SCO restates claims to Unix

SCO Group yesterday reiterated its claim to ownership of all elements of Unix intellectual property including source code and copyrights.

To support its controversial assertions, the firm has taken the step of publishing "all of the documents" surrounding its alleged intellectual property assets.

The website detailing the Unix claims - www.sco.com/novell - includes access to the asset purchase agreement, the amendments to the asset purchase agreement, and the joint announcement issued at the time SCO said it purchased the Unix assets from Novell in 1995.

SCO claimed that this announcement, signed by Novell and SCO executives in September 1995, confirms that it purchased the Unix intellectual property along with the Unix business and source code, "among other things".

"Based on the asset purchase agreement, amendments, press releases and other publicly available documents, SCO has rights to all Unix and UnixWare source code, legal claims, contractual rights, including copyrights, necessary to protect its intellectual property," said Darl McBride, president and chief executive at SCO (pictured).

SCO insists that the documents prove it owns the following:

• All Unix rights and ownership.
• All claims against any parties relating to any right, property or asset included in the Unix business.
• All Unix source code.
• All Unix contracts, copyrights and licences.

"The asset purchase agreement provided Novell with a Unix licence, but with the conditions that Novell use the licensed technology only for internal purposes, or for resale in bundled or integrated products sold by Novell which do not directly compete with the core Unix products of SCO," said SCO.

"SCO believes that a Novell Linux offering is clearly competitive with SCO's core Unix products."

McBride went on to describe the Linux Indemnification Programme launched by Novell earlier this week as "significant".

"By announcing the programme they are acknowledging the problems with Linux. Through the restrictions and the limitations on the programme, they are showing their unwillingness to bet very much on their position," he said.

"SCO is willing to enforce our copyright claims down to the end-user level and, in the coming days and weeks, we will make this evident in our actions."

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