SCO's latest filing in its legal battle against Novell appears to lend credence to Novell's claim that the transfer of Unix to SCO was not comprehensive.

SCO is in the midst of a suit against Novell, claiming the company's public claims of ownership of Unix assets has hurt its business. Yet in the latest documents to be filed, SCO admits that because it was unable to raise enough money to buy Unix outright, a compromise was agreed.

'To help bridge the gap between the purchase price of the Unix business and the price Santa Cruz could afford, the parties agreed to a narrow exception to the complete transfer of the Unix business,' it reads.

SCO's PR Director Blake Stowell explains it thus: 'When AT&T and Novell owned the UNIX business, they licensed UNIX to thousands of entities. Some of these entities chose to pay an up front one-time fee, while others chose to pay a quarterly royalty fee over time.

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