Y esterday we pointed you to an article detailing Red Hatis artillery barrage against SCO. Red Hat filed a law suit against SCO that looks to have Red Hatis version of Linux judged to be free of any copyright and patent infringements that SCO claims all versions of Linux contain. The suit also seeks damages from SCO for lost revenue due to SCOis allegations of impropriety on Red Hatis part.
Now SCO has launched a counter-attack, with a spokesman for SCO stating that Red Hatis actions validate SCOis claim that Red Hat is using copyrighted code.
From a C|Net article titled SCO raps Red Hat, sets license prices:
In a teleconference with media and financial analysts, SCO CEO Darl McBride bluntly accused Red Hat of distributing Linux software that illegally copies SCOis Unix code.
"Red Hatis lawsuit confirms what weive been saying all along--Linux developers are either unable or unwilling to screen the code" that goes into the Linux kernel, McBride said. "Red Hat is selling Linux that contains verbatim and obfuscated code from Unix System 5."
The company did not offer any kind of reasoning as to exactly how Red Hatis actions prove SCOis allegations.
Further, SCO has announced a licensing fee scheme for anyone using Linux that is currently unlicensed by SCO. The company has been sending letters to customers of Red Hat, IBM, and other Linux vendors demanding that they pay SCO a licensing fee for that companyis as yet unproved and unspecified allegations of copyright and patent infringement.
Though IBM and other Linux players have asked to be shown the offending code that SCO says comes from Unix, the company has so far refused to do so. So far, say reports, SCO has targeted corporate Linux users with Linux server installtions, but the licensing scheme includes pricing for the server and the desktop. From the C|Net article:
As promised , SCO unveiled a licensing plan Tuesday for businesses that want to continue using Linux with SCOis blessing. The new license gives customers the right to use any SCO-controlled Unix code allegedly incorporated in Linux, starting with the 2.4 version of the Linux kernel.
Prices are steep, for a free operating system. Introductory prices include $199 to run Linux on a desktop PC and $699 to run it on a server with a single CPU. The server price jumps to $1,399 after the introductory period ends on Oct. 15. By comparison, Red Hatis standard version of desktop Linux sells for $39.
McBride said businesses that continue using Linux without a SCO license can expect legal action. "Weire absolutely, 100 percent going to fight for our intellectual property rights," he said. "If we donit get there with licensing, we will have to move to enforcement actions."
Read the full article at C|Net News.