SCO lawsuit fallout

Players in the commercial Linux space were quietly relieved when The SCO Group’s lawsuit only named IBM. An official at Sun Microsystems remarked, “We’re not worried.” When asked whether SuSE would pull out of the UnitedLinux alliance (of which SCO is a part), a SuSE spokesperson said only that it was considering its options. There were no cries of indignation from Red Hat or Mandrake. IBM, it seems, is too rich to generate much sympathy. Those vendors who can’t empathize with IBM over its potential billion-dollar soaking should chime in for their own sake. Whether SCO wins or loses this case, the impact on Linux could be significant.

The consensus of many analysts (including me) is that SCO hopes IBM will buy

it just to keep this matter out of court. In a buyout, IBM would take over the rights to the System V code base. Competitors, including Sun and Hewlett-Packard, would undoubtedly pressure Big Blue to publish that code for the community’s sake. If things go SCO’s way, IBM could respond with a terse, “So where were you when SCO started this mess?”

The only outcomes most commentators are considering are that SCO will win and make its living filing lawsuits, or it will lose and go bust. But what if SCO proves its claim that Linux contains purloined Unix code, and IBM then buys SCO to avoid paying a costly judgment? IBM can use the courts, as SCO is doing, to decide who stays in the Linux business and who doesn’t. Imagine Linux contributors, and every company that’s ever bought Linux, tracing the provenance of each line of code back to its origins to make sure none is borrowed. It’s probably impossible.

The cloak that presumably protects Linux from SCO’s legal machinations is the GPL (GNU Public License). SCO released its own Linux under the GPL. That Linux likely contained the allegedly misappropriated Unix code. So free software proponents (the few who have spoken out on this issue) argue that SCO painted any leaked Unix source code with the GPL. Case closed, right?

Maybe not. SCO had no reason to search millions of lines of Linux for SCO code. SCO had a contract with IBM to protect its property, plus the assurance of the Linux community that there is not one speck of misidentified, nonpublic software in Linux. If SCO was duped into reselling its own stolen property, I can’t see how the GPL enters the picture.

SCO certainly harmed its case with its actions. Many of the points in SCO’s original filing were inaccurate. More recently, SCO sent thousands of letters to commercial Linux customers to warn them that their software might be illegal. That’s a blatant attempt to harm other vendors’ sales before the case is even heard.

SCO also pulled its UnitedLinux-based OS off the market, citing uncertainty about its legitimacy. That can’t be good for UnitedLinux partners, which all sell products built around the same core SCO just invalidated.

Even if SCO keeps its promise not to turn on its former partners, the market’s attitude toward SCO will affect the companies that were allied with it. After all, SCO’s partners didn’t bail out of UnitedLinux when they learned about this lawsuit. Along with other vendors and members of the community, they considered this matter to be between SCO and IBM.

Perhaps it will be just that. But I can see the fallout from this case — even if SCO loses — reaching well beyond IBM.