SCO’s lawsuit against Novell has hit a huge speed bump.  A major part of their case was based on the claim that SCO owned UNIX and UnixWare, a claim that those who have been working with UNIX since it’s inception have been saying is fallacious, from the very beginning of this legal battle.  The judge has agreed with them, UNIX and all associated copyrights belong to Novell.  SCO nows owes quite a bit of money to Novell as a result of the ruling and will hopefully mean that SCO will shut up about Linux … eventually.

This does not herald the end of the legal battle, not by a long shot.  There are still quite a few claims and counterclaims that are pending, or have been denied or granted in part only.  The legalese is quite thick, which is why Groklaw has tried to put it into language that is easier to understand, but you can also read the actual ruling in pdf format, or in plain text.