Red Hat sues SCO

RED HAT has filed a lawsuit against The SCO Group, it announced today. The story is at Yahoo! Finance and elsewhere.

Mark Webbink, Red Hat's General Counsel, said "We filed this complaint to stop SCO from making unsubstantiated and untrue public statements attacking Red Hat Linux and the integrity of the Open Source software development process."

Matthew Szulik, Chairman and CEO of Red Hat, said "The collaborative process of Open Source software development which created the Linux operating system has been unjustly questioned and threatened.

"In its role as industry leader, Red Hat has a responsibility to ensure the legal rights of users are protected."

"To further protect the integrity of Open Source software and the Open Source community," according to its press release, Red Hat also said it has pledged $1 million to establish the Open Source Now Fund.

Red Hat's press release continued: "The purpose of the fund will be to cover legal expenses associated with infringement claims brought against companies developing software under the GPL license and non-profit organizations supporting the efforts of companies developing software under a GPL license."

Individuals or companies interested in the Open Source Now Fund can email opensourcenow@redhat.com.

It's about time. µ

See Also
Legal commentators weigh SCO's chances
OSDL questions SCO's license extortion

L'INQ
Yahoo! Finance