Users Outraged as SCO Stakes Linux Legal Claim

Vendor says companies using the OS may face liabilities because of Unix code infringement

By Todd R. Weiss

May 19, 2003 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - In a startling development, The SCO Group last week put corporate Linux users on notice that they could become legal targets as part of its campaign to enforce intellectual property claims it has made on Unix. The threat outraged many IT managers but left some users worried about potential liabilities.
In a letter that was posted on its Web site and sent by mail to about 1,500 large companies, Lindon, Utah-based SCO claimed that Linux is "an unauthorized derivative of Unix" and that some of SCO's code has been illegally incorporated into the open-source operating system. It asserted that legal risks may extend to users that run Linux.
This is the third major punch SCO has thrown at Linux since January, when the software vendor said it was setting up a technology licensing division to ensure that users and vendors combined Unix and Linux code "legitimately." In March, SCO sued IBM, charging it with illegally using Unix technology in connection with Linux.
Joe Poole, technical support manager at Boscov's Department Store LLC in Reading, Pa., said Linux users "will not stand for this. There are just too many of us now." Boscov's uses Linux on an IBM zSeries mainframe to reduce the number of servers it has to manage (see related story).
Poole accused SCO executives of trying to use the legal maneuvers to increase Unix technology licensing revenue so they can "cash in when their company's failing." He noted that he would become more concerned if SCO's lawsuit against IBM were to succeed but said that's not a sure thing. "They haven't proven anything," Poole said. "Right now, I'm just amused."

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But Brad Friedman, vice president of information services at Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp. in Burlington, N.J., said SCO's legal threat "bears to be watched by people like ourselves who use Linux." The same applies to its suit against IBM, he said.
It's too early to determine if or how Burlington Coat will be affected, Friedman said. But he plans to seek legal advice to better gauge "the potential implications and what we should be doing about it, if anything."
Referring to the open-source intellectual property issues being raised by SCO, Tony Iams, an analyst at D.H. Brown Associates Inc. in Port Chester, N.Y., said it was "only a matter of time before some of these were tested in court."
But a key reason for SCO's legal onslaught could be

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