SCO Presents Proof of Unix Copyright Claims

SCO Presents Proof of Unix Copyright Claims
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News follows a 29 percent surge in the company's share price on the Nasdaq Exchange Thursday. The SCO Group on Friday once again reiterated that it is the only rightful owner of the Unix System V source code and all related copyrights.

The question of the copyright transfer is clarified in Amendment No.2 to the asset purchase agreement between SCO and Novell, dated October 1996, SCO CEO Darl McBride said in a media teleconference on Friday. That amendment agreement came to his attention on Thursday afternoon, he said.

"SCO reaffirms our position that portions of the Unix System V code are found in Linux. In addition, significant portions of derivative works of Unix System V code are found in Linux," he said.

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The news that SCO found this amendment, which appears to strengthen its legal position with regard to enforcing its Unix rights, follows a 29 percent surge in the companys share price on the Nasdaq Exchange on Thursday.

The gains in SCOs share price were less pronounced on Friday following the announcement of the amendment covering copyright. As of 1:48 p.m. EDT, SCOs share price had risen $0.38 or 4.46 percent to $8.90 on the Nasdaq Exchange on trade of just over 500,000 shares.

Asked by eWEEK on Friday about the possible association between the two events, McBride said the call he received about the amended agreement came in the afternoon after the majority of the trades that had pushed the share price higher had already taken place. "I do not know what to attribute that rise to.

"I can tell you that the call I got that we had found some of this information with respect to the copyright came in the afternoon, well past when a lot of the change and what was going on there had passed. I cant comment as to why those shares would have been going up. I also did not sell or buy any SCO shares on Thursday and havent seen any reports about anybody else in this company participating," he said.

A spokesman for the Securities and Exchange Commission told eWEEK on Friday that it was too early to comment as to whether any complaints had been filed in this regard or whether the SEC would pursue the matter.

McBride on Friday also addressed the attack by Novell, which last week asserted that SCO did not own the Unix System V copyright and that Unix copyrights had not transferred to SCO as part of the SCO/Novell asset sale. "By these and through other statements, Novell asserted that it owned the Unix System V copyright. Novell does not own these copyrights, which were properly transferred from Novell to SCO as part of the asset sale," he said.

SCO is the only rightful owner of the Unix System V source code and related copyrights, he said. "Today we are restating that SCO owns the Unix operating system along with all of the contracts, claims and copyrights associated with Unix," he said.

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