IBM ordered to provide SCO with code, documents

It must hand over the source code to its AIX and Dynix operating systems

By Robert McMillan

March 4, 2004 12:00 PM ET

IDG News Service - The judge presiding over The SCO Group Inc.'s $5 billion lawsuit with IBM has ordered IBM to provide SCO with the source code to its AIX and Dynix operating systems.
SCO had been seeking this information from IBM, but Brooke Wells, the judge presiding over the case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, had put SCO's request on hold until the company had first provided IBM with more information about the nature of its claims.
"In light of what the Court considers SCO's good faith efforts to comply with the Court's prior order, the Court lifts the discovery stay it previously imposed," Wells wrote in a ruling yesterday.
The ruling orders IBM to also provide SCO with "any and all non-public contributions it has made to Linux," as well as documents relating to IBM's Linux projects, including those from Sam Palmisano, IBM's CEO, and Irving Wladawsky-Berger, the IBM executive who crafted the company's Linux strategy.
The judge also reiterated an earlier order for SCO to identify the specific lines of code it has alleged IBM contributed to Linux, as well as all the code in Linux that it claims rights to.
SCO spokesman Blake Stowell had little to say about the ruling. "[The judge] ruled that there are a few items that SCO needs to provide, but then she goes on for about five or six pages or so on items that she's now asking IBM to provide SCO with," he said. Stowell declined to comment further on the matter.
Yesterday's ruling shows that the court believes SCO to be acting in good faith, said Jeffrey Neuberger, a partner at Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner LLP. But Neuberger downplayed the significance of the development. "I wouldn't read too much into it," he said. "In terms of the merits of the lawsuit, it doesn't have any meaning one way or the other."
IBM declined to comment on the ruling.

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2009 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Additional Resources

POLL RESULTS

Leading IT Pros Weigh In on Top IT Issues

Accelerate your knowledge of the IT world you inhabit by viewing the results of a series of polls taken by your IT peers. These polls of 100+ IT professionals each are available for full viewing. They cover key topics such as virtualization, processor performance, green IT, cloud computing and many others. Be a part of the buzz.

WHITE PAPER

For Best Results, Think Beyond the Box

Technology is complex. Keeping it running productively shouldn't be. To that end, you want to minimize the number of solutions needed in-house to simplify operations, maintenance, and support. Kodak offers a best-practices model. One company provides support for both scanner and software, for fast problem resolution without vendor finger-pointing. Download now!

WHITE PAPER

Accelerating the Path to Demand Intelligence with a Demand Signal Repository

Utilizing demand intelligence improves the precision of pricing, product assortments, channel/store placement, and promotion, which are all essential for sustainable revenue management performance. Learn more, download this free whitepaper today.

White Papers & Webcasts

IT Modernization in Government
As IT budgets are slashed, IT management pressures rise and legacy systems linger in government organizations, modernizing the IT infrastructure and applications has...

Strategic ECM Webinar
Learn what new strategic business benefits can be realized through ECM!...

iPhone for the Enterprise
One of the biggest concerns of using the iPhone for the enterprise is the security and manageability issues. Read this white paper to...

Managing And Protecting Your Ever Increasing Mobile Assets
Learn best practices for desktop and application virtualization, computer security, and computer life-cycle management....

2009 Gartner Magic Quadrant Report
Truly understand your options for WAN Optimization Controllers...

5 Architecture Issues that Impact BES performance
This Live webinar will identify critical log file errors, performance counters, and configurations to pay close attention to when optimizing BES server performance....

Tech Horizons: ASG's metaCMDB, The Technology That Rocks
Improved business productivity often requires more efficient IT and more efficient IT cannot be achieved without a better understanding of the way business...

Usability Is Everything
Learn what sets Workday's HR and Payroll solutions apart from the competition....

The Vector Approach to Data Center Power Planning
This white paper describes an approach that considers the major milestones and thresholds in data center power requirements-and how planners should adjust their...

The Value of Real SaaS at Workday
Cost savings, speed to value, and innovation brought to the enterprise by Workday's software-as-a-service solutions for HR and Payroll....

All White Papers | All Webcasts