The judge’s final decision was based on a number of false claims by SCO as well as “financial interest in the litigation.”

“The jury could have rejected the testimony of SCO’s witnesses for a number of reasons, including their lack of involvement in drafting the APA, the fact that there was little testimony on any actual discussions concerning the transfer of copyrights, or that many of the witnesses had a financial interest in the litigation.”

“The Clerk of the Court is directed to close this case forthwith,” Stewart writes in the final judgment. I believe that means SCO v. IBM is essentially over now, unless IBM wishes to pursue its counterclaims.

Eventually, the case even led to slander charges agains Novel and IBM. You know when you’re pulling the slander card you’re at the end of your litigious rope. Incidentally, they’re now at 5 cents in over-the-counter trading.

This matter came before the Court for trial on March 8, 2010, through March 26, 2010. Based on the Jury Verdict and the Court’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, Final Judgment is entered as follows:
1. Judgment is entered in favor of Novell and against SCO on SCO’s claim for slander of title pursuant to the Jury Verdict.

2. Judgment is entered in favor of Novell and against SCO on SCO’s claim for specific performance pursuant to the Court’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.

3. Judgment is entered in favor of Novell and against SCO on Novell’s claim for declaratory relief pursuant to the Court’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. Specifically, the Court declares:

a. Under § 4.16(b) of the APA, Novell is entitled, at its sole discretion, to direct SCO to waive its purported claims against IBM, Sequent and other SVRX licensees;
b. Under § 4.16(b) of the APA, Novell is entitled to waive on SCO’s behalf SCO’s purported claims against IBM, Sequent and other SVRX licensees, when SCO refuses to act as directed by Novell; and

c. SCO is obligated to recognize Novell’s waiver of SCO’s purported claims against IBM and Sequent.

4. Judgment is entered in favor of Novell and against SCO on SCO’s claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing pursuant to the Court’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. The Clerk of the Court is directed to close this case forthwith.
SO ORDERED.

DATED June 10, 2010.

BY THE COURT:

______[signature]__________________
TED STEWART
United States District Judge

via Groklaw

Get a load of the assets going for $35,000. Not only do the copyrights and the source code go to the buyer, but there are 12 servers in the deal, 13 domain names, and 10 developer smartphonees. You find the list in Exhibit C Part 6, which begins with a list of the source code products involved in this transaction, but I notice something else. The deal is supposed to be, if approved, between SCO Group, MIH,LLC and Darl McBride. That is typical of a deal with an LLC, which, being a limited liability company with unknown resources, might shut down and then there is no way to enforce. So often you’ll see that someone with the LLC has to personally sign the deal too, so there is someone to sue, if necessary. But in this case, although all three are named in the Agreement, I see only two signature lines, Cahn (with Bonnie Fatell signing for him by permission) and MIH, LLC, with Darl signing as President, but I don’t see Darl’s signature line as obligating himself as an individual, outside of the LLC.

Clearly this is a end-of-life move for SCO but when Groklaw can’t even figure out what’s going on here I give up. I used to follow SCO for years but recently it’s just seemed like a pointless enterprise. It appears they’re going to just keep litigating until death.

Additionally, not only is there no reasonable chance of “rehabilitation” in these cases, the Debtors have tried — and failed — to liquidate their business in chapter 11.

Thanks Groklaw, for keeping this story alive! It’s as much fun today as it was six years ago when SCO first brought their billion dollar lawsuit against IBM.

The story breaks down like this: SCO believed that Novell and other companies who used Linux were actually using UNIX SVRX source code illegally inside the Linux kernel. After independently verifying the code, SCO discovered that Linux was free of SRVX code and that in fact Novell owned the rights to SRVX. Bloops!

This garbage has been going on since 2003 and finally SCO is getting its final day in court although it’s not getting quite what it bargained for. SCO is currently going bankrupt and can’t pay the amount, but a trust has been set up containing $625,000 which Novell will receive once the company is dismantled.

SCO one had a great future. They threw it all away on a pointless war and an are now financially bankrupt.

Oh, how far the mighty have fallen. If you remember, SCO was patent trolling back in the day over UNIX and Linux. They sued a number of folks, including IBM, and then sunk into the muck of late, losing cash as it went. In short, they were suing everybody who looked at their code wrong, ensuring a steady stream of work for their in-house lawyers. Now, however, their hard work has paid off and they’re being delisted from NASDAQ due to Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Time to hit the penny stock boards, boys! Pump and dump here we come!

SCO Receives Nasdaq Notice Letter [PRNewswire]

SCO makes and sells nothing of any interest. Their M.O. thus far has been simple — enforce dubious patents on UNIX and Linux and bet on the big money that is sure to follow. With this decision, however, their days are numbered.

“Although the district judge ruled in Novell’s favor on important issues, the case has not yet been fully vetted by the legal system and we will continue to explore our options with respect to how we move forward from here,” the company said in a statement.

Press on all you want, guys. Your business model is dying.

UPDATE – I’m a big moron. This is mostly about copyright. Cory “Patent Monkey” Sorice writes:

This is actually a copyright issue that SCO claimed was wrongly copied by IBM to create Linux from Unix in a 2003 suit on property where SCO claimed to have bought he code for Unix from Novell in 1995. Given this ruling, Novell can force SCO to shut down the case, though, IBM may have other obligations to SCO on that failed JV.

All in all, good news for the FOSS folks, very bad news for SCO as the share price shows.

Investors bailing on SCO stock, SCOX plummets [Ars]