IBM Subpoenas Microsoft About SCO

The long legal feud between IBM and SCO over alleged infringement of source code owned by SCO took a dramatic step in its discovery phase. IBM subpoenaed a quartet of tech companies to give testimony as it defends against SCO's claims that source code from SCO made its way into the version of Linux that IBM distributes. Microsoft, Sun, Hewlett-Packard, and BayStar all have March appointments to provide more information about those companies and their dealings with SCO. The IBM's defense against SCO could bring some uncomfortable relationships to light. Microsoft and Sun both paid SCO for Unix licenses; H-P's contracts with SCO are not known. BayStar's involvement reportedly began with Microsoft referring SCO to them; BayStar later arranged a $50 million investment in SCO, CNet allegedly supporting SCO's legal actions from behind the scenes. Those actions would help slow down Linux adoption in the lucrative enterprise market due to legal concerns. Confirmation of those allegations would be "explosive stuff" indeed. document.write("Email murdok here.") Drag this to your Bookmarks. Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") | Yahoo! My Web David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.