SCO v Linux: Novell demands payment of withheld income

In the legal battle between Novell and the SCO Group over SCO's claims concerning ideas and concepts in Linux and Unix, Novell is demanding that the SCO Group immediately transfer to it a payment of $625,486.90. The Groklaw site has published the motion by Novell on which the relevant bankruptcy court now has to decide; SCO is operating under Chapter 11 of the American bankruptcy laws.

Novell sees itself as well-founded in requesting special urgency for its application in that SCO, according to its financial statements, only has about $1.6 million freely available. Before any possible insolvency of SCO occurs, Novell would like to see the money it is entitled to in accordance with the relevant court ruling. SCO has appealed against that ruling, but has accepted the sum in question as an outstanding debt.

Novell documents its pressure for payment by saying it does not believe the plan for reorganization presented by SCO at the SCO Forum in Las Vegas. The plan provides for an investor joining the SCO Group and transferring all the vested rights with retained value to a new company (SCO Operations), while the not-particularly-successful ongoing actions against IBM, Novell, Red Hat, and others would remain with the old SCO Group.

(djwm)