The battle over UNIX/Linux has generated lots of litigation and anxiety but very little light. It’s hard to keep track of what’s going on and what’s at stake. Michael Faulkner and Eric Goldman explain the situation.
The “original” version of UNIX was developed by Bell Labs in 1969. It spawned a wide variety of compatible versions. For example, IBM has a version of UNIX called AIX, which traces its lineage to the original Bell Labs software. Another UNIX-compatible program is Linux, an open source project that includes some code contributed from AIX by IBM.
In 1995, after a series of previous transactions, Novell sold UNIXWare (Novell’s variation of UNIX) and the original Bell Labs version of UNIX to SCO. In 2001, SCO sold the SCO brand, SCO OpenServer (SCO’s version of UNIX), and the Bell Labs version of UNIX to Caldera, which now does business under the SCO name.
In 2003, Caldera Systems, doing business as The SCO Group, announced that it was going to assert ownership over the original Bell Labs version of UNIX source code and all derivations of it. SCO’s claims sent shockwaves through the software community. Given UNIX’s ubiquity, SCO’s claims potentially affect anyone using AIX, Linux, and other variations of UNIX.
Darl McBride, the chief executive of SCO, has displaced Bill Gates as the most hated man in high tech. McBride has transformed SCO into a legal missile aimed at the heart of the open source software movement. SCO claims it owns the intellectual property rights to the Unix operating system and that contributors to Linux have pilfered that code. It further asserts that IBM in particular has illegally diverted the SCO family jewels into the Linux system.
SCO has sparked a war over UNIX, which has resulted in four interrelated lawsuits:
- The war started in 2003 when SCO launched its landmark $5 billion suit against IBM for providing AIX to the open source community to enhance Linux.
- In response to SCO’s lawsuit against IBM, Novell declared that it had some rights to the UNIX code, which raised questions about SCO’s ownership of the UNIX code. SCO responded by suing Novell for publicly disparaging SCO’s title to UNIX.
- Realizing that SCO’s claims threatened its business (and spooked its customers), Red Hat, a software vendor that markets a Linux version, sued SCO for a declaratory judgment of non-infringement, and asserted that SCO’s ownership claim misleads Linux consumers.
- Finally, SCO recently took its claims to their logical conclusion by suing two end users of Linux and AIX: AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler.
The war over UNIX has divided the software industry in two. The anti-SCO forces include IBM, Novell, Red Hat, and the open source community. The open source community has been particularly active in challenging SCO’s claims, generating evidence to contradict the claims and raising money for a legal defense fund for Linux users.
Some software industry participants have sided with SCO. A prominent ally is Microsoft, which appears to have helped SCO raise $50 million by introducing SCO to a funding source called BayStar Capital. Although SCO recently bought out that investment, the buyout left SCO with a substantial war chest. Microsoft’s interests in the matter may result from the strong competitive threat that Linux has posed to Microsoft’s own software programs.
This article summarizes the events associated with the battle over UNIX. First, who “owns” the UNIX code, second, they summarize the various litigations and the response to SCO’s efforts, and finally, they point out some lessons that might be learned from these battles.
Groklaw has the latest on SCO versus Novell, IBM, Red Hat, DaimlerChrysler, AutoZone and maybe Baystar.
The SCO Group, “has largely lost a case it brought against DaimlerChrysler“. In a hearing last Wednesday, Judge Rae Lee Chabot of Oakland County Circuit Court in Michigan granted most of DaimlerChrysler’s motion to dismiss the case. SCO spokesman Blake Stowell said the case “for the most part probably is over”.
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