It took Novell more than two days after the announcement that it's being bought for its chief marketing officer John Dragoon to say on the company's web site that Novell's Unix copyrights will stay with Novell.

God knows it wasn't answering the phone.

What Dragoon says still means control passes to Attachmate's owners and it is still unclear what control Microsoft has over them - considering the acquisition seems to have Microsoft's fingerprints all over it - or how interested Attachmate might be in preserving those rights against SCO, whose case still exists.

Oral argument in its appeal of the jury decision award Unix ownership to Novell will be heard January 20.