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Could Google Be SCO's Next Big Target?

Posted by timothy on from the many-cpus-to-extort-royalties-on dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Well, Darl and co. may have decided which company to sue next: Google. Sources say Google will be sued for not paying their Linux taxes. The story quotes 'Industry wags are saying that God invented SCO to give people a company to hate more than Microsoft.'" This is all speculation until such a suit is filed, though.

1 of 677 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I wonder by schon · · Score: 5, Informative

    how you can sue someone for violating your IP rights

    The thing is, you can't sue someone for 'violating IP rights' (well, you can sue for anything, but you can't win)

    If SCO is going to sue, they'll have to say what 'IP' it is that Google is infringing WRT Linux - is Google infringing copyright (Hmm, they're not distributing Linux), Trademark (SCO doesn't own the Linux trademark), or Trade Secret (that would be a tough one to prove.)

    As Eben Moglen has said, you can't bring a copyright infringement suit against someone for using something, only for copying it. They would have to go after whoever Google got their software from (or the case would be thrown out.)

    They have a better shot at going after Google for contributory infringement (linking to Linux download sites) - but even that has a snowball's chance in hell.