Intel, IBM back fund to defend Linux users

NEW YORK: Intel Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. are contributing to a new fund to defend Linux users against copyright infringement suits threatened by SCO Group Inc., the Wall Street Journal said.

Open Source Development Labs, a non-profit industry consortium based in Beaverton, Ore. which is creating the fund, said it has so far received pledges of $3 million, and hopes to raise $10 million, according to the paper. Neither Intel nor IBM would specify the size of their contributions, it said.

Officials from the companies and fund did not immediately return calls for comment.

Lindon, Utah-based SCO is suing IBM and trying to extract royalties from other Linux users, claiming the operating system is based on Unix intellectual property that it owns.

SCO said in December that it sent letters to thousands of Unix licence holders requiring them to certify that they are not illegally using Unix software in their use of Linux.

Linux is open source software, meaning that software developers can freely modify its code.

© Reuters