T he ongoing battle between SCO, IBM, Red Hat, and the entire Linux community is accelerating, to a certain degree. SCO has sued IBM, Red Hat has sued SCO, SCO has demanded money from all end users of any form of Linux that uses version 2.4.x or 2.5.x of the Linux kernel, and late yesterday, IBM counter sued SCO.
Todayis news is that SCO returned fire only hours after IBM filed that countersuit against them. The company released a statement Thursday that says, in essence, that IBMis countersuit is a smokescreen designed to draw attention away from the issues. SCOis entire statement:
We view IBMis counterclaim filing today as an effort to distract attention from its flawed Linux business model. It repeats the same unsubstantiated allegations made in Red Hatis filing earlier this week. If IBM were serious about addressing the real problems with Linux, it would offer full customer indemnification and move away from the GPL license. As the stakes continue to rise in the Linux battles, it becomes increasingly clear that the core issue is bigger than SCO (Nasdaq: SCOX), Red Hat, or even IBM. The core issue is about the value of intellectual property in an Internet age. In a strange alliance, IBM and the Free Software Foundation have lined up on the same side of this argument in support of the GPL. IBM urges its customers to use non- warranted, unprotected software. This software violates SCOis intellectual property rights in UNIX, and fails to give comfort to customers going forward in use of Linux. If IBM wants customers to accept the GPL risk, it should indemnify them against that risk. The continuing refusal to provide customer indemnification is IBMis truest measure of belief in its recently filed claims.
Regarding Patent Accusations
SCO has shipped these products for many years, in some cases for nearly two decades, and this is the first time that IBM has ever raised an issue about patent infringement in these products.
Furthermore, these claims were not raised in IBMis original answer.
SCO reiterates its position that it intends to defend its intellectual property rights. SCO will remain on course to require customers to license infringing Linux implementations as a condition of further use. This is the best and clearest course for customers to minimize Linux problems.
Read SCOis original statement at the companyis Web site.