Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customize your settings, hit “Customize Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences

  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.
Sign in / up

On-Prem

This article is more than 1 year old

Red Hat intros software warranty

Counter SCO measure

icon Drew Cullen
Tue 20 Jan 2004 // 11:34 UTC

Red Hat is to offer software warranties for enterprise users of Red Hat Linux, the company said yesterday.

Not only does the Open Source Assurance Program make Red Hat a proper grown-up enterprise software company, but it also offers customers a measure of vendor-indemnification against legal action on copyright infringement grounds.

And where would such a suit come from? Yes, that's right: SCO, the pantomime villain of the software world.

Let's recap for those of you who have been living on Mars. SCO owns some of the intellectual property rights to the Unix operating system - but how much and what, is in dispute. SCO accuses some vendors, but mostly IBM, of illegally donating Unix code to Linux, the Open Source alternative to proprietary Unix. SCO is sueing IBM for $3bn.

SCO is also claiming royalties from corporates for using Linux in their businesses. It is threatening to sue corporates. But it would rather get the customers to acknowledge the terms its SCO IP license and pay fees for using Linux.

If SCO's claims are validated in court, the Open Source foundations of Linux are undermined. Many big vendors are betting big on Linux as a cost-effective alternative to the likes of Microsoft and proprietary Unix.

This is why HP, Novell - owner of SUSE Linux, Red Hat's most formidable competitor - and now Red Hat are prepping indemnification programs. Also, OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) has set up a $10m defence fund to assist end-users and Linus Torvalds, inventor of Linux, and its most famous employee, against legal action from SCO. OSDL has already raised $3m, securing donations from HP and Intel, among others. ®

Related stories

Novell indemnifies Linux customers
SCO targets Novell, steps into new legal trouble
The SCO IP license: now it's Europe's turn
SCO sort of thinks there are Linux IP violations, but isn't quite sure

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news

Other stories you might like