Judge Says Unix Copyrights Rightfully Belong to Novell

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Hooray! Here’s the New York Times report…

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 10 — In a decision that may finally settle one of the most bitter legal battles surrounding software widely used in corporate data centers, a federal district court judge in Utah ruled Friday afternoon that Novell, not the SCO Group, is the rightful owner of the copyrights covering the Unix operating system.

In the 102-page ruling, the judge, Dale A. Kimball, also said Novell could force SCO to abandon its claims against I.B.M., which SCO had sued. Judge Kimball’s decision in favor of Novell could almost entirely undermine SCO’s 2003 lawsuit against I.B.M.

The ruling could remove the cloud over open-source software like Linux, an operating system loosely modeled on the proprietary Unix. The unresolved ownership has been seen as a limiting factor in the willingness of computing managers for businesses large and small to adopt open-source software, which can be adapted freely by software developers and can be legally shared or modified by end users…

Botanical immigrant no. 2

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Fuchsia: my favourite hedgerow flower. Kerry’s got hedges which seem to contain nothing else but my friend John D tells me that, like Montbretia, it’s not native to Ireland. It’s a pretty good argument for migration IMHO.

Next parish America

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The Blaskets are a mesmeric group of islands off the Kerry coast which, among other things, spawned a remarkable set of writers. The islands were eventually abandoned in the 1950s, after a prolonged storm prevented a doctor being brought from the mainland to the aid of a dying young man. But they retain an elusive, romantic fascination. Some years ago, the Irish government built a cultural centre on the mainland to celebrate the culture and literary heritage of the islands. There was a great deal of controversy about the building, which many people felt was too intrusive. It does indeed look strange from a distance, but once inside it one immediately sees that it has great architectural integrity. It’s built around a long, slate-floored spine which points towards the abandoned village on the Great Blasket. We went there in the late afternoon and had the place more or less to ourselves. It was a beautifully peaceful and evocative experience.