Silicon Graphics, a maker of higher-end computer systems, had access to
UNIX via license agreements with one of SCO's predecessors. SGI made
its own version of UNIX called Ultrix for its computer systems. SGI
also became involved with the Linux kernel development project, and
contributed a significant amount of code to that project.
SGI is an independent creator of computer technologies, and, like
any author, can license its own works in whatever way it wishes
consistent with the doctrines of Copyright law. Specifically, SGI has
the right to contribute source code that it wrote to the Linux
kernel. SGI doesn't have the right to contribute someone
else's
protectable code to the Linux kernel. n5
If it occurred, that action goes beyond the license that SGI holds in
UNIX, and so that transfer is shown on the linked
graphic as prohibited (via the "black bar" device).
Common Questions:
- What's the total amount of inappropriately contributed code in
Linux?
It's a matter of dispute. SCO has said that it amounts to "more
than a
million lines" of code. n6
SGI has admitted that it "...found brief fragments of code matching
System V
code in three generic
routines (ate_utils.c, the atoi function and systeminfo.h header file),
all within the I/O infrastructure
support for SGI's platform." n7
But SGI added that: "[A]ll
together, these three small code
fragments comprised no more than 200
lines out of the more than one million lines of our overall
contributions to Linux. Notably, it appears that most or all of the
System V code fragments we found had previously been placed in the
public domain, meaning it is very doubtful that the SCO Group has any
proprietary claim to these code fragments in any case." n8