You may not have heard of the SCO Group unless you’re in the tech industry or you love to read about stupid lawsuits. The SCO Group is a software company that sells various flavors of UNIX. They have also claimed to own all the rights and trademarks to UNIX (which it turns out they don’t) and have further claimed that code from UNIX has been found to have been added to Linux without their permission and has threatened to sue or has sued various companies who they claim violate their rights by using Linux.
Ironically, the SCO Group has actually sold Linux and apparently didn’t have a problem with the supposedly misappropriated code until after it started filing lawsuits. More ironic though is the fact that litigation on the matter has borne out that the SCO Group had actually borrowed the code from Linux without permission and inserted it into UNIX, which is explains why the two systems share some code.
Throughout the course of the lawsuits, the consensus opinion of critics seems to be that the SCO Group’s lawyers have made ludicrous claims based on complete bullshit and (failed) attempts at underhandedness. It seems like the SCO Group wasn’t making enough money off of UNIX and decided to litigate its way into profitability. In an act that sounds like the summary of an article in the Onion, they attempted to make money off of the people who decided not to patronize their business. They have since filed for bankruptcy protection due to the failure of their lawsuits. Greed and stupidity don’t pay (usually) and apparently neither does basing a lawsuit on complete bullshit (sometimes).
The history of the lawsuits can be followed in great detail on the website Groklaw, though you may want to read the short(er) version on Wikipedia.
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