IBM countersues SCO... again

Thank god ibm is on the gpl's side.  hopefully this whole debacle will
end up strengthening the gpl and oss in general in the workplace.

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030926/1148000629_1.html

Dow Jones Business News
IBM Files New Claims Against SCO in Linux Case
Friday September 26, 11:48 am ET
By William M. Bulkeley, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

BOSTON -- International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - News) has
filed new counterclaims against SCO Group Inc. (NasdaqSC:SCOX - News) in
the closely watched case involving the Linux operating system, according
to a memo sent to the IBM sales force.

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According to the memo, which was obtained by The Wall Street Journal,
the new counterclaim charges that SCO infringed IBM's copyrights by
distributing IBM's contributions to Linux after SCO had violated its
Linux license by claiming a copyright on parts of Linux.

IBM says in its counterclaim that SCO violated the general Public
License under which Linux is distributed. The GPL requires Linux
distributors to permit customers to freely copy the software. SCO is
based in Linden, Utah. The case is being tried in U.S. district court in
Salt Lake City. In the memo to the sales force, IBM also said it won't
offer to indemnify its Linux customers from facing lawsuits related to
intellectual property claims involving Linux. Recently, Hewlett-Packard
Co. (NYSE:HPQ - News) said it will provide indemnification to Linux
users who run the software on H-P computers.

In the memo, signed by Robert Samson, an IBM sales manager, IBM said
that: " Most indemnities are narrowly drawn and are often invalidated by
customer activities, such as making modifications or combining the
indemnified product with other code, which are central to the vitality
of open source."

It said the H-P indemnification requirements "will inhibit customers
from taking full advantage of the open source development process."

Mr. Samson's memo says "HP's approach as outlined in the press, we
believe runs fundamentally counter to the Linux value proposition." Many
users like Linux because they can view the source code making it easy to
adapt the operating system for their own uses.

-By William M. Bulkeley, The Wall Street Journal; 617-654-6704