Novell To Indemnify Linux Users

Novell plans to indemnify Linux customers and their solution providers against legal charges that could result from looming SCO Group litigation.

The news comes as the networking power completes its acquisition of SUSE Linux. The indemnification will cover SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 with qualifying technical support.

The SUSE buyout, announced last fall and just now completed, gives Novell what it calls a "full stack Linux solution" as well as global support offerings.

The indemnification plan addresses copyright infringement claims "made by third parties against registered Novell customers who obtain SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 8 and who after January 12, 2004, obtain upgrade protection and a qualifying technical support contract from Novell or a participating Novell or SUSE LINUX channel partner," the company said.

Mark Hardardt, vice president of global sales for Novell, said the indemnification is an "extremely positive" step for solution providers. "There have been customers waiting to hear what companies like Novell are going to do from an indemnification standpoint," he said.

Hardardt said SCO's legal actions have created a "cloud" over some partners and customers who have been "sitting on the sidelines."

Joseph LaSala, Jr., senior vice president and general counsel of Novell, said: "To the extent that any party out there attempts to thwart the enterprise adoption of Linux on the basis of copyrights, Novell is saying to those end users: become a customer of Novell and you will be afforded an added measure of protection to the extent that SCO or someone else challenges the SUSE Linux distribution."

Novell's move follows actions by several other major Linux vendors to provide protection for customers using the operating system. The SCO Group has claimed that its intellectual property ended up in Linux and has charged IBM with contract violations in that regard.

Hewlett-Packard has also offered its own, limited indemnification for Linux users, which does not include software that has been altered. Critics said such provisos make indemnification almost meaningless because the benefit of open-source software like Linux is the ease with which it can be adapted and customized.

And earlier this week, the Open Source Development Labs, IBM and Intel announced they would create a multimillion-dollar defense fund for any customer sued by SCO. (See story.) That fund would cover the legal costs of any customer sued by SCO for copyright infringement.

Referring to indemnification efforts by other vendors, Hardardt said, "the fact is that we're in the position of owning Linux and that puts us in a different position."

As for the completion of the SUSE Linux deal also announced by Novell Tuesday, Hardardt said that SUSE Linux will become a product business unit within Novell and will be integrated completely with Novell's matrix-like sales and marketing structure.

He stressed that Novell will keep the strong SUSE Linux brand. "This will not go away," Hardardt said, adding that Novell does not anticipate any layoffs as 399 SUSE employees are added to the Novell organization.

Novell intends to immediately start taking calls on prospective sales opportunities, which have increased dramatically since Novell announced the deal, said Hardardt. SUSE had only five people in an Oakland office who were "getting slammed" by inquiries, he said. "We've trained all our guys from our inside sales and telemarketing organizations and have flipped the switch."

Novell said it expects to have completely integrated SUSE into its organization by the its upcoming Brainshare conference in March.

For more information see the Novell Web site.

Steven Burke contributed to this story.