Defense Fund Set Up For Linux Users

The Open Source Development Labs said Monday it is establishing a legal defense fund to defend Linux users against litigation threatened by the SCO Group, which is vowing to bring a copyright infringement lawsuit against a large Linux user.

IBM, Intel and other OSDL members have contributed more than $2 million to the fund, which has a goal of reaching $10 million.

"The fund is designated to help with the defense of end users of Linux in the event that they are sued by SCO for copyright violation relating to their use of Linux," the OSDL said statement. "Any Linux customer sued by SCO for use of Linux can request assistance from the fund."

A SCO spokesman said the suit against an as-yet-unnamed Linux user "is close to forthcoming." In a court filing Nov. 18, SCO said it planned to file the suit within 90 days.

In a related development, SCO said it plans to make a federal court filing Monday in an action involving the demand for evidence from IBM. The two sides -- SCO and IBM in this instance -- in the litigation have been asking each other to provide documentation in the case. In the latest action, a U. S. magistrate has told SCO to produce evidence demonstrating that IBM's work on Linux violated license agreements. IBM has said it did not violate any license agreements.The non-profit OSDL said the fund will also cover the legal expenses of Linus Torvalds, the creator of the open source software. In addition, the OSDL will be able to use funds from the defense fund for its own legal work carried out in the litigation with SCO. Torvalds, who is employed at the Lab, directs the development of Linux. Torvalds has not been named as a target in the case by SCO.

The OSDL said the legal defense fund will not cover developers. There is separate legal defense fund for developers established by Red Hat Inc. to defend developers. The OSDL consortium said it will limit the defense fund's contributions to end users "sued by SCO where the case involves copyright or other intellectual property issues that affect the Linux industry."

SCO has sent out more than 1,500 warning letters to business users of its software, demanding that they pay fees to SCO for their use of the GNU Linux operating system.