SCO's display of code it alleges was copied into the Linux kernel by IBM--a piece of evidence critical to its US$3 billion lawsuit against Big Blue--has come under fire from Linus Torvalds and Linux advocates who claim the code shown was released under an open-source licence several years ago...
"Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, told ZDNet Australia by e-mail the alleged blunder wasn't a surprise. 'Hey, that was what we claimed was the most likely source of common code from the very first time,' he wrote.
"'So one code snippet was from pretty much original Unix--and yes, Caldera released the old Unix code itself back when they still remembered that they made all their IPO money off Linux--which is interesting partly because it shows how SCO has been lying all along: they said several times how they are talking about SysVr4 code, not 'old Unix' code, and now they show old Unix code on their slides...'"
Los Angeles Times/Boston Globe: SCO Undercuts its Linux Case
"The software company that claims to own key pieces of the free Linux operating system undermined its case this week by displaying samples of the disputed code--which critics then traced back to a decades-old program released with few restrictions.
"SCO Group Inc. set off a firestorm this year by suing IBM Corp., alleging that the firm improperly contributed SCO-owned code to Linux. For years, SCO and its predecessor have owned the rights to much of Unix software, which much of Linux imitates..."
