Legal row shuts SCO website

SCO has shut down its German website in the wake of a temporary restraining order obtained by a German Linux group.

SCO was forced to take the action after LinuxTag claimed SCO engaged in unfair competitive practices when it sent letters to 1,500 large companies claiming that using Linux could pose legal problems because SCO proprietary Unix source code had been copied into Linux.

LinuxTag's Michael Kleinhenz said in the statement: "SCO must not be allowed to damage its competitors by unsubstantiated claims, to intimidate their customers and to inflict lasting damage on the reputation of GNU/Linux as an open platform."

LinuxTag demanded SCO make its evidence public by 30 May or retract its claims made on 23 May.

SCO removed copies of that letter from its websites as a result, but later, LinuxTag succeeded in obtaining a temporary restraining order against SCO, said Ryan Tibbitts, SCO's newly appointed chief legal counsel. Because SCO hasn't been able to see the actual contents of the order, the company ordered the entire site be shut down to be on the safe side, he said.

Tibbitts said: "We didn't want to run afoul of the court. I haven't seen the length and breadth of the temporary restraining order to see what it is we're precluded from doing. In an abundance of caution we just took down the whole German website."

The move was a victory, albeit minor, in Linux fans' efforts to counter the SCO actions, which attack the legal and philosophical underpinnings of the fiercely independent open-source movement. SCO's actions stemmed from investigations of the Linux source code undertaken for its $1bn (£610m) lawsuit against IBM, alleging that Big Blue broke its contract with SCO by misappropriating trade secrets when moving technology from Unix into Linux.

A more significant setback for SCO took place earlier last week, when Novell, which owned Unix rights before selling some to SCO's predecessor, said it never sold SCO the Unix copyrights and patents.

SCO says it plans to show the source code it says was copied from Unix into Linux. However, it has said it will only show the code to some, such as industry analysts, who sign nondisclosure agreements. It also has said it could reveal the code as part of its case against IBM.

Stephen Shankland writes for News.com