SCO opens new front in Linux war

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Here is the letter.

From
http://www.linuxworld.com/story/38303.htm

Also read ...
http://zdnet.com.com/5208-1104-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=1028&messageID=19180&start=-1


December 19, 2003


Re: The SCO Group, Inc. (?SCO?)

Dear Unix Licensee,

In May 2003, SCO warned about enterprise use of the Linux operating system in violation of its intellectual property rights in UNIX technology. Without exhausting or explaining all potential claims, this letter addresses one specific area in which certain versions of Linux violate SCO's rights in UNIX.

In this letter we are identifying a portion of our copyright protected code that has been incorporated into Linux without our authorization. Also, our copyright management information has been removed from these files.

These facts support our position that the use of the Linux operating system in a commercial setting violates our rights under the United States Copyright Act, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. We are notifying you of these facts so you can take steps to discontinue these violations. We believe these violations are serious, and we will take appropriate actions to protect our rights. No one may use our copyrighted code except as authorized by us. The details of our position are set forth below. Once you have reviewed our position, we will be happy to further discuss your options and work with you to remedy this problem.

Certain copyrighted application binary interfaces (?ABI Code?) have been copied verbatim from our copyrighted UNIX code base and contributed to Linux for distribution under the General Public License (?GPL?) without proper authorization and without copyright attribution. While some application programming interfaces (?API Code?) have been made available over the years through POSIX and other open standards, the UNIX ABI Code has only been made available under copyright restrictions. AT&T made these binary interfaces available in order to support application development to UNIX operating systems and to assist UNIX licensees in the development process. The UNIX ABIs were never intended or authorized for unrestricted use or distribution under the GPL in Linux. As the copyright holder, SCO has never granted such permission. Nevertheless, many of the ABIs contained in Linux, and improperly distributed under the GPL, are direct copies of our UNIX copyrighted software code.

Any part of any Linux file that includes the copyrighted binary interface code must be removed. Files in Linux version 2.4.21 and other versions that incorporate the copyrighted binary interfaces include:

include/asm-alpha/errno.h

include/asm-arm/errno.h

include/asm-cris/errno.h

include/asm-i386/errno.h

include/asm-ia64/errno.h

include/asm-m68k/errno.h

include/asm-mips/errno.h

include/asm-mips64/errno.h

include/asm-parisc/errno.h

include/asm-ppc/errno.h

include/asm-ppc64/errno.h

include/asm-s390/errno.h

include/asm-s390x/errno.h

include/asm-sh/errno.h

include/asm-sparc/errno.h

include/asm-sparc64/errno.h

include/asm-x86_64/errno.h

include/asm-alpha/signal.h

include/asm-arm/signal.h

include/asm-cris/signal.h

include/asm-i386/signal.h

include/asm-ia64/signal.h

include/asm-m68k/signal.h

include/asm-mips/signal.h

include/asm-mips64/signal.h

include/asm-parisc/signal.h

include/asm-ppc/signal.h

include/asm-ppc64/signal.h

include/asm-s390/signal.h

include/asm-s390x/signal.h

include/asm-sh/signal.h

include/asm-sparc/signal.h

include/asm-sparc64/signal.h

include/asm-x86_64/signal.h

include/linux/stat.h

include/linux/ctype.h

lib/ctype.c
include/asm-alpha/ioctl.h

include/asm-alpha/ioctls.h

include/asm-arm/ioctl.h

include/asm-cris/ioctl.h

include/asm-i386/ioctl.h

include/asm-ia64/ioctl.h

include/asm-m68k/ioctl.h

include/asm-mips/ioctl.h

include/asm-mips64/ioctl.h

include/asm-mips64/ioctls.h

include/asm-parisc/ioctl.h

include/asm-parisc/ioctls.h

include/asm-ppc/ioctl.h

include/asm-ppc/ioctls.h

include/asm-ppc64/ioctl.h

include/asm-ppc64/ioctls.h

include/asm-s390/ioctl.h

include/asm-s390x/ioctl.h

include/asm-sh/ioctl.h

include/asm-sh/ioctls.h

include/asm-sparc/ioctl.h

include/asm-sparc/ioctls.h

include/asm-sparc64/ioctl.h

include/asm-sparc64/ioctls.h

include/asm-x86_64/ioctl.h

include/linux/ipc.h

include/linux/acct.h

include/asm-sparc/a.out.h

include/linux/a.out.h

arch/mips/boot/ecoff.h

include/asm-sparc/bsderrno.h

include/asm-sparc/solerrno.h

include/asm-sparc64/bsderrno.h

include/asm-sparc64/solerrno.h

Posted by: David Mohring   Posted on: 12/23/03 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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