SCO targets DaimlerChrysler, AutoZone with lawsuits

The SCO Group Inc. has filed its first lawsuits against enterprise Linux users, targeting automaker DaimlerChrysler AG and auto parts retailer AutoZone Inc.

In an announcement made late Wednesday morning, Lindon, Utah-based SCO said it would file suit later in the day against DaimlerChrysler in Oakland County Circuit Court in Michigan.

That lawsuit alleges that DaimlerChrysler violated its software licensing agreement with SCO by refusing to provide a requested "certification of compliance" as part of a software audit. The suit asks the court to permanently bar the automaker from further violations of the software agreement and seeks an injunction requiring it to "remedy the effects of its past violations" of the agreement.

The suit seeks undetermined damages. SCO officials were slated to discuss the legal action during a conference call at which they also planned to talk about the company's latest earnings report.

Earlier, in a separate announcement Wednesday, SCO said its suit against AutoZone alleges the retailer violated SCO's Unix copyrights through its use of Linux. That suit charges that AutoZone is "running versions of the Linux operating system that contain code, structure, sequence and/or organization from SCO's proprietary Unix System V code in violation of SCO's copyrights."

With this lawsuit, SCO is kicking off what it said late last year will be an offensive against companies using Linux in their businesses. SCO sued IBM last March in a suit that now seeks at least $5 billion in damages, alleging IBM illegally contributed some of SCO's System V Unix code to the Linux open-source project. IBM has counter-sued.

AutoZone is an IBM customer, using IBM's content management and DB2 database applications, and a former Red Hat Linux customer, having used Red Hat Linux for its in-store intranet system.

Red Hat spokeswoman Leigh Cantrell Day acknowledged Wednesday that AutoZone had been a Red Hat customer until "several months ago."

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Nevada, seeks undisclosed damages and a court injunction to prevent AutoZone from continuing to use or copy any part of SCO's copyrighted materials.

A spokesman for Memphis-based AutoZone could not be reached for comment early today. An IBM spokesman also could not be immediately reached.

AutoZone had been a SCO customer as recently as 2002, and once ran SCO Unix on point-of-sale systems in its approximately 500 stores around the country.

SCO chose today -- when both it and AutoZone announce their quarterly financial results -- to file its lawsuit.

In response to the lawsuit, the nonprofit Open Source Development Labs Inc. in Beaverton, Ore., reiterated its standing offer of help to AutoZone and any future targets of lawsuits from SCO through its open-source legal defense fund, which was established in January.

"The entire Linux ecosystem, including OSDL and its 35-plus member organizations, will stand firm against any legal actions against Linux end-users made by the SCO Group," Stuart Cohen, CEO of the OSDL, said today in a statement. "This is why OSDL announced our defense fund in January. SCO's decision to move forward with (its) end-user lawsuit is unfortunate, but due to the questionable merits of the case, we see no reason why this case will have an impact on the growth of Linux in the enterprise."