Linux developers warned to watch their backs

In the wake of the ongoing SCO lawsuit, open-source developers must take steps to ensure they don’t become the victims of further legal action.

In a presentation at Linux.conf.au 2004 in Adelaide, specialist Australian IT lawyer Jeremy Malcolm said that while it was widely anticipated in the
open-source community that SCO’s lawsuit against IBM for alleged copyright infringement would eventually collapse, the case had drawn attention to the
relative lack of control over copyright and patent infringement within many projects.

“The open-source community has been quite lucky not to suffer an attack like SCO has brought sooner,” Malcolm said.