Linux's Legal World After SCO

Pamela Jones is the Founder and Editor of Groklaw, a site about legal news of interest to the Free Software and Open Source (FOSS) community. She is a journalist who previously trained and worked as a paralegal. Her article have appeared in numerous Linux publications including Linux Journal and LWN.

Hello LinuxWorld.com... It's so nice to see you back where you belong. As part of the celebration of the relaunch of LinuxWorld, I've been asked to do a summary of where things stand legally in the Linux world, post-SCO. What has changed as a result of the SCO saga? If a Son of SCO shows up in the future, is the community prepared? What is now in place that wasn't there when SCO first showed up in 2003?

When SCO and its supporters decided to attack Linux, they must have seen the Linux community as vulnerable, disorganized, legally inexperienced, and unlikely to be able to defend itself effectively, the quintessential 98-pound weakling. They felt free to kick sand in its face, and they did, but they were clearly stunned by the reaction they got. The community rapidly organized an effective response. The SCO saga is drawing to a close, and Linux won. But what about the future? If a Son of SCO copycat appears, is the community now better prepared because of having gone through the SCO saga? What is now in place to handle legal issues that wasn't there when SCO first attacked in 2003?

What Changed

First and foremost, we've changed. SCO did its worst, and Linux came out victorious, with the community more solid and better organized than ever. The threat appears now to be over, from all we can see. The rest is process and paperwork, barring something new. SCO's list of allegedly infringing material in the IBM case astounded us by being so empty of substance, leaving SCO's earlier public threats looking like a balloon with a pinhole, leaking air and careening around wildly in the air.

Another change is Groklaw is now an established meeting place for the legal and the technical communities to pool their knowledge and skills to help thwart any future SCO-like attacks on Linux and FOSS, a place where the two communities can educate each other. Because thousands and thousands of volunteers showed up and contributed insight, evidence, historical references, technical and legal knowledge and support, Groklaw worked. I believe it's fair to say that no law firm can afford to hire all the technical expertise that Groklaw provides. Should there be future litigation, everyone knows where to go to find out what's needed so they can help. I'm very proud that most everyone in the Linux community now seems to know the basics of the US legal system or at least knows how to find out how it works.

IP law is too important to leave it to just the lawyers. They need to understand the tech, and now they can. And vice versa. Geeks need to understand the law, because more and more it affects them directly. We didn't have Groklaw in place in 2003. If the next attack is patent infringement, Groklaw is ready. In fact, it has already done some group research on prior art for specific cases.