The leaked e-mail about Microsoft was shown to be genuine – but
SCO argued that it was a misinterpretation of the facts. The
Computer Associates problem is potentially more damaging.
SCO announced last week that Computer Associates was one of four
named companies to sign up to SCO's UnixWare licence – the licence
that it says most Linux users should buy if they want to avoid the
wrath of its legal team.
But SCO neglected to mention that the enterprise solutions
company only signed up to the licence as part of the settlement
terms for a dispute with SCO's majority shareholder.
EV1Servers.Net last week became the first company to admit
purchasing an SCO UnixWare licence. Then, on Thursday, SCO
announced that Computer Associates, Leggatt & Platt and Questar
had also purchased licences. This was met with a denial of support
for the licensing programme by both Questar and Computer
Associates.
Chad Jones, spokesman for Questar, told CNET News: "our usage is
so small and isolated, it made business sense to pay the licence
fee they were asking rather than risk potential litigation". The
deal was not made out of support for SCO's claims, said Jones.
Computer Associates issued a statement from its senior vice
president Sam Greenblatt saying that it had taken a licence but
that: "CA disagrees with SCO's tactics, which are intended to
intimidate and threaten customers. CA's license for Linux
technology is part of a larger settlement with the Canopy Group. It
has nothing to do with SCO's strategy of intimidation".
There were further embarrassments for SCO. Last week SCO
launched its first lawsuits against Linux end-users, with filings
against AutoZone, a Memphis-based car parts retail giant, and
DaimlerChrysler – alleging that their use of Linux is in breach of
SCO's copyright.
Embarrassingly for SCO's lawyers, however, a copy of the Word
document of the DaimlerChrysler suit found its way into the hands
of tech site CNET News.com, and proved to contain hidden prior
versions of the document, which show that the Bank of America was
the original target of the suit.
Microsoft Word contains a feature that allows contributors to a
document to track the changes that have been made. Unfortunately
this 'metadata' is not always removed when the document is made
public, as appears to have happened in this case.
According to CNET News, the Bank of America was the named
defendant in the legal action until 11.10 on 18th February. SCO,
the Bank of America and SCO's lawyers have made no comment on the
discovery to date.
