Court Puts SCO's Suit Against AutoZone on Hold

A federal judge in Nevada has granted AutoZone's request to put SCO Group's copyright infringement case over the auto parts retailer's switch from Unix to Linux on hold.

The auto parts retailer had asked the federal court in Nevada to stay the case until SCO's other, related lawsuits against IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Novell are finished, as well as Red Hat's (NYSE: RHT) suit against SCO.

SCO sued AutoZone in March, arguing that the auto parts retailer infringed on Unix copyrights by using Linux.

In the Zone

The stay issued earlier this week is limited; SCO will have 60 days for discovery and 30 days for depositions, after which it will be able to file a motion for a preliminary injunction.

AutoZone used SCO's OpenServer version of Unix, then switched to Red Hat's version of Linux three years ago. In its motion to have the court put a hold on the lawsuit, AutoZone claimed that SCO had warned the company it would be discontinuing support for OpenServer.

"AutoZone was therefore forced to switch to a new operating system," the company stated in its motion.

Although a stay of the suit is a favorable outcome for AutoZone, in other ways the company has not fared as well. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones declined to transfer the case to Tennessee, where the company is based.

Future Moves

Some analysts and observers say that if SCO is triumphant against AutoZone, similar suits will be filed against corporate Linux users.

Yankee Group analyst Dana Gardner told LinuxInsider that the repercussions of all the SCO cases might be felt in other ways as well. "You have the whole idea of defining intellectual property," he said. "It used to be that lawsuits and software made odd bedfellows, but that's not the case any longer."

He added that he would be surprised if SCO went after individual Linux users, in the way that the recording industry association went after single digital music "pirates." But companies might not have the same comfort level.

Gardner said, "This case, with the players involved and the directions it's taking, certainly contains an element of concern for the Linux community."

Big Blue Update

In recent documents, SCO added to its claims that Linux contains inappropriately copied software by mentioning areas that were previously not presented. These include user level synchronization (ULS) and the Executable and Linking Format (ELF). SCO claims that this code is in Linux illegally.

Because these statements have just been introduced, it is likely that more details could be unveiled in the future. As of today, the majority of SCO's declarations about ULS and ELF are still under seal.

Separate Focus

Despite the ongoing wrangling in the federal courts in Utah and Nevada, SCO has begun to put more emphasis into touting its new products, starting last month when it released products aimed at small business customers and other enterprises.

Meanwhile, the company is attempting to win customers with fresh marketing efforts.

Last month, it released the new products, as well as announced channel support and training programs. It is also preparing for the SCO Forum, to be held at the beginning of August, in which the company will celebrate its 25 years of business.

Jeff Hunsaker, senior vice president and general manager in SCO's Unix division, expressed his eagerness to take attention off of the company's legal maneuvers. In an interview with LinuxInsider, he said, "We've been delivering solid Unix products for 25 years, and that's what we want to emphasize to customers. That's the message we want to be spreading."