Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system,
is among the recipients of a number of subpoenas filed by IBM and
The SCO Group as their seven-month legal battle
continues.
Torvalds was subpoenaed by SCO, which filed a $1bn lawsuit
against IBM in March, which alleged that IBM illegally contributed
some of SCO's System V Unix code to the Linux development
project.
"I don't know how these things work, and I will have to get a
lawyer to tell me what to do," he said.
In August, IBM countersued SCO alleging patent
infringement.
SCO also sent subpoenas to:
- Richard Stallman, author of the GNU General Public Licence
(GPL) and founder of the Free Software Foundation.
- Stuart Cohen, chief executive officer of the non-profit Open
Source Development Labs in Oregon, which supports the use and
development of Linux in business computing.
- John Horsley, legal counsel for Transmeta, where Torvalds
previously worked before joining the OSDL this year as its fellow.
Also subpoenaed are unnamed executives from vendors Novell and
Digeo.
"We're seeking information from these individuals because of
their recognised leadership roles in the evolution of Linux," a SCO
spokesman said. "We believe that their technical views will help to
illuminate important issues related to the development of Linux and
the validity of the GPL."
IBM's subpoenas were sent to BayStar Capital, which invested
$50m in SCO last month, as well as to Deutsche Bank Group,
Renaissance Ventures and research firm The Yankee Group.
An IBM statement said the subpoenas went out to try to move
SCO's claims out into the open which, IBM claims, has not yet
happened.
"It is time for SCO to produce something meaningful," IBM said.
"They have been dragging their feet and it is not clear there is
any incentive for SCO to try this in court."
A SCO spokesman called IBM's selection of subpoena targets
"interesting".
"While citing a desire to understand what specific parts of
Linux code are involved in this case, [IBM] has not chosen to
subpoena any technical experts, but instead has subpoenaed those
who have made investments in The SCO Group, along with one industry
analyst who has said only that SCO's case should be taken
seriously," the SCO spokesman said.
"In some ways, IBM's list of subpoenas look less like an effort
to unravel the critical technical issues of the case, and more like
an effort to intimidate SCO investors," the spokesman added.
Todd R Weiss writes for Computerworld