SCO long, it's been bad to know ya

IDG News Service — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:12:05 -0500

The fat lady may not yet be singing in the long and painful saga of SCO v. The World, but you can hear her warming up. And don't she sound sweet?

Those of you following the case know that SCO got b*tchslapped last August, when a federal judge ruled that Novell owned the Unix patents in question and the only thing left to determine was how much SCO was going to have to fork out. That also killed SCO's copyright claims against IBM, because you can't enforce copyrights on something you don't own.

SCO filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection shortly thereafter, delaying the inevitable judgment. In late November, another judge ruled the trial can go forward despite the bankruptcy filing.

The elusive Pamela Jones of Groklaw -- whom SCO tried unsuccessfully to locate so they could force her to provide a deposition earlier this year, in yet another strange twist to the case -- reports that the trial to determine damages will take place next January. With any luck, the SCO farce will be just a bad memory by mid February -- a nice valentine to those of us who have a fondness for open software that stays open.

Novell isn't likely to collect much scratch out of this. It's unlikely SCO will have anything left, once it pays off its attorneys -- the only true winners in this case.

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SCO long, it's been bad to know ya