SCO Unix licence irrevocable, says IBM

IBM has told vnunet.com that SCO cannot carry out its threat to revoke its Unix licence on 13 June.

Last week SCO vice president Chris Sontag said that SCO would enforce its threat to complete its revocation of IBM's licence, and that Big Blue would be liable for every single AIX deployment.

But Adam Jollans (pictured), IBM's manager of worldwide Linux marketing strategy, dismissed Sontag's warning.

"The contract IBM has for Unix is perpetual and irrevocable," he said.

Jollans admitted he was constrained in what he could say ahead of any possible court case, but said that IBM believed SCO's claims were unsubstantiated.

"The SCO case has in no way changed our commitment to customers," he added.

SCO may have to win a court battle to revoke IBM's licence.

"If SCO revokes the AIX licence it will have to seek a court order to enforce that, which IBM would fight," said Gary Barnett, principal consultant at analyst Ovum.

Putting aside SCO's threats, Jollans expressed confidence that the Linux market would not fragment in the way that Unix had done, thanks to the General Public Licence (GPL).

"When you add something to Linux and resell it, you have to contribute it back to the open source community. So [for instance] SuSE uses Red Hat code and vice versa," he said.

SCO's past support for Linux included providing code for both SCO Linux and UnitedLinux which are covered by the GPL open source licence, highlighting a potential difficulty for SCO in any court case.

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See also:

IBM has Novell support in SCO countersuit

War of words continues as SCO hits back at Big Blue's claims  08 Aug 2003

SCO vs IBM

The $3bn lawsuit brought by the SCO Group against IBM will have repercussions for all IT vendors, as well as their users.  01 Jul 2003

Interview: SCO chief Darl McBride part 3

In the last of a three-part interview, SCO chief Darl McBride tells vnunet.com's Peter Williams about his long-term plans for the company  27 Jun 2003

Interview: SCO chief Darl McBride part 2

In the second of a three-part interview, SCO chief Darl McBride talks exclusively to vnunet.com's Peter Williams about the details of SCO's case against IBM  27 Jun 2003

Unix code in Linux kernel a 'no-brainer'

There could not be a more straightforward case, says SCO chief  26 Jun 2003

SCO may audit IBM's AIX customers

Vendor ready to 'exercise its rights' during discovery process  25 Jun 2003

Interview: SCO chief Darl McBride part 1

In the first of a three-part interview, SCO chief Darl McBride talks exclusively to vnunet.com's Peter Williams about why he believes his company has a rock-solid case against IBM  24 Jun 2003

(Dis)UnitedLinux members begin to bond

SCO will remain inside the consortium, but SuSE may merge with TurboLinux  12 Jun 2003

Lindows denies part in SCO Linux row

Leave us out of it, says Lindows boss from fence  30 May 2003

Unix is ours not SCO's, says Novell

Prove your allegations against Linux or take them back, warns Novell CEO  28 May 2003

SCO Linux spat set to widen

Vendor steps up legal challenge against IBM and distributors of open-source OS  19 May 2003

SCO action creates bad feeling in market

Channel confused but dismissive of vendor's intellectual property lawsuit  19 May 2003

Microsoft licenses Unix from SCO

Redmond declares its hand with deal covering Unix patents and source code  19 May 2003

SCO cuts support for UnitedLinux

Fellow consortium member SuSE says SCO withdrawal will not be a challenge  16 May 2003

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