SCO Could Sue Nevada Court For Using Linux

The U.S. District Court where SCO Group has filed a lawsuit against AutoZone could theoretically be a target because it uses Linux to run its Web site, the U.K.-based Web monitoring firm Netcraft said Thursday.

Earlier this week, SCO, which claims ownership of code contained in the open-source Linux operating system, filed lawsuits against retailer AutoZone and auto manufacturer DaimlerChrysler.

The AutoZone lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court, Nevada, which according to Netcraft runs its site on Linux with a Lotus Domino database. The court switched from to Linux from Windows NT 4 in November 2002, Netcraft said.

Plaintiffs filing lawsuits must enter copies of their legal documents in Adobe PDF format in the court's Linux-based Case Management/Electronic Case Filing (CM/ECF) system, which also provides electronic updates of case information for litigants and lawyers.

The Oakland County Circuit Court in Michigan, where SCO filed against DaimlerChrysler, however, operates its site on servers running the Windows 2000 operating system.

Other notable Web sites that could conceivably be targeted by SCO because they run Linux include those of the FBI, the White House, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and US-CERT, the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team, a site which provides information about IT security threats.

Oddly enough, the city of Lindon, Utah., where SCO is based, also runs its Web site using Linux, as does the city's Chamber of Commerce.