Novell vows not to sue anyone over Unix

DESPITE BEING TOLD by a court that it owns the rights to SCO's Unix copyrights, Novell says it has no intention of suing anyone who uses them.

Technically there is nothing stopping Novell from suing existing Unix vendors. The outfit could even sue its new chum Microsoft it if wanted. But a spokesNovell Bruce Lowry said that his company had no interest in becoming the next SCO. He added that his company was not involved with Unix any more and had no interest in getting litigious.

Just because Novell owned SCO's Unix did not mean that it would suddenly change its plans and sue Linux users. Lowry said Novell still did not believe that there is Unix in Linux.

According to Computer World, Lowry said the ruling means, "the cloud has lifted over Linux" as users and distributors of the open-sauce OS can finally breathe a sigh of relief that they are not in violation of Unix copyrights.

However, that does not mean that Novell is letting SCO off the hook. One of the issues that Novell is continuing to sue SCO over is the payments SCO received from Microsoft and Sun for Unix licences.

Lowry claimed that if the those companies paid SCO for Unix copyrights owned by Novell, SCO will have to pay Novell whatever it earned from those licences. µ