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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A judge wants to know -- line by line -- whether proprietary code has seeped into the freely distributed Linux operating system.
SCO Group Inc., based in Lindon, Utah, claims International Business Machines Corp. gave proprietary Unix code to the developers of the Linux operating system, which is developed by programmers around the world and often given away.
SCO's $5 billion lawsuit against IBM is based on the company's claim that it owns the right to key elements of the Unix operating system, which has been licensed to thousands of companies, including IBM. SCO alleges that IBM, which countersued in August, transferred code from its AIX version of Unix to Linux.
A judge late last year ordered the Utah company to provide more documentation identifying the infringing code.
SCO provided that documentation last month. However, at the time, U.S. District Judge Brooke Wells warned the case was at an impasse.
That changed Wednesday when Wells ordered both companies to produce, within 45 days, more lines of code and documentation supporting their cases.
"SCO is to provide and identify all specific lines of code that IBM is alleged to have contributed to Linux from either AIX or Dynix," Wells wrote.
The company also is to provide all specific lines of code from its Unix System V from which IBM's contributions from AIX or Dynix are alleged to be derived.
She also ordered SCO to provide and identify all lines of code in Linux that it claims rights to.
IBM wasn't off the hook, either, after Wells said SCO performed good faith efforts in complying with the order to produce the documentation submitted last month.
Wells ordered IBM to provide the releases of AIX and Dynix, and the company is to show how these files support its position and how they are relevant.
"The Court will then consider ordering IBM to produce more code from AIX and Dynix," she said.
IBM also was ordered to provide any non-public contributions it has made to Linux, along with documents and materials generated by its employees involved in its Linux project.
"The Court finds these materials are relevant because they may contain information regarding the use or alleged misuse of source code by IBM in its contributions to Linux," Wells wrote.
Last month, SCO accused IBM of excluding information from key executives at the highest level of IBM who were involved in Linux. The information will be crucial for future depositions, attorney Mark Heisel argued.
In her order, Wells said IBM's responses are to include information from all IBM sources, including top level management.
IBM also had indicated it had a list of 7,200 potential witnesses for the trial. Wells ordered IBM to identify a representative sample of the potential witnesses to include 1,000 of the most important prospective trial witnesses as agreed upon by the two companies.
Wells has asked both sides to limit what they say to the media, and both IBM attorney David Marriott and SCO spokesman Blake Stowell declined comment Thursday.
SCO sued AutoZone Inc. and DaimlerChrysler Corp. on Wednesday to force them and other companies to respect the software copyrights that SCO claims ought to apply to the Linux and Unix operating systems.
The copyright infringement lawsuit against AutoZone alleges the auto-parts chain runs versions of the Linux operating system that SCO says contains its programming code.
SCO's lawsuit in Michigan against DaimlerChrysler alleges the automaker has refused to comply with terms of its Unix software agreement with SCO.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
