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A federal judge ruled the copyrights to the Unix operating system belong to Novell, not SCO, after years of aggressive litigation by SCO.

SCO Thwarted In Unix Decision

Some final matters of law still need to be hammered out, but it looks like a decision handed down in Utah by federal judge Dale Kimball has finally knocked out SCO's claims to Unix copyrights.

Their lawsuit against Novell has drawn a 102-page ruling from the bench, and as Pamela Jones at Groklaw noted, it's all about Novell:

Here is what matters most:

[T]he court concludes that Novell is the owner of the UNIX and UnixWare Copyrights.

That's Aaaaall, Folks! The court also ruled that "SCO is obligated to recognize Novell's waiver of SCO's claims against IBM and Sequent". That's the ball game. There are a couple of loose ends, but the big picture is, SCO lost. Oh, and it owes Novell a lot of money from the Microsoft and Sun licenses.

Groklaw also said the trial scheduled for September 17th "appears it will mostly (but not all) be about what SCO owes Novell. Novell's slander of title counterclaim goes to trial, for example, but SCO's does not."

SCO responded to the decision with a statement, saying they were "obviously disappointed" in the ruling.

"However, the court clearly determined that SCO owns the copyrights to the technology developed or derived by SCO after Novell transferred the assets to SCO in 1995," said SCO.

Both Microsoft and Sun licensed Unix technology from SCO in 2003.

Neither licensee has released a statement yet regarding the Utah court's decision. The stock market has weighed in with its opinion, and the verdict from Wall Street has been a bigger bloodbath than the last Harry Potter novel.

Shares of SCO plunged from their 1.56 open to a current price of 44 cents. SCO may present a defiant tone in their post-verdict statement, but investors aren't listening.