IBM Denies Charges of Unix Theft

ahooton writes "C|net is reporting that SCO has filed a lawsuit accusing IBM of theft of it's Unix intellectual property. SCO alleges this occurred because IBM released portions of the Unix system, owned by SCO, in to Linux." While the suit is nothing new, IBM's retort is. IBM asserts it is innocent of any charges of wrongdoing. Additionally, IBM is accusing SCO of trying to stifle Linux development through the use of the courts.

Comments

Microsoft will be next.

[Omni Magnus]

I am just waiting for Microsoft to be sued for stealing other people's code.

I know that there isn't SCO code in Linux because

[DanThe1Man]

....LINUX DOSN'T SUCK!!

what i'd really like.....

[Lord_Dweomer]

Does ANYBODY else wish that we could get some amusing graphical depiction of all the patent/legal nonsense thats been going on lately? I can think of a few different visualizations.....such as a small nest of black ants (SCO) being attacked by a massive bird-killing colony of army ants (IBMs legal team). I would be extremely grateful for any such graphical representations of these kinds of things.

Re:Unix code copied into Linux alleged

[Tokerat]

...McBride then stated "Clearly you can see places where IBM's source code adds two numbers together, in some instances the same two numers our software would be adding durring the same process. This is clearly infringment." McBride was scheduled to answer more questions after the laughter died down, but was apparently then unavailible for comment.

This is great!

[evronm]

You had to figure SCO's real motive was to get IBM to buy them in order to avoid the lawsuit.

I was really hoping that, rather than do this, IBM would sue SCO into oblivion. It's quite gratifying to see it actually happen.

Woo hoo!

Re:serious question

[Anonymous Coward]

Huh Huh. You said 'taint'.

i can see it now, linus up on stage:

"Once I added code"
"Then I deleted code"
"This tainted code you give me"
...

IBM better be careful

[phaetonic]

If SCO brings in RIAA, half the lawsuit will have "copyright infringement violation" in it and the lawsuit will go in the quadrillions.

IBM and Linux Shall Pay!

[f0rt0r]

I found the code that matches up exactly, the top five matches are ( drum roll )

5) for ( int x=0;x lt 10;x++)
4) while ( x lt 10 ) {
3) #include stdio.h
2) #include math.h
1) int main( String args[] )

Number 1) shows up in every .cpp file! Linux developers will pay for this blatant violation of SCO's IP rights!

Note: for some reason the board wigged out with greater than and less than signes, so I had to leave those out. lt = less than

Re:IBM and Linux Shall Pay!

[localghost]

None of those show up in my C++ code.

for 5, I use "for (int x=0;x<10;x++)" (I removed spaces)
for 4, I use "while (x<10)" (spaces again)
for 3, I use "#include <stdio.h>" (yours will produce an error)
for 2, I use "#include <math.h>" (again, error)
for 1, I use "int main(int argc, char *argv[])" (I've never seen the syntax you used)

Oh, and to make the < sign, you need to escape it with "&lt;".

Re:IBM and Linux Shall Pay!

[jpt.d]

a google search for int main( String args[] ) brings up som ejava code... Sacrafice his children to Molech for his sins!

Re:Feh.

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

McBride is also my last name. Every time I read a post that puts it in such a negative light, I resolve to kick this particular McBride once more in the Jimmy with steel toed work boots.

I really hate having my name dragged through the mud by an ethics-devoid fuckwit.

McBride went on to say

[geekoid]

Linux has white space, our IP has white space, clearly they stole it. QED.

Re:Possible community response?

[geekoid]

what are you, a christian scientist?

yes, that WAS funny, and if you don't understand it, don't mod it.

Re:Who stole from who?

[mkldev]

Dear geekoid,

We agree to your price of 10 million Lira (about $584). Please send us your contact information so we can buy you out.

Sincerely,
Darl McBride
CEO, SCO Group

Finally...

[Anonymous Coward]

...we can enjoy to see someone ripped off by an army of lawyers.

