SCO–SGI code dispute of 2003
| Industry | Software |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | United States |
During the 2003 SCO Forum event, the SCO Group (SCO) exhibited purported instances of unauthorized copying of copyrighted material into the Linux operating system. The open source software community swiftly refuted the majority of these allegations. One highlighted case involved Unix code found within contributions from SGI to Linux. Linux developers clarified that this specific code had been eliminated—not due to copyright violation, but because it duplicated existing Linux functionality. Both SGI and industry experts confirmed that no infringement had taken place.
Background
At the SCO Forum held in Las Vegas from August 17 to 19, 2003, SCO publicly revealed what it claimed were instances of illegal copying of copyrighted code into Linux, information that had previously been confidential under NDAs. SCO classified the alleged violations into categories such as direct copying, obfuscation, creation of derivative works, and non-literal code transfers.
The principal example illustrating direct copying, referred to as the atemalloc case, implicated SGI as the original source. However, this code segment had already been removed from Linux because it redundantly replicated existing functions.
The open source community promptly examined the code in question. While acknowledging its Unix origins, analyses emphasized that derivation from Unix does not inherently constitute copyright infringement.
From a commercial perspective, this example was considered weak since the code never appeared in widely used Linux distributions but only in the limited IA-64 architecture version. Given IA-64's minimal global adoption and the brief inclusion of this code, the potential for exposure was very low.
Origin
The code contributed may trace back to UNIX System V, developed in the early 1970s. Early Unix source code bears significant resemblance to UNIX System V. Dennis Ritchie, co-creator of Unix, admitted that either he or Ken Thompson authored the original code:
This point is significant because early Unix source lacked formal copyright protection due to the absence of explicit claims at that time. Additionally, both Santa Cruz Operation and The SCO Group released early Unix versions under a 4-clause BSD-style license, allowing their use in other open source projects.
SGI response
On October 1, 2003, SGI responded publicly to SCO's accusations through an open letter addressed to the Linux community. Rich Altmaier, SGI’s vice president of software, explained that the small segments of code in question—amounting to fewer than 200 lines—had been unintentionally included within the Linux kernel out of over one million lines contributed by SGI. He further pointed out that most or all of these System V fragments had been dedicated to the public domain, challenging SCO’s assertions of proprietary ownership.