IBM asks court to say no to SCO claims
Published: 21 May 2004 08:50 BST
IBM has asked the court presiding over its Linux dispute with the SCO Group to issue a prompt ruling that Big Blue did not infringe on SCO's copyrights.
In a motion for summary judgment filed on Tuesday in US District Court in Salt Lake City, IBM argues that SCO has produced no evidence to back up its copyright claims and is unlikely to do so. As a result, IBM states, the copyright claims should be dumped from the case.
"Despite the fact that SCO has been claiming for months that IBM's Linux activities infringe SCO copyrights," the filing reads, "SCO still fails to adduce the basic evidence necessary to support its copyright assertions."
A SCO representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An IBM representative declined to comment beyond the text of the filings.
SCO's failure to produce evidence marks a pattern that should let the court render a speedy decision, according to the filing. "No additional discovery is necessary on this counterclaim," according to the filing. "Indeed, given SCO's repeated failure to comply with the court's orders [to produce evidence], the fact of IBM's non-infringement should simply be established against SCO."
SCO rattled the technology world last year when it sued IBM, claiming the computing giant illegally incorporated into its Linux software some source code from the Unix operating system, which SCO claims to control. The case has since ballooned into a far-ranging attack on Linux, attracting legal attention from Linux companies Novell and Red Hat and the ire of Linux supporters worldwide.
SCO has since expanded the case to include several prominent corporate Linux users, including auto parts retailer AutoZone.
SCO recently linked the AutoZone case to the main IBM suit, filing a motion requesting that a decision on the copyright claims be delayed until the AutoZone case is settled, as the matters involve related issues.
IBM objected to that motion in a separate filing on Tuesday, saying SCO's copyright claims are invalid across the board. IBM ridiculed statements by SCO executives regarding the industry-wide significance of the various suits.
"SCO seeks to dismiss or stay IBM's claims for a declaration of non-infringement," the filing reads, "on the theory that, while the future of the global economy may hang in the balance, the issue of IBM's copyright infringement should be decided not in this case involving IBM, but in the case SCO just filed against AutoZone, an auto parts company that has had little, if anything, to do with the development of Linux."
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