Skype Gives Up Anti-GPL Appeal: Legal Posted by: comforteagle From the FTW dept.: ...In the end, the court hinted twice that if it was to judge about the case, Skype would not have very high chances. After a short break, Skype decided to revoke their appeals case and accept the previous judgement of the lower court (Landgericht Muenchen I, the decision was in my favor) as the final judgement. This means that the previous court decision is legally binding to Skype, and we have successfully won what has probably been the most lengthy and time consuming case so far. Published May 09, 2008 - 10:51 AM Read more... Comment

GPL vs. Skype Back In Court: Legal Posted by: comforteagle From the Enforcement dept.: Tomorrow at 10:30am at the Oberlandesgericht Muenchen (higher regional court of Munich) there will be an oral hearing in the "Welte vs. Skype Technologies SA" case. The hearing is to be held in room E.06. This case is about a GPL violation of Skype, related to their sales of Wifi Skype phones based on the Linux operating system kernel. I'm fighting as part of the gpl-violations.org project in enforcing the GPL against Skype since February 2007. Initially Skype didn't respond, we then applied for a preliminary injunction. That injunction was granted by the court in June 2007, but Skype chose to file an appeals case against it. Published May 08, 2008 - 11:57 AM Read more... Comment

Darl McBride Takes the Stand In Novell v. SCO: Legal Posted by: comforteagle From the Still Going... dept.: "Reading the account, it seems that the SCO folks are currently trying to delicately separate Unixware and SVRx. However Novell's lawyers are quickly pointing out in the past where SCO made no distinction between SVRx and Unixware in their literature or press releases. In day 1's account, SCO's tree picture shows Unix as SCO IP (Unix). Also SCO's position is that it owes Novell nothing because the deals to MS and Sun were Unixware deals and not SCOSource deals (the much despised Linux licensing program) or SVRx deals. Novell points out fatal flaws in SCO's arguments. Sun wanted the ability to open source some of their Solaris code (which became OpenSolaris). Solaris and Unixware both branched from SVR4 so they would need permission from the owner of SVRx copyrights, not the Unixware owner. That owner is Novell. The MS deal is a little different in that MS wanted Unixware rights AND rights to legacy Unix (SVRx). The best part of the cross-examination was Darl refusing to admit that the MS and Sun deals were not SCOSource, but Novell showing SCO's financial statements (10Q) where both deals were listed under SCOSource and not Unixware revenue." Published May 01, 2008 - 06:21 PM Read more... Comment

Red Hat Asks Federal Court To Limit Patents On Software: Legal Posted by: comforteagle From the Pleading dept.: Today, Red Hat took a public stand challenging the standards for patenting software. In the Biliski case that is now before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, this patent issue is ripe for consideration. In a friend of the court brief submitted to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in the Bilski case today, Red Hat describes the special problems that patents pose for open source and seeks modification of the standards for patentable subject matter that take open source into account. Published Apr 08, 2008 - 03:11 PM Read more... Comment

Novell steering clear of SCO Group buyout, attorney says: Legal Posted by: comforteagle From the Entanglements dept.: Novell Inc. has had no contact with the head of a company trying to buy the bankrupt SCO Group and plans to go ahead with a trial next month to determine how much SCO may owe it for licensing the Unix operating system, officials said Monday. Last month, Stephen Norris, head of the Stephen Norris Capital Partners that is bidding to buy majority interest in the Lindon-based SCO Group, said he hoped the planned investment would spur settlement of the SCO-Novell lawsuit. Published Mar 19, 2008 - 08:57 AM Read more... Comment

SCO is back: Legal Posted by: comforteagle From the Oh Puke dept.: Embattled Unix vendor SCO may get a new lease on life, thanks to a $100 million infusion aimed at helping it emerge from bankruptcy and pursue its controversial legal claims. The financing comes from Stephen Norris Capital Partners (SNCP), which will take a controlling interest in SCO as part of the deal. Published Feb 15, 2008 - 06:59 AM Read more... Comment