[Sussex] IBM Counter-sue SCO

[Geoff Teale]

OK, so the gloves are starting to come off.  It is now apparent that
SCO's case may never actually get to court (and it's possible SCO would
prefer it that way).  Enough evidence has built up to suggest the
following:

- SCO do not have any presentable evidence of SCO code appearing in the
Linux kernel.
- SCO do not have any right to IP created as a wholly new portion of a
derivative work - ie., code that was created within AIX by IBM is not
SCO IP.
- SCO actually make use of several of IBM's AIX "innovations" without
permission or license in UnixWare.
- SCO UnixWare contains Linux compatibility code that is taken directly
from the Linux kernel but which is not used under the terms of the GPL.

It seems that SCO's real strategy was to create a tangible threat to
Linux users and then try to scare them into paying for Licenses that
they do not need (this is backed up by SCO's "buy it before the court
case and it's half price" approach).  As a result of these "suggestions"
the following is happening:

- Red Hat are suing SCO for suggesting that they [Red Hat] were behaving
improperly in distributing Linux.
- IBM are counter-suing SCO for the making of unfounded claims  that
could be damaging to their business and Copyright infringements with
regard to works derived from the AIX codebase.
- The Free Software Foundation are considering action against SCO with
regard to the GPL and use of Linux kernel code in proprietary software.

 
-- 
GJT
tealeg at member.fsf.org
gteale at cmedltd.com