Answering SCO Bit by Bit – The Robert Swartz Memo, Take 2

“If you go to this Groklaw article, you will find the rebuttal
to it, and I’ll add some new points here now. The memo points out
similarities between Linux and UnixWare code, but it also pointedly
stated that Swartz had not traced ownership of the code but would
leave it to Mike Davidson to do that, since code in BSD Lite, he
wrote, for just one example, would be perfectly legal to use in
Linux:

“Additionally we investigated the settlement of The Regents of
the University of California and BSDI. It is my understanding that
anything in BSD Lite tape which was distributed by the University
of California, is free of any legal encumbrances from SCO. Further
any code which is necessary to meet the POSIX standard is also free
of encumbrances.

“Swartz mentioned that it would take someone else to trace the
ownership of the code that Swartz found that was similar, to find
out if it was legally used or not. Mike Davidson later did in fact
do the tracing out of each item on Swartz’s list, and in 2002 he
reported to Reg Broughton at Caldera, now calling itself the SCO
Group, what he had found: that there was no illegal code in what
Swartz had referenced in his memo. None. Here’s the email [PDF],
once again:”

Complete
Story