Linus Torvalds sued in Linux Antitrust case
Posted by Matthew on Friday January 10, 2003 @11:23PM
from the Injustice dept.
Matthew writes: Linus Torvalds has reached a settlement in a series of coordinated class-action lawsuits from competitors who alleged the company violated the state’s antitrust and unfair competition laws.
The lawsuits were brought by Novell, Sun, HP, IBM, Microsoft, SCO, QNX, and Group Bull. The plaintiffs contend that their versions of UNIX have been completely marginalized by Linux which has grown faster than any other operating system in its adoption rate in the last three years and threatens to displace all other commercial versions of UNIX. The plaintiffs also contend that offering the product at no cost is a violation of fair trade practices. A recent survey shows that more than 70% of UNIX installations now run Linux, and another 12% run FreeBSD.
The settlement, which is subject to court approval, benefits consumers and businesses that downloaded or purchased distributions of the Linux operating system, between August 25, 1991 and January 1, 2003 for use in California.
To settle the antitrust case and without admitting guilt, Mr. Torvalds will issue vouchers for free downloads of Linux from various distributors’ websites. The vouchers can be used to download any distribution of Linux at no cost.
“This settlement allows us to focus on the future and building great software, and avoids the cost and uncertainty of a lengthy trial,” said Linus.