Novell Recovers $20 Mil In Software On eBay

Novell, Inc. has recovered $20 million worth
of its software that was offered on the auction site eBay, the Utah-based company disclosed today.

Novell said the software was put up for auction last year by
Peter Bosworth of Attleboro, Massachusetts. During routine
monitoring of the Internet, Novell investigators discovered various
versions of NetWare, GroupWise, BorderManager and others
posted on eBay.

Bosworth said he found the software in a dumpster last year. Novell
anti-piracy manager Ed Morin would only say that a number of
software packages containing several disks each that were
supposed to have been distributed were tossed into the dumpster.
He would not specify who dumped the Novell products or give the
location of the dumpster.

The company contacted Bosworth and was able to recover all of
the software without having to take him to court, Morin said.

"Selling intellectual property is different than selling hard assets,"
Morin told Newsbytes. "The thing that Novell is selling is a license
to use. That's why we call it unauthorized."

But Bosworth says he did nothing illegal. "I was selling on eBay
some of the material they dispense free to corporations and
companies," he told Newsbytes. "There's no law against me
selling it. It came into my possession legally."

Novell said it investigated 2,400 cases of unauthorized use of its
products in 1999. Morin said no single case involving Novell software
has had a higher monetary value than the $20 million worth offered
by Bosworth.

Bosworth questioned Novell's claim that the software is worth that
much. "They told me each package was worth $30,000," he said.
"That's what they say. I don't think so, because I found it in a
dumpster. I don't have any idea what it is."

Novell's Web site can be found at http://www.novell.com