SCO has essentially lost its lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler, one of two the financially ailing Unix vendor filed against high-profile Linux users in an effort to discredit the open source operating system and the GNU General Public License (GPL) under which it is distributed. SCO's other case against Linux user Autozone has been postponed, and SCO is also struggling in an earlier case against Linux… powerhouse IBM, according to Bruce Perens, an expert on open source legal issues.

SCO has had all claims against DaimlerChrysler dismissed, except one involving the speed with which DaimlerChrysler responded. However, this minor claim carries no risk for DaimlerChrysler of having to pay damages, according to Perens.

SCO's concurrent lawsuit against Autozone has been stopped pending the resolution of SCO's earlier suit against IBM. The Autozone case may be subject to further delay, should the company move to have the case moved to Tennessee.

Some watchers of the SCO cases give the company little chance of success against IBM. “I don't think there's any question that IBM will win. I think SCO is on an extremely shakey legal basis. SCO's case is running on vapors,” said Perens.

Perens adds that he doesn't expect the SCO vs. IBM case to test the legal value of the GNU General Public License (GPL), the “viral” software-sharing mandate under which the Linux operating system is licensed. “Nothing about SCO vs. IBM is ever going to test the GPL legally,” Perens said. “If anyone ever felt the SCO case would be a test of the GPL, no, it's not going to be. You'd need a copyright case. It would have to be a simpler case. SCO tried to make their case as complex as possible so that it would drag out as long as possible. But I think that if anyone was expecting any substantive decision that could be used as precedent, sorry, we're not going to hear that. It's going to end up like the Daimler thing. The judge will say 'you do not have the evidence to support your claim,' and it will close at that point.”

SCO's highly publicized legal threats against companies using Linux have given half of all embedded Linux developers pause during their decision to adopt the open source operating system, according to a LinuxDevices.com reader survey conducted earlier this year. The quick and painless resolution of SCO's case against DaimerChrysler should increase the rate of Linux adoption among embedded developers, for whom Linux is already a preferred OS.

Groklaw.net, a popular web site specializing in open source licensing issues, has published an article about today's decision, here. (mirror)

 
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