Big Blue strikes back as swiftly as a snail

M'LEARNED FIENDS acting for ex-Quaker firm IBM have asked a judge to throw out SCO's claims that Linux uses code nicked from SCO's Unix.

They have asked a Salt Lake City judge to issue a Declaratory Judgment of Noninfringement on the copyright issues. It means that Big Blue's briefs think that SCO's case is so weak that they might get it chucked out without having to go to a lengthy trial.

IBM is saying that it has not violated any of SCO's copyrights and demands that SCO's claims be dismissed.

The m'learned fiends are saying that SCO, as a Linux vendor, released code under the GPL (GNU Public License) and cannot now add new restrictions on the Linux source code.

Novell, which is also being sued by SCO is taking a different tack. It is claiming that it, not SCO has the rights to Unix.

But it is going to take some time before the cases reach court. Experts think that for the judge to even consider Big Blue's request to chuck out the claim, will take about a year. Longer, if the judge falls asleep. µ