DaimlerChrysler has asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit
brought against it by Unix supplier the SCO Group, saying that
there is "no genuine issue of material fact" in SCO's
case.
In March, SCO filed a lawsuit against the vehicle manufacturer,
claiming that DaimlerChrysler had refused to provide a requested
"certification of compliance" indicating that DaimlerChrysler was
in compliance with a Unix licensing agreement from November
1990.
In court filings dated 15 April, however, DaimlerChrysler argued
that although it has no obligation to provide SCO with such
certification, it has, indeed, provided SCO with such a letter.
The filings refer to two letters sent by DaimlerChrysler to
SCO's director of software licensing, Bill Broderick, and dated 6
April, said DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman Mary Gauthier.
One of the letters, written by DaimlerChrysler's senior manager
of tech services Norman Powell and addressed to Unix System
Laboratories, certifies that DaimlerChrysler is no longer using the
software licensed under an 1990 agreement between Chrysler Motors
and Unix System Laboratories.
The second letter, written by DaimlerChrysler senior vice
president and chief information office Susan Unger and addressed to
Broderick says that SCO has no right to seek such a certification
but adds that the first letter "should cause SCO to dismiss its
suit".
Novell acquired Unix System Laboratories and rights to the Unix
operating system from AT&T in 1993. Some of these rights were,
eventually, transferred to SCO, although Novell now claims that it
retained copyright to the Unix System V code that SCO also claims
to own.
DaimlerChrysler appears to believe that SCO also has no rights
to its Unix contract. "We were rather puzzled when we saw the
lawsuit because we never had any agreement with SCO and never had
any knowledge that SCO had assumed the rights to that agreement,"
said Gauthier.
The car maker's filings ask the court to "grant summary
disposition in its favour and against SCO, and deny SCO its
requested relief".
SCO had been seeking damages for what it called "past violations
of the DaimlerChrysler Software Agreement".
The fact that DaimlerChrysler has now produced the requested
certification is unlikely to end SCO's lawsuit, said open source
advocate Bruce Perens.
"I do not expect SCO to willingly drop any lawsuit, nor do I
expect them to willingly allow any lawsuit to complete," he
said.
"The whole idea is for SCO to have lawsuits in play and for them
to deceive people like Baystar into believing that there's a chance
of them succeeding," he said, referring to the venture firm that
recently asked SCO to return a $20m investment it had made in SCO,
alleging that SCO had breached the terms of its investment
agreement.
SCO claimed that the Linux operating system violates its
copyrights and has sued a number of companies including IBM, Novell
and AutoZone in connection with these assertions. Open-source
advocates like Perens said the company has yet to prove such
claims.
SCO declined to comment on this story.
Robert McMillan writes for IDG News
Service