Automotive industry hit first by SCO Linux attacks
Automotive industry hit first by SCO Linux attacks
The Automotive industry is the first to be sued by SCO for using Linux operating systems, allegedly, in breach of copyright laws.
Automaker, DaimlerChrysler and retailer AutoZone, are the two companies to fall victim to SCO's ongoing lawsuit campaign.
SCO stated that: "AutoZone violated SCO's Unix copyrights by running versions of the Linux operating system that contain code, structure, sequence and/or organisation from SCO's proprietary Unix System V code in violation of SCO's copyrights."
The lawsuit has requested an injunction against AutoZone using or copying anymore of SCO's copyrighted materials and damages as a result of AutoZone's infringement. The amount will be decided at the trial.
A suit filed against DaimlerChrysler is also because of violations of the company's Unix Software agreement with SCO. The company has been using Linux servers to run crash test simulations to improve car safety and reliability.
The suits have been compared to SCO's attempt to make money before by selling licences that permitted the use of supporting software which came with SCO's Unix, OpenServer and UnixWare products. The use of the software meant that products written for these products could also run on Linux, even though this violated SCO's licences agreement.
SCO believe that these lawsuits will help educate companies about the advantages of seeking the more financially sound route of paying SCO to use its intellectual property.
The money SCO could get for these law suits would help it massively as it tries to make up for the $2.3 million losses reported in the first quarter of 2004.
The losses are due to the company's drop in revenues with its SCOsource initiative. This has been due to both Microsoft and Sun having completed the quarterly payments they had been making to SCO for Unix licensing deals.
SCO expects to expand SCOsource operations in the next quarter with money from more lawsuits against Linux users, but some financial analysts do not think this will help SCO make the bottom line.
Related Article: