"Misappropriating" source code to contribute to Linux? The SCO v. IBM case lasted for 18 years to settle for 14.25 million US dollars

Just now, a SCO VS IBM lawsuit that was once regarded as an "existential threat" by Linux, finally reached a settlement for 14.25 million US dollars. This controversial case directly related to Linux "intellectual property" has finally come to an end today, 18 years later.

A lawsuit that lasted for 18 years is finally over

According to foreign media reports, on the evening of Friday, August 27, the Delaware Bankruptcy Court officially announced that after 18 years of legal operation, the SCO bankruptcy case (first filed in 2007) is now "awaiting dissolution" and represents the TLD debtor The SCO Group has reached a settlement with IBM and settled all remaining claims between SCO and IBM. The two parties agreed to resolve all disputes between them and paid US$14.25 million to the trustee TLD on behalf of Real Estate IBM.

In return, the trustee TLD will abandon all pending lawsuits or possible future lawsuits against IBM and Red Hat, as well as any allegations that Linux infringes on the intellectual property rights of SCO Unix or Unixware.

According to the settlement agreement, the trustee has reached a settlement with IBM to resolve all remaining disputed claims in the Utah lawsuit. The settlement agreement is the final result of extensive fair trade negotiations between the trustee and IBM.

The settlement agreement stated that the two parties agreed to resolve all disputes between the two parties and paid 14.25 million US dollars to the trustee on behalf of the real estate. For more detailed reasons, the trustee submits a settlement agreement. The settlement with IBM is in the best interest of real estate and creditors, and within a reasonable range, it should be approved.

The proposed order will include "release of the estate's claims against IBM and vice versa" (according to SCO Group and IBM's PDF files uploaded to scribd.com).

Why did TLD finally agree to the settlement?

According to the legal representative of TLD, “As we all know, there has never been such a case 18 years ago. To successfully deal with unfair competition claims, it is necessary to prove to the jury that events that occurred many years ago constituted unfair competition and caused damage. TLD has succeeded in this endeavor, and the amount of damage it can recover is still uncertain and may be much lower than the provisions of the settlement agreement."

In other words, the SCO's long-standing lawsuit against IBM, or because the trustee's claim against IBM is still uncertain, the possibility of the eventual success, so today, 18 years later, it will finally come to an end.

The above analysis can also be seen in the IBM/SCO document entitled Trustee Motion on Scribd.com:

"For example, the successful handling of unfair competition claims requires the jury to prove to the jury that events that occurred many years ago constituted unfair competition and caused damage. Even if the TLD succeeds in this endeavour, the amount of losses it can recover is uncertain and may be significantly greater. Lower than the provisions of the settlement agreement. If the jury finds (1) SCO's losses due to IBM's actions are less than the amount claimed by SCO, (2) SCO's losses are subject to the USD 5 million loss limit in the Monterey Project Agreement The limitations of the terms, (3) part or all of IBM’s counterclaims, claims that millions of dollars in damages related to IBM’s Linux activities and so-called TLD interference are valid.”

Therefore, although the trustee believes that the asset will ultimately prevail in the claim against IBM, IBM can successfully defend or counter-claim it.

Regarding the follow-up to this case, the Delaware Bankruptcy Court disclosed that the first creditors meeting will be held on September 22, 2021.

Tracing to the source of a "

This lawsuit between SCO and IBM, which was once regarded as an "existential threat" for Linux, now seems to have become a bad legal "joke." If you want to ask the root cause of this incident, you have to start 20 years ago.

In 2001, IBM and SCO jointly created the "Monterey" project and then withdrew, contributed part of the project's intellectual property rights to Linux and created the UNIX operating system AIX (this operating system uses part of SCO's code).

SCO objected to IBM's contribution, believing that IBM handed over its assets to the open source Linux code base.

Since then, SCO has started a long lawsuit against IBM.

In 2003, SCO accused IBM and other vendors, claiming that the source code it contributed to the Linux kernel used its System V source code, violating copyright, and declared a claim of US$1 billion. Later, the amount of the claim rose to 3 billion U.S. dollars and then to 5 billion U.S. dollars.

Since then, the contradictions between the two sides have escalated. Distributors of IBM and Red Hat Linux began to fight back and sued SCO. SCO began to "threat" all Linux users who did not hold SCO UNIX licenses, and sued a series of Linux users and vendors.

In the end, SCO filed for bankruptcy, and some of its claims were rejected, except for the dispute between it and IBM. Got this lawsuit.

In this regard, IBM has also been actively defending the integrity of the open source development process and the inherent choices and competition that open source brings.

Reference link:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/after-almost-20-years-the-sco-vs-ibm-lawsuit-may-finally-be-ending/