IBM Won't Oppose Addition Of Copyright Claims By SCO

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

01 March 2004

IBM says it will not oppose SCO's request to add copyright infringement claims to its existing action against IBM claiming damages because of IBM's misuse of SCO's proprietary Unix code in Linux software. IBM presumably calculates that it is better to get on with the substantive legal process rather than spend time on procedural wrangling over a motion (to add copyright infringement) which is likely to be allowed by the Court.

"IBM does not oppose plaintiff's motion," attorneys for the company said to the US Court for the Central District of Utah. However, IBM called the SCO copyright allegations "meritless" and said it would defend itself against them. The copyright claims would add $2bn to the existing $3bn total being demanded by SCO.

The original lawsuit is currently bogged down in the 'discovery' phase while IBM waits for SCO to provide more detailed support for its allegations.

SCO has also threatened action against clients of IBM who used the Linux operating systems covered by the case; but earlier this month a self-imposed deadline for the SCO group to start actions passed with no word from the company. Since then, SCO has said that it still intends to press on with the individual actions; but there is some scepticism among observers as to whether it will do so before it has publicly demonstrated more of IBM's alleged 'misuse' to the Court.

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