How to make sure the code in question is SCO's?

Posted Jun 7, 2003 21:02 UTC (Sat) by jmccusker (guest, #11697)
In reply to: How to make sure the code in question is SCO's? by mmarkov
Parent article: Notes from the SCO conference call

That's not true at all. SCO should be able to compile the same section of code (or the module itself) using the original compiler and find the bytecodes in the code that are in question. C code compiles in a consistent manner and it's a fairly trivial process to show the binary code that's generated from the sections of code that are claimed to be in copyright infringement. This bytecode can be used as a 'fingerprint' which can be use to identify the use of this code in previous versions of UNIX.

SCO can further bulster their claim by compiling the same code using the GNU C compiler(s) that Linux used in order to generate similar fingerprints for Linux binary kernels.

I suspect it will be fairly easy for SCO to 'prove' that their code in question was incorporated into previous versions of UNIX. They can also use this same technique to guarantee that this code didn't arrive from older BSD kernels.