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| | | March 7, 2004
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Sunday, March 7, 2004 |
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SCO takes the Linux fight on wheels
The week brought renewed momentum to the Linux litigation saga. The SCO Group filed lawsuits against major U.S. auto parts retailer AutoZone and Germany-based auto giant DaimlerChrysler. In a statement, the company alleged that AutoZone "violated SCO's UNIX copyrights by running versions of the Linux operating system that contain code [...] from SCO's proprietary Unix System V [...] in violation of SCO's copyrights." The move marked the first suit against a Linux customer, bringing to a climax months of threats and defiance.
Darl McBride, SCO's chief executive, even likened his company's fight with Linux to the ongoing legal campaign of the recording industry against file-swappers who allegedly violated artists' and music publishers' copyrights. "It wasn't until the RIAA launched a series of lawsuits against end users that the end users became fully educated," he said.
In addition, The SCO Group filed a lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler for alleged violations of its UNIX software agreement with SCO. Few details were released, but DaimlerChrysler has been known to be a major Linux user and on numerous occasions company executives have described how the automaker uses chains of interconnected Linux servers to perform car crash tests. Still, SCO blushed after an exclusive investigation by CNET News.com revealed that a Microsoft Word document included with the case against DaimlerChrysler contained old revisions that identified Bank of America as target of the lawsuit.
The $5 billion intellectual property lawsuit against IBM was restless, too. A U.S. court judge ordered SCO to reveal the specific lines of code which the company alleges were moved from UNIX to Linux and to identify the UNIX code it claims ownership to. In return, IBM was ordered to provide SCO with the source code of its UNIX versions, AIX and Dynix.
More from: AP (via The Washington Post) | CNET News.com 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | Computerworld 1 2 3 4 5 6 | CRN 1 2 3 4 | Enterprise Linux IT 1 2 | eWeek 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | InternetNews.com 1 2 3 4 | NewsFactor | SearchEnterpriseLinux.com | TechWeb 1 2 | VNUNET.com 1 2 3 | The Washington Post | Wired News
A virus epidemic? Worse, a virus war!
Virus researchers are warning that the recent epidemic of computer worms appears to be having warlike dimensions. The past weeks have seen a slew of variants of the Bagle, MyDoom and NetSky worms emerge infecting hundreds of thousands of computer systems worldwide. Some experts have even gone to saying that the authors of the MyDoom and Bagle worms have teamed up against the creator of NetSky, an assertion reportedly backed up by hidden text inside the viruses' code. According to F-Secure, a Finnish security software outfit, Bagle.J openly challenges the author of NetSky with a rhetorical question: "Wanna start a war?"
But the Bagle worm has also turned into a source of innovation. Apparently, the virus is the first to send itself in password-protected zip attachments which bypass antivirus scanners. Security software makers have begun updating their products to include an ability for the product to extract the password from the e-mail's body, decrypt and scan the executable within the archive.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 | Computerworld 1 2 3 | InternetNews.com | The Register | Reuters 1 2 | TechWeb 1 2 3 4 | VNUNET.com
In Other News...
 Michael Dell, the founder of one of the world's largest computer makers, will step down as chief executive of Dell Inc. in July, passing the post to the second-in-charge, Kevin Rollins. For years, Dell has been known for its unique management approach as Michael Dell and Kevin Rollins led the company together and shared the daily burden of responsibilities. At the annual shareholder meeting to be held this summer, and for Dell's 20th birthday, Rollins is expected to be both named CEO and elected at the company's board of directors. Michael Dell will remain chairman of the board and deeply involved with the PC maker's daily operations, a company statement said.
Microsoft emerged as an early victor after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a preliminary ruling invalidating the plug-in patent of Chicago-based Eolas Technologies. In August 2003, the software maker was sentenced to pay $521 million to Eolas for patent infringement in the popular Internet Explorer web browser. The U.S. Patent Office, however, found that HTML specifications preceded the Eolas patent, therefore invalidating its claims. A final ruling is not expected in months.
Microsoft confirmed it is planning to release a new version of its server operating system before the launch of the next major overhaul of Windows codenamed 'Longhorn'. In the meantime, the software giant is warning developers to test their products with the beta version of Windows XP Service Pack 2 which the company says may disrupt the performance of some applications.
Ask Jeeves announced it will acquire Interactive Search Holdings for about $343 million in cash and stock. Ask Jeeves will buy the company which owns several popular web destinations such as Excite and iWon for 9.3 million shares of common stock and $17.5 million in cash.
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