Did Computer Associates (CA) license the freely available Linux OS from the SCO Group or didn`t it? This question is open to interpretation, with SCO asserting it did and CA that it didn`t. But commentators say this could be harmful to the OSS movement`s case.
Reuters reports that Computer Associates International said on Monday it had licensed the Linux operating system software from SCO, a move that could become key legal ammunition for the SCO Group in a battle over who owns the software.
But in other reports, CA disputed this claim. While SCO`s CFO, Bob Bench, "confirmed" that CA was one of four publicly named companies to sign up for SCO`s intellectual property (IP) licence for Linux, a CA executive said that his company had purchased no such license. Instead it had acquired a large number of licenses for SCO`s UnixWare operating system as part of a breach of contract lawsuit settlement in August 2003, with SCO investor The Canopy Group.
By acquiring the UnixWare licenses, CA indemnified itself against a possible Linux lawsuit from SCO, said Sam Greenblatt, the senior VP and chief architect of CA`s Linux technology Group. "For every UnixWare license you [acquire], you [get] indemnified for that number of Linux licences."
Integrator perspective
Anton de Wet, chief technology officer at Obsidian, an open source-focused integrator, says there is a growing polarisation between open source and SCO. "You will find that anyone signing a SCO `Linux licence` will be actively avoided by the OSS community."
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