SCO picks DaimlerChrysler for second suit

The SCO Group has filed a lawsuit against car giant DaimlerChrysler for alleged violations of its Unix software agreement.

The suit has been filed in the Oakland County Circuit Court in the State of Michigan.

It alleges that the car firm violated its agreement with SCO by "refusing to provide the certification of compliance with the 'provisions' of that agreement".

SCO is seeking costs and damages, and a "mandatory injunction requiring DaimlerChrysler to remedy the effects of its past violations of the DaimlerChrysler software agreement".

In a press conference to discuss SCO's financial results, Darl McBride, chief executive and president at SCO, said: "In November we sent out letters to over 3,000 [SCO Unix] licensees asking them to certify they were living up to their obligations in fulfilling the licence requirements. DaimlerChrysler did not respond by the 31 January deadline.

"They have accessed our source code and did not confirm they had a clean room not using Linux. You need to confirm one way or the other."

Earlier today SCO confirmed that it is suing car parts giant Autozone, alleging that it "violated SCO's Unix copyrights by running versions of the Linux operating system that contain code, structure, sequence and/or organisation from SCO's proprietary Unix System V code in violation of SCO's copyrights".

"[AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler] are not two users picked randomly. They are the head of two different classes," McBride told reporters.

"It's a tough decision to sue somebody. It's an education process, so as we work through this we will come to more positive resolutions."

McBride declined to reveal what damages were being sought from the two companies. DaimlerChrysler said it could not comment at time of press.

Meanwhile, Australian newspaper The Age is reporting that open source company CyberKnights has lodged an official complaint against the SCO Group Australia and New Zealand.

The complaint reportedly claims that SCO's "unfounded" statements about software around which CyberKnights has based its business, and its claims for Linux licence fees, is causing the firm financial loss.

McBride said that he had no knowledge of the Australian complaint.