AT&T dropped a similar lawsuit in 1994 against BSD, which had actually started with
UNIX source code, but had rewritten it completely over the years.
Exactly what SCO owns has been called into question because Novell still claims some
rights to the UNIX code it sold to SCO. (In fact, SCO doesn??™t even own the UNIX trademark,
which Novell gave away to the Open Group before it sold the source code to
SCO. Attempts were underway in 2004 by SCO to trademark the name UNIX System
Laboratories.)
Responses to SCO??™s lawsuits (which certainly hold more weight than any explanations I could
offer) are available from Open Group (www.opengroup.org), The Linux Foundation (formerly
OSDL) (www.linux-foundation.org), IBM (ibm.com/linux), and Red Hat (www.redhat.com).
The Groklaw site (www.groklaw.net) is another good spot to learn about SCO lawsuits against
Linux. If you are interested in the paper trail relating SCO??™s ownership of UNIX, I recommend the
Novell??™s Unique Legal Rights page (www.novell.com/licensing/indemnity/legal.html).
Software Patents
Most agree that it is illegal for someone to copy a software company??™s code and redistribute it without
permission. However, the concept of being able to patent an idea that a company might incorporate
in its code has become a major point of contention in recent years.
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