Linux battle heats up with Red Hat lawsuit
Linux battle heats up with Red Hat lawsuit
The row over Linux has escalated further, with Linux distributor Red Hat filing a lawsuit against the SCO Group, claiming that accusations of copyright infringement against the open source operating system on the part of SCO were "unfair and deceptive."
"We filed this complaint to stop SCO from making unsubstantiated and untrue public statements attacking Red Hat Linux and the integrity of the open source software development process," said Mark Webbink, General Counsel at Red Hat. "Red Hat is confident that its current and future customers will continue to realise the significant value that our Red Hat Linux platform provides without interruption."
The dispute centres around claims made by SCO that parts of the code of the Unix operation system, which is partly owned by SCO, are contained within Linux. SCO has blamed IBM for this alleged state of affairs, as such are seeking recompense from the vendor to the tune of $US3 billion.
SCO has also send out warning letters to hundreds of companies that are using Linux, a move that has been severely criticised for causing fear and alarm amongst legitimate businesspeople who now think they might be breaking the law.
Red Hat has also announced that it has established the Open Source Now Fund, the purpose of which will be to cover legal expenses associated with infringement claims brought against companies developing software under the General Public License (GPL) and non-profit organisations supporting the efforts of companies developing software under a GPL license. Red Hat has weighed in with $US1 million to start the fund.
"The collaborative process of Open Source software development which created the Linux operating system has been unjustly questioned and threatened," said Matthew Szulik, Chairman and CEO of Red Hat. "Red Hat has a responsibility to ensure the legal rights of users are protected."
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