IBM Files Countersuit Against SCO Group

By Timothy R. Butler | Posted at 3:33 PM
According to a report by News.com, IBM has struck back at The SCO Group with a massive lawsuit of its own. The lawsuit, according to the report, makes three separate claims against the Utah-based SCO. In part, says News.com, IBM is claiming that SCO has given up its ability to collect licensing fees on the software within the Linux kernel since it is still distributing the Linux kernel (by doing so, the company must agree to the terms of the GNU General Public License). This claim, which has also been made by industry observers, could prove to be the first legal test of the General Public License, better known as the GPL.

The report also states that IBM has included in its complaint charges of four patent violations in four SCO software packages. In addition to those two components of the suit, the article notes that the company is seeking undetermined damages against SCO for claiming to have terminated IBM's ability to distribute the AIX operating system.

For more information, including observations by analysis, you can view the News.com article here.