FSF.org: FSF Statement on SCO v. IBM
“The lawsuit brought by the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) against
IBM has generated many requests for comment by FSF. The Foundation
has refrained from making official comments on the litigation
because only the plaintiff’s allegations have been reported;
comment on unverified allegations would ordinarily be premature.
More disturbing than the lawsuit itself, however, have been public
statements by representatives of SCO, which have irresponsibly
suggested doubts about the legitimacy of free software overall.
These statements require response.“SCO’s lawsuit asserts that IBM has breached contractual
obligations between the two companies, and also that IBM has
incorporated trade secret information concerning the design of the
UNIX operating system into what SCO calls generally ‘Linux.’ This
latter claim has recently been expanded in extra-judicial
statements by SCO employees and officers to include suggestions
that ‘Linux’ includes material copied from UNIX in violation of
SCO’s copyrights. An allegation to this effect was contained in
letters apparently sent by SCO to 1500 of the world’s largest
companies warning against use of free software on grounds of
possible infringement liability…”
InformIT: SCO and Justice
[ Thanks to Nicholas
Petreley for this link. ]
“Two questions come to mind as I approach the topic of SCO and
its ongoing anti-Linux jihad. Where do I start, and when will it
all end?“I should start with the recent revelations about the so-called
evidence against IBM. There is new information that at least some
of the most important common source code between Linux and SCO UNIX
actually originated with Sequent…”
BusinessWeek: Commentary: Will This Feud Choke the Life Out of
Linux?
” The $1 billion lawsuit that SCO Group (SCOX ) Inc. filed
against IBM in March is turning into something akin to water
torture. Every few weeks, there’s a new allegation or announcement
from the tiny Lindon (Utah) software company, provoking fears that
it will enforce its intellectual property rights against sellers of
the Linux computer operating system.“Enough already. True, SCO should be free to protect its
software, in this case core pieces of the Unix operating system
upon which Linux is based. But its relentless approach to this case
could cause irreparable harm to Linux–slowing or even halting its
adoption by corporations…”
ComputerWeekly: Fear and Doubt Won’t Stop the March of
Linux
“SCO’s lawsuit against IBM and concerns about security have
failed to dampen enterprise users’ enthusiasm for the open-source
software.“Once an outsider in the server OS race, Linux is now ‘a
mainstream choice for many infrastructure workloads,’ according to
research firm IDC, which predicts annual growth rates of 28% for
the open-source operating system over the next three years…”
Reuters/Boston Herald: IBM Lawsuit Expenses Can Hurt SCO
“Executives at SCO Group Inc. are preparing for a battle against
International Business Machines Corp. that could result in more
legal fees than it can afford…“‘The trial may go on a number of years, and we are prepared to
do so,’ said Chris Sontag, a senior vice president in charge of
SCO’s Unix licensing efforts…”