Why is this not possible? They could plant the code themselves and blame IBM. The reason why they are suing IBM is because IBM has a lot of money.

The only reason this is not possible, IMHO, is that Mr. Torvalds controls everything that is in the kernel. I suppose they could release their own kernel with their libraries, but that isn't the kernel used by the distros. Correct me if I am wrong here people, but as long as Linus lives, nobody can sneak anything into the kernel..

SCO could have colluded with Mr John Doe to submit the code to Torvalds under the assumption that Mr John Doe wrote the code.

David Jones and Alan Cox are the only two people besides Mr Torvalds who can make any change to the 'official' linux kernel.
If they did not add it, it's not in there.

it's more likely that there is linux code in SCO unix.

I think you might be forgetting, which kernel? 2.4.x? That's all Marcelo Tosatti right there. Linus handed off 2.4 about a year ago now...

Cheers,

Finegan

I shouldn't have forgotten about him. I just read about that recently over at kerneltrap.org

Are you implying that Alan Cox and David Jones wrote Linux single handedly? Or that they somehow know all of SVR4 code in their memory and they confirmed every line of code with SVR4 in their memory before adding it to Linux? Do you even understand why SCO would want UNIX code in Linux. Don't you see that they want to accuse IBM so that they can sue them. Well they have to get the code into Linux somehow. If it was just a matter of them finding UNIX code in Linux and wanted it removed than they would simple ask the Linux maintainers to remove the code. This lawsuit is not about that, it's about wanting UNIX code to be found in Linux so that they can sue IBM or anyone with the most money and pin the blame on them.

This lawsuit is taken off of AT&T vs BSD. This lawsuit already happened in the history books. AT&T settled out of court with the Univeristy of California at Berkeley.

John doe put the code into Linux (Unless you really believe that Alan Cox wrote Linux single handedly LMAO) through the maintainers (who don't have databases of all sources of UNIX preprogrammed in their heads) so that it could be pinned on the company with the most money. It's not about wanting that code removed from Linux, or else they would show us the code and ask that it be removed or they would sue the FSF or the maintainers. No, they want to sue people with money i.e. IBM!

AT&T and Sun Microsystems partnered to write SVR4 (It wasn't just AT&T). The Unix trademark and conformance certification is owned by X/Open (given to them by Novell) and the copyright is owned by Novell who had bought out Unix System Laboritories (USL) from AT&T. In 1994 Sun Microsystems bought the right to use SVR4 from Novell freeing themselves from royalty and conformance requirements. SUN's SVR4 release is called Solaris.

This lawsuit occured after IBM stopped supporting UNIX and instead choose to commit to Linux. The SCO could have been sitting on this opportunity for a long time and also Sun Microsystems was furious with IBM. There are several sources that would want to have John Doe submit SVR4 code into Linux under the pretense of being a member of the Linux kernel mailing list and submitting source code to the maintainers.

IBM still supports UNIX, it's called AIX. AIX scales to some of the largest UNIX configs found on IBM's pSeries servers....Linux can not quite scale to that point yet.

Just wanted to clarify that

On a side note: Would it be that difficult to trace all code IBM has placed in the kernal and determine if it looks a little shadey?

It would be difficult to trace anonymous code, yes.

I think that the FSF should quickly sue the SCO for not revealing the 'code in question'. The reason is because Linux users want any problem code removed. This should solve everyones problem except the SCO who wants to be a parasite attached to Linux, so that they can extort money from IBM.

The FSF should ask for 1 billion in damages.