SCO defends its lawsuit

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© August 2004 Tony Lawrence

Referencing: http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php/id;97798672;fp;2;fpid;1

Everyone knows Linux is an unlicensed version of Unix
 

So says Kieran O'Shaughnessy, director of SCO Australia and NZ.

I'm not sure "everyone" knows that. We all can certainly agree that Linux is a Unix clone. O'Shaughnessy asserts that IBM made a "Rolls-Royce" out of a "bicycle" by stealing SCO's code and putting it into Linux. I guess I could agree that Linux was like a bicycle at some point, though I'm not sure any current OS could rightfully be likened to a Rolls-Royce. But OK, the assertion is that IBM juiced up Linux with SCO's code, and O'Shaughnessy says that will all come out in court.

I'm sorry, but I hope not.

No, I'm not part of the Groklaw sing-a-long that insists there is no code and never was. I suspect that it's far from unlikely that IBM has done just what SCO says it has. Proving it will undoubtedly be tough, but that's SCO's problem. My concern is what happens if they do prove it.

O'Shaughnessy says that

SCO doesn't just expect financial compensation but removal of the stolen code
 

And more licensing fees, of course, though I don't quite understand how you can have that both ways: pay me a fee to use the Linux that no longer has my stolen code in it? I must be missing something..

But SCO is missing more. Linux has been and is the ONLY real hope for Unix like operating systems. Oh, yeah, we might have a few BSD servers and here's always Mac OS X, but both of those are helped by the success of Linux and would not do as well as they do without it. Kill Linux, and Microsoft will shortly put SCO down forever and then clean up the loose ends.

That's my worry here. If SCO wins, they certainly aren't going to replicate Linux's success: they had that chance years ago and blew it totally. No, they'll just get banged around by Big Bully Gates and disappear entirely. So they actually end up losing, and the rest of us of course lose even more.

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