Juan Carlos Perez

(IDG News Service) — Novell Inc. is taking The SCO Group Inc. to task over SCO's legal claims over Unix and against Linux software. Novell on Wednesday said it never transferred the copyrights and patents of Unix System V when it sold the software to SCO in 1995. SCO claims all Unix flavors in use today are based on Unix System V, and that it owns the software code and licensing rights to that software. Novell, however, said SCO is apparently aware that it lacks these copyrights and patents because over the past few months SCO has "repeatedly asked Novell to transfer the copyrights to SCO, requests Novell has rejected," Novell's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President Jack Messman wrote to SCO's President and CEO Darl McBride. Novell included the entire text of that letter, along with additional comments, in a press release issued Wednesday. SCO launched an init... (more)

SCO to enforce its intellectual property in Linux

(IDG News Service) — Linux and Unix users and vendors beware: The SCO Group has hired high-voltage attorney David Boies, former antitrust Microsoft Corp. slayer, to look into possible violations of SCO's Unix and Linux intellectual property, it said Wednesday. Along these lines, SCO has also created a new division entrusted with managing the company's intellectual property assets, an area over which the company says it wants to keep tighter controls. The idea is for the company to be "a little bit more aggressive than we have been in the past at enforcing our intellectual p... (more)

Mono 1.0 slated for release this year

(IDG News Service) — Project Mono, an effort to create an open source version of the Microsoft Corp. .Net Framework, expects to release version 1.0 of its software this year, probably in the fourth quarter. The project, launched in July 2001, aims to create a runtime environment for Microsoft's .Net Framework for a variety of operating systems, including Linux, Mac OS X, Windows and Unix, said leader Miguel de Icaza, chief technology officer at Ximian Inc., a Linux vendor spearheading the project. By providing a set of open source tools for building .Net applications that run on ... (more)

IBM responds to SCO's complaint

(IDG News Service) — Didn't do it. That's the clear message IBM Corp. has sent with its reply to The SCO Group's $1 billion lawsuit in which it accuses Big Blue of illegally trying to damage Unix to build up Linux. IBM categorically declares that it "has not engaged in any wrongdoing" and that, contrary to SCO's allegations, it has not misappropriated any trade secrets, nor engaged in unfair competition, nor interfered with SCO's contracts nor breached any contractual obligations to SCO. IBM filed its response on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah ... (more)

Microsoft to license Unix from SCO

(IDG News Service) — In a deal that brings together companies that Linux backers consider bogeymen, The SCO Group announced Monday it has shaken hands on a licensing agreement with Microsoft Corp. over SCO's Unix operating system. Through the deal, SCO has licensed Unix technology, including source code and patents, to Microsoft, said Chris Sontag, senior vice president and general manager of SCO's SCOsource, a division in charge of managing and protecting the company's Unix intellectual property. This deal ensures Microsoft is in compliance with SCO's Unix intellectual propert... (more)