Controversy over Reporting in SCO Case

Michael J. Jordan, Linux Online Staff

October 26, 2004

A controversy has emerged over a story written by Maureen O'Gara in Linux Business Week dealing with the SCO vs. IBM case. The piece, which appeared on the IDG SYS-CON affiliated website on October 22nd, makes the claim that IBM cannot find source code related to their AIX operating system. The AIX code is at the center of the SCO suit as IBM licensed the use of Unix code for this operating system from SCO. The code examples, sought by SCO, would bolster their case that IBM has incorporated Unix code into Linux via their AIX development in breach of their contract with SCO. The tone of O'Gara's reporting implies that she was present at the hearing in a Utah federal court on Tuesday, October 19. According to her story, when asked by SCO's lawyers about missing code which they requested be turned over, IBM's legal representative replied: "can't find it.".

The following day, Pamela Jones, who maintains Groklaw, a website dedicated to providing in-depth legal information about the case, posted a piece calling into question the veracity of O'Gara's reporting. According to Jones, those present at the hearing presided over by Judge Brooke Wells and who shared their observations for Groklaw, never saw O'Gara in the courtroom. Jones further states that these eyewitnesses claim that the exchanges between the two legal teams did not take place as described by O'Gara and documents that the reporter claims she saw were not visible to the observers in the court room. Jones also points out that O'Gara story publicly discloses details of the hearing, though the transcript was ordered sealed by the court. Jones calls this "ethically problematic" and concludes that O'Gara's story is based on "misinformation". Jones also calls on LinuxWorld, site with which Linux Business News is affiliated, to post corrections to the story. Not to do so, states Jones, would be to prove that LinuxWorld is "hostile to Linux".

Responding to the growing controversy, LinuxWorld editors published an open letter on Monday aimed at distancing themselves from O'Gara's reporting. In the letter, Martin C Brown, on behalf of LinuxWorld website and print magazine, points out that LinuxWorld and Linux Business News are two different websites, managed by two separate editorial teams, though both share the same parent company. Brown also states that LinuxWorld has no control over O'Gara's reporting and that its editorial staff has no way of vetoing any story published by her. Defending the publication from charges of anti-Linux bias, Brown states that the editors of LinuxWorld are "totally and 100% committed to providing unbiased, reasoned and intelligent information on the Linux platform" and have "[no] desire to offend the Linux community or to harm the use and distribution of Linux as an operating system"

Pamela Jones later published an update to her original post to acknowledge the statement of LinuxWorld's editors.

Michael J. Jordan can be reached at Michael.Jordan**AT**Linux.org