SCO sues Novell over Unix rights (http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040120/tech_sco_novell_1.html). SEATTLE, Jan 20 (Reuters) - SCO Group Inc. (NasdaqSC:SCOX <http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=scox> - News <http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=scox>) sued Novell Inc. (NasdaqNM:NOVL <http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=novl> - News <http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=novl>) on Tuesday, saying the business software maker was blocking its efforts to collect licensing fees from users of Linux, the freely available operating system.
SCO, which claims control over the rights to the Unix software system, charges that some parts of Unix are being used illegally in Linux, the operating system that can be copied and modified freely.
SCO sued International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM <http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ibm> - News <http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=ibm>) last year, saying the world's largest computer company was responsible for infringing on its copyrights by promoting Linux software containing Unix code.
Novell and SCO, both based in Utah, have been arguing intermittently over which company controls the copyright to Unix.
SCO is demanding that users of Linux, which include large corporations, academic institutions and government agencies, pay a licensing fee or face litigation.
SCO said in a statement that it filed suit against Novell for "its alleged bad faith effort to interfere with SCO's rights with respect to UNIX and UnixWare."
SCO said that Novell had improperly filed copyright registrations and made misleading claims that it owned the rights to Unix.
Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but said, "We will be defending our interests."
A week ago, Novell announced a program to indemnify customers using its Linux software, which it acquired through the $210 million acquisition of German Linux developer SuSE Linux.
Dave Jones
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-- Dave Jones Sine Nomine Associates Houston, TX www.sinenomine.net 281.578.7544
