SCO seeks to shut down Novell Linux
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
The SCO Group's long-running legal fight against Linux took a new turn at the very end of 2005. In a Dec. 30 filing, the company sought to expand its lawsuit against Novell, a prior owner of Unix intellectual property and a current seller of the Linux operating system, which SCO argues is tainted with its own Unix intellectual property.
In the filing, SCO proposes amending its claims against Novell. The new claims, if the court permits them to be added, directly target Novell for distributing Linux.
"Through its Linux business, Novell...continues to infringe SCO's copyrights in Unix, by copying, reproducing, modifying, sublicensing and/or distributing Unix intellectual property without authority to do so," SCO said in the proposed amended claims.
In a new breach of contract claim, SCO argues that "Novell has materially breached section 1.6 of the asset purchase agreement...by distributing the licensed technology as part of a product (Linux) that is directly competitive with SCO's core server operating systems." (The asset purchase agreement is the document under which Novell sold some Unix assets to SCO's predecessor, the Santa Cruz Operation.)
SCO also accuses Novell of copyright infringement and unfair competition in the proposed claims.