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15Justice, Karma, call it what you will. They got what they had coming to them. Unfortunately the fallout from such ***** cases, patent trolls and frivolous lawsuits is the cost of defending themselves against people like that. How much money did Novell spend fending off these rat bastards that they will never recover? Darl needs to be personally liable for actions like this. That SOB needs to be working fry-vats for life. No offense current fry-vat workers.
    • Cyber_Akuma, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Implying that someone like that is fit to work in a fry-vat is offensive to fry-vatters everywhere...
    • Egoist, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6A corporation, in the eyes of the law, is a living breathing entity that is solely responsible for the actions of its employees. If a corporation does you wrong, you can try to sue the CEO, but unless there are some very specific mitigating circumstances you can only sue the corporation itself.
  • ffleming, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4I feel sorry for the employees and shareholders, but beyond that I can't muster much sympathy for such an obviously corrupt institution.
    • Fairly, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4They have one employee. Darl McBride. They have one shareholder. Bill Gates.
    • Egoist, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Don't feel too bad for the shareholders. The only ones left were the execs and those who bought the stock while it was wading the penny stock cess pool with the long shot chance that SCO pulled it off and successfully won their case. Kind of like betting on the horse with 100 to 1 odds.
  • ifknot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13SCO is like Randolph & Mortimer Duke :)
    • ForeverXeros, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Bet you a dollar I can prove you wrong.
  • thereminsynth, on 10/10/2007, -12/+7SCO was such a good company too :(
    • Cyber_Akuma, on 10/10/2007, -6/+2Boy, you are going to be dugg down the the force of a thousand geeks.
    • psykiv, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I've used DrDOS before...
    • jtb4, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I smell blood
    • OrangeTide, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1At one time long ago perhaps.
    • Prefection, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I feel certain that thereminsynth simply forgot to include "/sarcasm". Don't worry thereimn... I'll give ya a pity Digg!
    • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The old Santa Cruz Operation was a good company, and for a little while so was Caldera. It's after McBride and his guys took over management that it went downhill fast, sued the bejezzus out of everyone, and then changed their name to SCO that they destroyed that name for eternity.
  • getsivakumar, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Hmm.. interesting. Is this the reason why microsoft has the indemnity agreement with Novell?
    • Fairly, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Possibly. But then you'd have to explain the other similar agreements M$ made.
  • wbeavis, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Will the shareholders and the SEC look for further investigations into the situation? Could there be possible criminal problems here? If things start to heat up and Darl and Co. look at Club Fed, will they start to sing? Could such an investigation come back to hurt Microsoft? Time will tell.

    /I know if I was an investor and not in on some scam, I'd want Darl head on a pike about now.
  • Digitel, on 10/10/2007, -6/+0Ouch
  • blacklilyninja, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13but will they blend?

    My real response now is ... what are the novell lawyers going to do? go on their own litigation campaign?
    • Fairly, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2Let's hope so. IBM own a big piece of Novell. That translates into big bucks for hard hat lawyers.
  • Cyber_Akuma, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Ding Dong the witch is dead.
  • Fairly, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16Darl McBride sat on a wall
    Darl McBride had a great fall
    Microsoft's horses and Microsoft's men
    Got really badly ***** in the end
    • kalleanka, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Actually Microsoft is the one who did good in the end.
      They scared ton of companies from using Linux.
  • lastdeadmouse, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7I got to do an "I told you so" dance at work this morning! Soon to come... 2 "don't say I didn't warn you" dances.
  • atomicwedgie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19May this be new precedent for all garbage lawsuits!

    Let's kill the "We don't make money with product so let's sue someone." business model!
  • tuzziel, on 10/10/2007, -17/+1In other news, Linux contains 95% IP of UNIX, the sad part is that UNIX is a pretty weak OS to start building upon in the first place,
    if only Linus and others were not such a copy-cat heads,
    now Linux a is nice UNIX clone, lol, they even openly admit that, maybe they deserve to be sued.
    • jtb4, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Don't you need to be like getting your clothes and backpack together for school to start back up? Summer is over, kid.
    • tech42er, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Linux has no UNIX source code in it. It's a clone, not a derivative. Do you know this history of UNIX, its derivatives (e.g. BSD), GNU, and Linux?
  • JSager, on 10/10/2007, -3/+4SCO is a definite BUY right now! Get it before it's gone and say you had a piece of history!
    • psykiv, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4That would be the biggest waste of $7.43 ever (as of this writing). ($.42 for the stock, $.01 penalty for the stock being under $1, and $7 commission)
    • DaffyDuck, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3Might as well just skip a step and give it directly to Novell.
  • TygerrTygerr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9At times like this, all you can do is laugh.

    Hahahahahahahaha.
  • MarkOfTheDead, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1it would appear the Streisand Effect is enjoying its new home on digg.
  • sorenlloyd, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5I hear Nelson saying 'Ha Ha!'
  • tommasz, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4SCO made a number of mistakes, not the least of which was letting themselves become a sock puppet for Microsoft. Unfortunately for SCO, MS was much, much smarter than they were. Once the SCO lawsuits stopped having any FUD value, MS no longer needed SCO.

    If I was an SCO shareholder, I'd be royally *****. But then anyone who would invest in a company that had nothing deserves what they get.
  • opes, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Somehow, I don’t think you thought your cunning plan all the way through, SCO.
  • havesometea, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Well, let's see if their friends at Microsoft will pay off their court costs and future royalty debts.
  • fak3r, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6It has to be said: p0wn3d.
  • SniperSlap, on 10/10/2007, -5/+1Oh snap.

    Suck it greedy bitches. Long and hard, you assholes deserve worse for trying to extort the market.

    Assholes, enjoy your big bowl of ***** you.
  • TheZorch, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5SCO`s lawsuit over Linux has always been considered a joke. Now they are reaping what they sowed and the cost for their greed will be very high indeed. It's their own fault.
  • CarbideTipped, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2ROFL!
  • jellygraph, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3SCO... rest in... nah, what am I saying... rott in peace!
  • jmcantrell, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1i guess it pays to be in Microsoft's pocket...
  • macfan76, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Suck it Trabek! Suck it long! Suck it Hard!!!!
  • jtwyrrpirate, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5chown /sco/unix/copyrights/* -R novell:linux

    In other words, all SCO's base are belong to Novell.
    • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2rm -rf /sco
      mv /Darl /home/fed_pen
      chown -R bubba:***** /home/fed_pen/Darl
      chmod 000 /home/fed_pen/Darl
  • morphie, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1It's a matter of YingYang. Now that the world is going better, someone has to pay for it. Thank you SCO.
    • maz2331, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0When can we expect Darl to get some Ying in the Yang?
  • delusr, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0LULZ
  • Tobark, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1*Nelson Voice* Ha ha!
  • ELWOOD_BLUES, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Nananana,nananana, hey hey hey, goodbye!

    Time to get out the resumes...
  • acceptab1euname, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Statement from SCO Regarding Recent Court Ruling: 207 words
    Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer: 292 words

    heh.
  • Prefection, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1What I love in all of the recent Unix legal activity is the crystal-clear view we're getting how Microsoft treats open-source partners.
    Step 1) Get involved with open-source
    Step 2) Get involved with Microsoft
    Step 3) Get involved with being totally f**ked
    • MrJ412, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1How do you figure? You're trying to make a point about the party that won this one ...
  • moschops, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This and the recent supreme court patent ruling are the best news I've heard all year. What's that saying - if you live by the sword you'll die by the sword?
  • thatsiebguy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1p0wed!
  •  

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