In March, SCO Group filed a megasuit against IBM, claiming the computer giant stirred SCO Unix code into the Linux melting pot. When Big Blue didn't buckle, SCO raised the stakes to $3 billion and revoked IBM's license to ship Unix systems. The last gasp of a failing software outfit with no prospects in the marketplace, or a legal coming of age for open source? SCO chief exec Darl McBride swears his bitter medicine will do us good.
WIRED: Give me the summary brief.
McBRIDE: The world is moving to a Unix operating environment, and SCO owns the intellectual property rights to it. When you snap off a branch from the Unix tree and try to graft it onto the Linux tree, that's out-of-bounds. It's time to step up and claim the ownership rights that are rightly ours.
What's that got to do with IBM - aside from the fact that you're going after deep pockets?
It's the ringleader. We are staring down the barrel of hundreds of thousands of lines of code that enabled Linux to go from a mom-and-pop operating system to a big-time, enterprise-class OS at Fortune 100 companies. It's really interesting to see what happens when people see the code, when they see how blatant the copying is.
So where's the proof?
We've stepped up with 80 direct lines of code and derivative works that amount to thousands of lines - and we're saving the rest for the courtroom. How many clothes does Winona Ryder have to steal before it's not OK? You get to a certain point where property rights are either valuable or they're not.
Are you afraid of being remembered as the man who killed open source?
People ask why we haven't sued Red Hat. We haven't sued Red Hat because then the GPL [general public license] grinds to a screeching halt, and all shipping distributions of Linux must stop. This whole process is going to make Linux and open source stronger with respect to intellectual property. Today, there's no vetting process to make sure the code that goes into open source is clear. We're trying to work through issues in such a way that we get justice without putting a hole in the head of the penguin.
VIEW
Cloudy, With a Chance of Theft
Do we still need the desktop PC?
Will This Man Kill Linux?
Freedom's Dark Side
Seoul of a New Machine
