From Slashdot: Did SCO actually buy what it thought it bought?

Just before Christmas last year, Novell announced publicly that SCO had known for some time that it did not receive all rights and ownership to UNIX technologies, despite public statements to the contrary. Novell has made public correspondence between lawyers representing both Novell and SCO.

[...] In two letters sent to Darl McBride, president and CEO of SCO, dated June 26 and August 4, 2003, Joseph A. LaSala, Novell’s general counsel specifically refutes recent claims by SCO regarding transfer and ownership of “all rights to the UNIX and UnixWare technology” as announced in the June 6 press release.

[...] [SCO] has not refuted anything that LaSala has said but simply offered a blind interpretation that Novell must be wrong, presumably because Novell’s view is not the same as SCO’s. It seems to me that what SCO has is basically a Sale and Marketing agreement; they can sell it and profit from those sales. But they don’t own it. Unfortunately, that’s not what they thought they had.

GrokLaw commentary: SCO’s Missing Risk Factor

From the newswires: U.S. Accuses S. Korea of Piracy Failure

The Bush administration on Thursday accused South Korea of failing to halt the piracy of American movies and music that it said was costing U.S. companies millions of dollars in lost revenue.

The administration announced that South Korea was being added to a priority list of countries that are subject to special monitoring and consultations aimed at making sure the foreign government acts to address the copyright piracy issues that have been uncovered.

If South Korea fails to comply the United States would have the ability to bring a case before the World Trade Organization. If the WTO ruled in America’s favor, the Bush administration would have the power to impose economic sanctions on South Korea equal to the lost revenue from the copyright piracy.

“The administration is committed to protecting American creativity and intellectual property, one of the most dynamic sectors of our economy,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said in announcing the decision to target South Korea.

(It’s going to be a slow day, blog-wise, for me today - lots to address)

From Slashdot, two articles of note:

• Investigating Online Movie Piracy?, stemming from this LATimes article: Secret Movie Moguls (LATimes link)

  Although most piracy groups still concentrate on software and computer games, a steadily growing number dedicate themselves to movie and music piracy. NFOTemple.com, a site that catalogs the boastful explanatory notes, or NFO files, posted by release groups, listed 140 crews devoted to movies in 2003, up from 32 in 2002.

  The growth was fueled by the skyrocketing capacity of computer hard drives and the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections. The technology for turning analog audio and video signals into compact digital files improved rapidly too, slashing the time needed to transmit movies or albums online.

  The scene is closed to much of the world; would-be participants have to gain the trust of insiders and prove their worth before gaining entry. And the lifespan of groups tends to be short, at least on the Net, where players come and go.

• Photoshop CS Adds Banknote Image Detection, Blocking? — so, what else is programmed into tools that we rely upon?

  Cory expresses the problem very, very well.