The SCO Group's attempt to extract billions from IBM for code allegedly written into the Linux kernel's codebase is still meandering through the legal system—13 years after the now-bankrupt company filed the IP infringement suit against Big Blue.
A Utah federal judge dismissed (PDF) the latest iteration of the case this month, and SCO on Wednesday said (PDF) it would take the lawsuit to the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals. The suit has had many twists and turns, but we'll summarize it briefly.
At its core, SCO Group, then named Caldera Systems, filed suit (PDF) against IBM in March 2003 for allegedly contributing sections of commercial UNIX code from UNIX System V—which the SCO Group claimed it owned—to the Linux kernel's codebase. SCO Group claimed that the alleged presence of its proprietary code in the open source kernel devalued its proprietary code and that by making the source code available, IBM had violated its license agreement with SCO Group. Along the way, SCO filed for bankruptcy, and the group claimed that anyone who used Linux owed them money. All the while, Novell successfully claimed ownership of the allegedly infringing code and agreed to indemnify Linux users.
All of this hasn't stopped the SCO Group from continuing its battle with IBM. The SCO Group on Wednesday did not state the nature of its appeal, as it was solely a notice to the appeals court that it would lodge an appeal. Here is a timeline of the case.
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