From: "Joe Barr" 


http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/21/1053196620180.html

Vic group questions SCO's Linux claims

By Sam Varghese
May 21 2003

A Victorian Open Source group says it is bemused by the suggestion that any
of the Linux source code contains proprietary UNIX code or trade secrets.

Open Source Victoria (OSV), which groups a number of firms that provide
services and technology related to Free and Open Source Software, said
Linux code had always been freely available for inspection with people
encouraged to inspect and review it for quality assurance and educational
purposes.

OSV was reacting to the SCO Group's recent warning to commercial Linux
users that they may be in violation of its intellectual copyright. In
March, SCO filed a billion-dollar case against IBM, alleging that parts of
this same code have been unauthorisedly used by Big Blue in its Linux
business.

SCO has also alleged that the generic Linux kernel contains code which is
from its Unix property.

OSV spokesman Con Zymaris said members viewed "with rising
concern" letters which had an "intimidatory tone" sent by
SCO to Australian Linux users, among others.

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"In particular, we have considerable concerns that pending American
commercial court actions will be used to create fear and uncertainty in
Australia," he said.

Zymaris said the open method of distribution adopted by Linux developers
meant that SCO could have inspected the Linux code at any time.

Additionally, revision control systems in place meant that times and nature
of code changes and additions were published on the internet as a matter of
free public record.

"We believe that it will be very difficult for SCO to prove that any
such codes or technologies within Linux were in fact obtained
inappropriately from SCO's base of intellectual property. SCO likely knows
this, but persists with the case as perhaps its only means of attempting to
slow uptake of Linux," Zymaris said.

The OSV said SCO's suit against IBM was not a patent case, as all
fundamental UNIX patents had expired long ago, but a claim that trade
secrets of UNIX had been copied into Linux.

"According to all industry observers, to win a trade secret case, you
have to prove, among other things, that the information was secret in the
first place. As detailed knowledge of UNIX system internals has been
publicly available for 30 years, this will make SCO's position in the case
untenable," Zymaris said.

The OSV said the fact that SCO had released all the source code for its own
Linux distribution over a period of years meant it had implicitly released
any otherwise "suspect code" or "trade secrets" under
the GNU General Public License. "This makes this code no longer a
trade secret even if they once were, and brings SCO's own case to its
knees," Zymaris said.

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