SCO's notorious lawsuit against IBM over alleged copyright infringements in Linux grew out of IBM's abrupt decision to end a development partnership with SCO, according to erstwhile Caldera CEO Ransome Love, as quoted by Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols in a fascinating story published at eWEEK today.

According to Love, IBM was within its contractual rights in ending the “Monterey” project, because SCO had changed ownership when Caldera acquired it in August of 2000. However, he says, IBM had assured Caldera it was committed to the project and would not end it, Vaughan-Nichols writes.

The Monterey Project aimed to develop a “combined Unix and Linux” that could run on 64-bit Intel or Power4 processors. When IBM ended its involvement, it released the PowerPC version of Monterey as AIX 5L, according to Love. However, the former Caldera CEO says, it withheld the IA-64 version, on which Caldera/SCO had “entirely depended,” offering only to pay Caldera for its development efforts.

Learn more about the possible origins of SCO's lawsuit against IBM, as well important events in the ongoing case that took place over the last two weeks, by reading Vaughan-Nichols's story at eWEEK.

 
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