SCO Claims Kernel Contains UnixWare Code

ergo98 writes "SCO has increased the intensity of the lawsuit with IBM by claiming to hold indisputable proof that copyrighted UnixWare code found its way into Linux, violating the rules of both camps. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen: SCO refuses to divulge the code in question, however they promise to reveal it in court shortly."

Comments

Even if this is true

[Gleef]

Even if this is true, shouldn't they have contacted Linus and had him remove the offending code? I'm sure he would have.

Since they are claiming Trade Secret status on the System V code, isn't failure to perform even basic attempts (such as contacting Linus) to minimise the impact of this leak enough to void the Trade Secret status of their code?

The more SCO speaks, the less credible this lawsuit sounds.

Is it just me

[leviramsey]

...or do the stock quotes at the bottom of the article provide the best commentary on this issue?

Caldera (SCOX): 3.60, -0.09
IBM (IBM): 87.21, +1.32
Red Hat (RHAT): 6.13, +0.16

Re:Dirty thieves

[elmegil]

So they can slam OSS, but what about going the other way? I've heard of software stealing GPL code in part and in whole, making modifications, and not releasing the source again. Some have been caught, I'm willing to bet a whole lot more haven't been.

Real Motives

[hendridm]

I love this quote:

> "The Linux community would have me publish it now, (so they can have it) laundered by the time we can get to a court hearing. That's not the way we're going to go."

So you don't want us to fix this so-called infringement? Most companies do a cease-and-decist before a lawsuit, allowing the accused to make changes. If this infringment HAS cost them a billion in damages, wouldn't you think they would want the infringement to stop right away? They could still make their case in court and use the same so-called evidence to show that previous infringment caused the damage, but not allowing the accused to fix the problem just shows that it's not the infringement they care about. It's just a means to getting money.

SCO Linux was GPL

[nuggz]

SCO released a linux distribution.
At least the kernel was released under the GPL.

I would like to see how they explain that IBM GPL release of code is much more damaging then their own release, under the GPL, of that same code.

The fact that SCO has licenced others to redistribute this code under the GPL should make it pretty hard to get damages for others doing the same.

You can't get blood from a stone

[Jason Earl]

The reason that SCO is pursuing this case in the first place is that they are doomed. They rely primarily on proprietary UNIX licenses (OpenServer and Unixware) for x86 hardware to survive and anyone with half a brain is making the easy migration from SCO UNIX to Linux. In the meantime SCO has to maintain not one but two proprietary UNIXes with a development team smaller than RedHat's, and they haven't even got a version of their software that runs on Itanium or Opteron processors. Not to mention the fact that they are already losing money with no relief in sight.

In short, SCO is screwed.

However, they realized that they could alleviate some of the hurting in the short run by running a FUD campaign against Linux. If they scare enough of their current customers into thinking that Linux has intellectual property problems then they might retain some key accounts for another round of upgrades. Some investors might even believe that they have a chance of making real money with their lawsuit, and this would give SCO managers a chance to cash in some of their SCO stock while it is still worth more than the paper it is printed on. That is what this circus is all about. SCO knows they aren't going to win. Heck, they aren't even *trying* to win. The whole thing is nothing more than an elaborate con job.

RedHat and friends could countersue for damages based on their ridiculous claims, but this isn't likely to make them any money. After all, if SCO had money they wouldn't be trying this stupid stunt in the first place.

Re:Does anyone even pay attention to SCO anymore?

[orangesquid]

Or, maybe it's something like:
! Save all registers.
push eax
push ebx
push ecx
push edx
jmp somewhere

"Hey, wow, we have that in our code too! And it's not just a minor copying, because they used the same comment!"

C and assembler have a much smaller vocab (orders of magnitude) than English, and accidental things like this go on in English all the time.

Also, they're comparing two unix-based kernels.. don't you think similar code would show up? After all, both are derived (either directly (SCO) or indirectly (Linux)) from the same original operating system (duh!).