Like Tony, I'm against SCO's attempt to shore up the bottom line via their "Linux stole our code" lawsuits. I'd much rather see SCO focus their efforts and resources on software development—especially in the realm of bringing OpenServer up-to-date. For that reason, as well as others, I've had more than a passing interest in what would ordinarily be boring litigation.
As it turns out, the whole mess may come to a halt sooner than expected, and SCO will be able to resume software engineering instead of lawsuit-mongering—assuming the company is still intact after the dust has settled. In a recently posted Groklaw article, it is revealed that the contents of some Novell corporate board meeting minutes from 1995—right before Novell's sale of UNIX to SCO was consummated—seem to indicate that the board did not include the UNIX copyrights with the rest of the package to be sold to SCO. In other words, what Novell had been claiming along was indeed true.
If in fact this is the case and if a judge determines that said records conclusively prove that Novell did not sell SCO the copyrights along with the rest of the package, then every action mounted to date by SCO will have been for naught. It would be highly likely that all claims by SCO would be summarily dismissed, leaving them (SCO) with a very big legal bill to pay—and freshly scrambled egg on their faces.
