The SCO Group and IBM met in court on Friday for the first major hearing of the on-going dispute over the Linux operating system which SCO says infringes its intellectual property rights. But IBM can claim a small victory for round one.
SCO was ordered to reveal those sections of the Linux source code that it claims infringe on its rights. It had wanted IBM to reveal its UNIX source code first.
The case represents the biggest clash between open source and proprietary software groups since open source software began to be recognised as a credible business alternative to proprietary products.
SCO is suing IBM for $3 billion, accusing it of infringing its rights in the UNIX operating system by leaking UNIX code in breach of a contract. SCO says that Linux contains its UNIX code and consequently is an unauthorised derivative of UNIX. SCO is also demanding that commercial Linux users buy its licences.
But, says IBM, SCO has yet to show which parts of Linux actually infringe on UNIX. The Linux distributor lodged motions in court on 3rd and 6th November, requesting that SCO be compelled to detail the infringements and on Friday US District Court Judge Brooke Wells agreed with Big Blue.
SCO has thirty days to show IBM those sections of the Linux code that it believes belong to SCO. It must also show that IBM infringed upon these rights.
SCO had filed motions to the court requesting that IBM be forced to reveal its code first. But these have been postponed to a later hearing in January. SCO is also set to add a new charge of copyright infringement to those originally filed against IBM, although the filing has not yet been made.
According to CNET News.com, IBM spokesperson Trink Guarino commented, "IBM has said all along SCO has failed to show evidence to back its claims. We are very pleased the court has indicated it will compel SCO to finally back up its claims instead of relying on marketplace FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt]."