SCO (The SCO Group, Inc.) is a
software publisher. Their main business is the development and sale
of a suite of computer server operating system (O.S.) products. The
cornerstone of their business is that they are the current owners of
the source code to the UNIX operating system. Several other companies
with more familiar names (IBM, Sun
Microsystems, Microsoft, etc.) have licensed UNIX source code either
from SCO or one of SCO's predecessors for use in their own server
O.S.'s.
SCO's business has been foundering in recent years,
under onslaught from three directions. First, Microsoft has increased
the capability of their Windows Server O.S. to crowd SCO at the low
end; second, the other makers of UNIX-like operating systems have
poured more resources into their products than SCO could match; and
finally, an O.S. that is not the product of any one company has been
gaining ground in the market at a frenetic pace. That O.S. is called
GNU/Linux, more often (but inaccurately) referred to simply as Linux.
All these forces brought pressure on SCO, and early in 2003 SCO
exploded. After some aggressive saber-rattling,
SCO went to court to fight back.
SCO brought suit against IBM, a UNIX licensee with access to the UNIX source code, in March 2003. SCO claimed that IBM had inappropriately contributed significant portions of UNIX source code to an "Open Source" project. Specifically, their claim is that parts of UNIX were in Linux. SCO asserted that the rapid improvements in Linux's scalability and enterprise readiness were not due just to its developers' diligent efforts. Rather, SCO claimed that certain key technologies (here come the acronyms) including SMP, NUMA, RCU, & JFS had been copied from UNIX into Linux. To make matters worse for IBM, SCO's claim was based on literal copying of source code, not some more defensible "close similarity" or other form of resemblance. SCO presumably picked IBM because their comparison of the UNIX and Linux kernel code revealed some very similar files with IBM employees' names attached.
As the suit against IBM developed, SCO made threats against other
UNIX licensees. SCO also directed statements at non-licensees,
calling on companies that were selling GNU/Linux to "indemnify"
their customers. In more recent developments, SCO has
threatened to send invoices to large commercial users of Linux, and
offered all end users "licenses" for the use of SCO's
intellectual property. Finally, SCO has said it intends to demand
payments from end users, and pursue those claims in court.
Although
SCO's suit against IBM is based in trade secrets and negotiated
commercial contracts, SCO's rights vis-a-vis end users can only
derive from Copyright.
Well, that's the question we're going to look at. If you're following along so far, go on to --> Part 1. Otherwise, you might review some of the links below to get more background.
Common Questions/Info:
Very brief introduction to UNIX
Moderately complete Intro to Linux
What are the basics of
Copyright in computer programs?
> Here is a reasonable Summary
found on the web.
What are you running this site on, a
toaster?
Here's a possibly faster Mirror
site
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© Copyright 2003, 2004 Marinus Damm
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