Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

SCO responded today to itself getting no response from IBM over the UNIX rights flap. SCO tripled the suit, clarified some allegations and filed for an injuction against IBM selling AIX.

Specifically (from linked news.com article) "SCO seeks at least $1 billion in damages from IBM's alleged breach of its contract with SCO; another $1 billion for breach of the Unix contract signed by Sequent, which IBM acquired in 1999; and another $1 billion for unfair competition. SCO also seeks more for misappropriation of trade secrets and punitive damages."

SCO also officially mentions Linux and Linus Torvalds in the suit as such: "As IBM executives know, a significant flaw of Linux is the inability and/or unwillingness of the Linux process manager, Linus Torvalds, to identify the intellectual property origins of contributed source code that comes in from those many different software developers. If source code is code copied from protected Unix code, there is no way for Linus Torvalds to identify that fact. As a result, a very significant amount of Unix protected code is currently found in Linux 2.4.x and Linux 2.5.x releases in violation of SCO's contractual rights and copyrights."

IBM responded quite eloquently:

June 16, 2003, Armonk, NY.... Since filing a lawsuit against IBM, SCO has made public statements and accusations about IBM's Unix license and about Linux in an apparent attempt to create fear uncertainty and doubt among IBM's customers and the open source community.

IBM's Unix license is irrevocable, perpetual and fully paid up. It cannot be terminated. This matter will eventually be resolved in the normal legal process.

IBM will continue to ship, support and develop AIX which represents years of IBM innovation, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and many patents. As always, IBM will stand behind our products and our customers.

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Trink Guarino
Director, IBM Media Relations

Personally I still think SCO is blowing smoke, but at least they have clarified some accusations. I dont think they have any real case against IBM at all, and I dont know enough to say what they have against Linux other than that proving the code is copied AND then whom did the copying might be difficult to do.   SCO suit now seeks $3 billion from IBM: news.com