p2pnet - rss feed: Ruling in IBM/SCO case
In March, SCO Group Inc sued IBM for more than $1 billion, alleging IBM had destroyed SCO’s Unix business by illegally contributing software to Linux.
Now, in a preliminary hearing, a court has ordered SCO to give IBM more details about the alleged violations within 30 days, says Robert McMillan in his IDG News Service report here.
SCO’s, "attempt to assert proprietary control of these technologies is an indirect but potent threat against the Internet and the culture that maintains it," says the Open Source Initiative here.
"What is at stake here is not just the disposition of a particular volume of computer code, but what amounts to a power grab against the future."
An IBM spokesman is quoted as saying,"We are very pleased that the court has indicated it will compel SCO to finally back up its claims instead of relying on marketplace FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt).
"SCO has so far been unable to provide any meaningful details of how IBM may have violated its intellectual property rights, IBM lawyers argued in court filings. It chose instead to inundate IBM with "46 CDs containing over 900,000 pages of source code," the lawyers wrote.
"SCO may not, as it apparently intends to, dump hundreds of thousands of pages of paper and million lines of computer source code on IBM, and shift to IBM the burden to answer (SCO’s claims) based on information buried somewhere in those materials," the lawyers wrote in the filings."
SCO spokesman Blake Stowell says a judge will revisit the issue January 23 to evaluate whether or not SCO has responded appropriately, McMillan says, adding:
"On that date, SCO also plans to request further materials from IBM, including the source code to its AIX Unix operating system, Stowell said. "This is a normal course of action in a court case and we look forward to providing what they’re asking for, and we look forward to requesting items of them that they have not yet provided," he said.
"SCO’s arguments Friday were not made by a representative of its high-profile legal firm, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, but by Brent Hatch of the law firm Hatch, James & Dodge PC, and by Kevin McBride, the brother of SCO Chief Executive Officer Darl McBride and a lawyer with the law firm Angelo Barry & Banta PC. Brent Hatch is the son of Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch."
