Hello and welcome to round 36 452 of the SCO versus The Known Universe (fronted by IBM) litigation concerning a claim that Linux violates SCO's intellectual property.

On Tuesday, IBM sent subpoenas to Microsoft, HP, Sun and Baystar demanding that they produce a wide range of information, including details of their dealings with SCO by March 7th. They will also have to appear in court to give depositions later in March.
Sun's subpoena asks for, among other things, "restrictions or prohibitions on Sun employees having access to any UNIX product, including, but not limited to its source code." And IBM would also like to hear about involvement of Sun in the development of Linux.

Baystar is ordered to hand over any documents about any communication between Baystar and Microsoft regarding SCO, IBM or the SCO vs IBM litigation, and all documents with "SCO" scrawled in.

Microsoft is asked for pretty much the same thing, including all communications between Microsoft and SCO since June 28, 2002, such as Darl McBride's (SCO's CEO) communication in May 2003 "with Steve Ballmer regarding SCO's rights to the UNIX operating system". Additionally, and this should be juicy, IBM wants to know about "Microsoft's business strategy regarding Linux".

Also, besides asking for every bit of information regarding SCO, IBM wants HP to produce their contract licensing them to use UNIX. They'd also like to know about restrictions on employees having access to UNIX source code.

PLUS, IBM wants "all communications or agreements relating to SCO or this litigation, including all communications with Baystar, Royal Bank of Canada, and Everyone's Internet, Ltd.".

Pauline Jones of Groklaw has published the subpoenas on her site.