Rowboat vs. Bizmarck

[Akardam]

McBride's taking a dingy up against the battleship that is IBM. Can he honestly think that SCO won't be reduced to so much virtual matchwood? I'm just waiting for the moment when he's staring down IBM's big guns, and goes "Eep!".

Wait for it...

SCO, why not try for look and feel ?

[Humunculus]

This what Apple did of Microsoft... Now lets see, take a sys V UNIX and linux console and place them side by side. Now type: uname touch SCO ls cat SCO > /dev/null rm SCO mmm, works the same... If it quacks like a duck, it must be a duck ! I think they could win this hands down ! Now if I give up programming and take up corporate copyright law, I think I will be rich.. Rob. "For Every Pleasure There's a Tax"

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[xorbe]

Buy SCO OpenServer 5.0.7: Want the latest greatest...
SCO Unix and Linux help
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Re:What I hope this means

[nathanh]

Balmer is quoted as saying something to the effect, "See, you dont know who's writing your OSS software."

And who is writing Microsoft's software *cough*stacker*cough*? I think Ballmer should stop throwing stones.

This is terrible!

[Andy Tanenbaum]

How cowardly of SCO to go after the little guys. I say we show our support by starting up a modest (but sincere) IBM defense fund. I'm willing to put in 5-10 dollars.

Re:Feh.

[Anonymous Coward]

UnixWare:

for(int j=0;j<h;j++,h--)

Linux:

int j=0;for(;j<h;h--,j++)

Dur, 'dees SCO guys could be onta somfink!!!1!1

Re:REAL Purpose

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, this whole thing is an evil plot by IBM to get grassroots mindshare: they actually paid SCO to launch an idiotic lawsuit where Big Blue gets to be the knight in shining armour, defending the holy cause of Open Source and all that.

Now where did I put my tin foil hat? [Actually I think the parent was pretty much right and to the point but I couldn't help myself, what with the hangover...]

Share and enjoy

[OpCode42]

Yeah, share and enjoy, we dont need your lawsuits!

Share and Enjoy
Share and Enjoy
Boot up your box
With our communist ploy
To run your machine
Free from emipres mean
And when it breaks down
And starts to complain
About panics on boot
Segfaults in your games
There's no disk space free
Missing initrd
There's a memory leak
CPU usage peaks
And the docs are just
Full of weird techie speak
And you've got to stop, for the good of your health!
We'll tell you, 'Learn C and fix it yourself'.

Re:REAL Purpose

[cenonce]

SCO's real purpose behind this lawsuit is not to get money, but to publicize itself in hopes of finding a larger company to buy them.

So, in other words, it is in fact to get more money!

-A

Re:UNIX license buyouts ?

[greed]

IBM also outright denies that its AIX flavor of Unix is a modification of SCO's licensed Unix.

This one is easy to prove; any non-AIX UNIX administrator will happily proclaim that AIX bears no relation to Solaris. "ODM? What's an ODM? Why doesn't this machine work the way I want! Arrrrgh!"

Re:What I hope this means

[jpetts]

In the wonderfully written "Code Red for Open Source" article at Cnet

I honestly interpreted this as meaning that somebody had ported the worm!!!

IBM holds patent no. 42

[totallygeek]

It is the patent to the secret of life, the universe, and everything.

$40.2M? for Caldera?

[theonetruekeebler]

That's lunch money for IBM!

Buy the company, declare all its IP community property, fire every single employee, burn their buildings, loot their coffers, trample their crops and sew their fields with salt.

Re:Released or reimplemented?

[4of12]

Absolutely.

SCO has a much stronger case than most people realize. The proceedings will take IBM and the rest of the open source community completely by storm.

To wit, when their lawyers reveal specific lines of code from the linux kernel that are absolutely identical to what is in the SCO code base, a jaw-dropping silence will overtake the courtroom.

Your honor, may it please the bench to observe Exhibit A:

for(;;) {

and there will be some additional fearsome evidence where loop variable names were changed from i to j.

It's little wonder that the lawyers from IBM are so nervous.