Torvalds Says SCO Won't Give Him Peek At Code Without NDA
In an e-mail response to CRN, Torvalds, the founder of Linux and top engineer on the open-source project, said he asked SCO's top executive about viewing the code but was not granted absolution from a legal agreement that would prevent him talking publicly about it.
"I've not seen the code, and clearly I can't sign an NDA for it," said Torvalds. "I did ask [SCO CEO] Darl McBride to show it to me but didn't expect them to make it available. They didn't."
For its part, SCO said it needs Torvalds' written signature on a non-disclosure agreement before unveiling the code in question. NDAs, similar to gag orders, prevent public disclosure.
"It is not true that SCO has refused to show the code to Torvalds. SCO has already shown the code to several reporters and analysts and continues to do so. SCO continues to be willing to show the code to Linus as well," according to a statement released by McBride and SCO Senior Vice President Chris Sontag.
SCO executives said SCO and Torvalds have had conversations since late last year but can't come to agreement on the NDA terms.
In the statement, the SCO executives said: "SCO has exchanged a series of e-mails with Linus Torvalds starting last December and continuing until early this month. SCO is perfectly willing to show the code to Linus. Linus says he will not sign an NDA. SCO cannot show the Unix code without the NDA, so it appears that they are at an impasse. SCO's offer stands--Linus can see the code under the NDA."
Last week, under pressure from thousands of Linux advocates and controversial claims by Novell that it owned Unix copyrights, SCO agreed to show a limited amount of Linux code important to its case against IBM to analysts, observers and media.
SCO, formerly Caldera Systems and Santa Cruz Operation, filed a $1 billion lawsuit against IBM in March, alleging IBM misappropriated trade secrets and engaged in tortious interference, unfair competition and breach of contract by contributing Unix code to the Linux open-source project.
SCO claims the Linux kernel contains source code covered under its contract with IBM.
The Lindon, Utah, company claims it will revoke IBM's license at midnight on June13 if the two parties can't settle the case out of court, a spokesman said. SCO would not comment on the status of discussions with IBM.
Torvalds said it's well-known that portions of the Linux code come from IBM. He will reserve judgement until he views all the code in question.
"I don't see what the IBM angle is, though. The kernel clearly does contain code from IBM too (much more than 80 lines), most notably the IBM journalling filesystem JFS," Torvalds wrote in an e-mail to CRN. "I personally consider any claimed shared source unlikely to be of truly SVR4 origin and much more likely to have other sources, but before we can see the code we can't really make any firm statements to that effect.
"The code will have to come out eventually. I can wait. I don't have to like it, of course," Torvalds added.
Torvalds isn't the only one who hasn't signed an NDA.
George Weiss, a vice president at Gartner, would not sign an NDA but said he respects both sides of the contentious issue.
"While we may not agree with all of the strategies and decisions made by SCO, I still believe that they have acted professionally and seriously under an extremely stressful climate," Weiss said. "The case represents a clash of two cultures, philosophies and business models on software development and distribution. I think both will have to coexist, especially as Linux is increasingly wedded into commercial environments.
"Open source brings many tremendous advantages to the user community and IT organizations," Weiss continued. "But in like manner, there are many vendors participating in that very OSS [open-source software] community who believe quite strongly in their own creative product and do not wish to open their designs to scrutiny nor feel compelled to lead or be directed by a community on how their product should evolve. This is a classic case study for the OSS community to create protection and audit mechanisms that respect the processes of both models."