SCO Unix Intellectual Property Pedigree Chart

Bruce Dawson jbd at codemeta.com
Thu May 1 16:12:30 EDT 2003


Jerry Feldman wrote:
  While, Linux might have been polluted in recent years, Linux and most of
  the utilities that comprise the distros were never part of the AT&T
  source base. Therefore, they cannot claim ownership of Linux, but if
  Linux source is polluted they can make some Intellectual Property
  claims. Also, SCO did not purchase the Unix brand. USL sold that to The
  Open Group well before 1995. I don't know if the Unix brand was sold
  before or after USL was acquired by Novell. I also think the SCO
  purchase of USL was more recent than 1995, but I'm too lazy to research
  that.

Don't forget - patents trump ownership. In this context, ownership only
applies to copyrighted material. If SCO is making patent infringement
claims, then the problem is non-trival. If its just copyright
infringement, then SCO is blowing hot air (unless there was some
red-herring in the netware software).



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