IBM Owns the JFS, RCU, and NUMA Software Copyrights!
IBM answers the question of who owns the JFS, NUMA software, and RCU copyrights.
Trink Guarino, Director of IBM Media Relations told MozillaQuest Magazine yesterday:
SCO has not shown us any code contributed to Linux by IBM that violates SCO copyrights. SCO needs to openly show the Linux community any copyrighted Unix Code, which they claim is in Linux. SCO seems to be asking customers to pay for a license based on allegations, not facts.
Trink Guarino is correct in criticizing SCO and McBride for not supporting its allegations with any facts. Additionally, IBM is willing and able to support its position. Today, Trink Guarino added this statement in our discussions:
IBM owns the copyrights for the work we've done in AIX, JFS, RCU and the code that takes advantage of NUMA hardware. AIX is the fastest growing UNIX operating system in the industry, and we intend to continue and accelerate that growth.
That pretty much takes the wind out of SCO and McBride's sails as to its threats against GNU/Linux users.
On the other hand SCO's Darl McBride, Chris Sontag, and Blake Stowell failed to answer the question Does SCO have registered copyrights for JFS, NUMA, and RCU? Guess that means that SCO, McBride, Sontag, and Stowell know darn well that IBM owns the copyrights to the JFS, NUMA software, and RCU code that IBM developed.
On the basis of our research and discussions with attorneys, Linux kernel developers, SCO people, analysts, and so forth, we expect that IBM's statement that it owns the AIX, JFS, NUMA, and RCU code that it developed copyrights is more correct than SCO press release and McBride teleconference claims that SCO owns them.
There is a proviso here. If both IBM and SCO claim the copyrights to AIX, JFS, NUMA software, and RCU, then ultimately a court(s) will have to make the final determination of just who owns the AIX, JFS, NUMA software, and RCU copyrights. Also, please keep in mind that SCO-McBride's announcement is that SCO has registered copyrights for the Unix System V source code. That announcement says nothing directly as to AIX, JFS, NUMA, RCU, and other Unix extensions. However, the McBride-SCO announcement seems to be reasonably calculated to falsely lead people to believe that SCO has copyrights for AIX, JFS, NUMA, RCU, and other Unix extensions.
There is a clarification that needs to be made here. AIX is a combination of SCO's Unix System V code and IBM developed code. IBM is not claiming to own the Unix System V code included in AIX, IBM's adaptation of Unix. IBM is laying claim only to the AIX code that IBM developed.
Interestingly, SCO's IBM lawsuit attorney David Boies said yesterday during the SCO teleconference that he is preparing to go to court for a resolution on the SCO IP issues. We take that to be an admission by David Boies and SCO that they know darn well that the GNU/Linux community and the many companies and organizations that contribute to Linux kernel and GNU/Linux development and distribution strongly dispute the SCO-Caldera-McBride claims that the Linux kernel and GNU/Linux infringe on SCO-owned Unix copyrights. And so far, the German courts have ruled against SCO and McBride on these issues.
Shame on you SCO! Isn't it time for you to tell the truth?
Shame on you Darl McBride! Isn't it time for you to tell the truth?
