Red Hat Speaks on SCO

jeremy_hogan writes “An update for our customers and partners. For more than 10 years, Red Hat, working with global customers, members of the Open Source Community, the Free Software Foundation, the Open Source Initiative, and our business partners, has been delivering Open Source solutions that provide customers freedom from the tyranny of single-vendor proprietary lock-in. As always, we continue to emphasize low cost, high value solutions, making technology accessible and affordable.

As our business model has matured, competitors that scoffed and ridiculed the idea of Open Source development are now challenged by the growing number of customers deploying Open Source software.

It is ironic that the very transparency provided by Open Source software and its development process should now be used as a tool of innuendo. It is this very access to the code, the ability to review and inspect it, that provides the greatest long-term value to the computing industry. If you can’t see the code, then you cannot know. Is it really yours?

Red Hat’s position remains unchanged. We are not a party to any lawsuit over UNIX code. No one has established publicly or in court that any UNIX code has been infringed. We will continue to communicate with our customers and partners as appropriate.

Below, we’ve provided answers to questions that may help clarify Red Hat’s position. If you have additional questions that aren’t answered below, please email us at legal@redhat.com.

1. Has anyone at SCO talked to Red Hat about its claims?

   SCO has never approached Red Hat concerning the claims they’ve made publicly.

2. What is Red Hat going to do about these claims? How do you protect your customers?

   The claims are unsubstantiated. We are not party to any lawsuit over UNIX code. No one has established publicly or in court that any UNIX code has been infringed. We continue to exercise our proven processes of open source code development and review, and will communicate with our customers and partners as appropriate. We will do what we’ve always done, build great products and deliver high value Linux and open source solutions.

3. Do Red Hat products have any infringing UNIX code?

   We have no knowledge of infringing code.

4. Do I need to buy a SCO license?

   SCO has not demonstrated that any infringement exists, nor has it established that it owns derivative works in UNIX. Nothing has been proven to establish that such a license is needed.

5. Has Red Hat lost any customers because of these claims?

   No. We generated 1400 new customers last quarter. We’ve announced new global partnerships with Sun and Fujitsu. We have a strong product pipeline and expanding channels of distribution. We remain committed to building the defining technology company of the 21st century.

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